Featured stories from around the world

Nataliya Samunnati Lehonkova, a member of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team who competed for her native Ukraine in last year's Olympics in Rio, won the woman's elite field in the Dublin SSE Airtricity Marathon. On a rainy windy day, she finished in a personal best time of 2:28:57.

 

Picture below: Samunnati with friends from the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team in Dublin after the awards ceremony. Samunnati has won the Dublin Marathon before, as well as winning the Edinburgh, Tolouse and Los Angeles Marathon

Nataliya Samunnati Lehonkova at Awards Ceremony

Related

• News item on Ukrainian TV (in Ukrainian)

Photo top: Nataliya Lehonkova in 2015 Dublin Marathon. Photo William Murphy CC SA

Pradeep Hoogakker, a member of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team and a 2011 Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3,100-Mile Race finisher, was interviewed on KBS Kyoto Radio, Japan on October 22.

The 10 minute program has been aired for 15 years, and is the first of its kind in Japan specifically dedicated to lay runners.

The runner-radio host Ms. Junko Wakabayashi (aka Waka), a well-known figure in the running world, dedicated the whole program for this interview. 

Transcript of interview (English translation):

Waka:I interviewed Mr. Pradeep Hoogakker from the Netherlands, who completed this race in 53 days and 9 hours in 2011. About the race:

• Started by Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team in New York in 1997, continuing for 20 years.
• 3100 miles = 4989km (approximately 5000km)
• Race Track: 5649 laps of a 880m-long loop
• Cut-off: 52 days (To complete, the runner has to run at the pace of 95.9km per day.)
• Note: In the year Mr. Pradeep did the race, the cut-off was extended to 54 days due to the extreme heat.
• 39 runners completed in the 20 years
• The race track was open every day from 7am to 12 midnight.
• 7000 to 10000kcal must be consumed each day, equivalent of one week’s food intake for a person with normal activities.
• The kitchen crew cooks customized food for each runner.
• The runners use up 10 to 12 pairs of shoes.
• Average temperature: 30C, Humidity: 80-95%

Waka: What brought you to the race?

Pradeep: One day, while I was meditating after having a good run, the idea of running the 3100 mile race spontaneously came to my heart and I felt an inner thrill. I had been to the race a few times as a helper before. I got advice from the runners then, and trained myself for 6 years. I trained to run long distances, starting from 10km a day, 40km once a week, and up to 100km once a month. I also practised how to eat while running, as well as trying different running outfits and shoes.

Waka: And the actual race came. Didn’t you get bored running 5649 laps?

Pradeep: Everybody asks that question! Actually, many ultra races have loops instead of a straight route. It actually makes a lot of sense since you can have your own table where you can put your belongings such as shoes and supplements. Also, you feel everybody is running together—from the fastest to the slowest ones in the race. We can inspire each other, and we feel oneness, which is really good.

Waka: Still, it’s sooo long. How did you keep your motivation?

Pradeep: We told different jokes to each other!

Waka: What was most difficult?

Pradeep: The first 10 days were really difficult. My feet were not used to running on concrete; at night, my whole body ached and could not sleep. My mind started thinking, “How can I run tomorrow being like this?,” which made me sleepless. But as weeks went by, I learned that I could run even if I had not been able to sleep the night before. Something within myself recovered with renewed energy.

Waka: What was most moving?

Pradeep: There were many things. I felt oneness, and one morning, as I watched the sun rise, I felt as if the sun was rising inside my own heart. And I felt: This is life…!

Waka: You experienced Life…yet, your feet must have been…?

Pradeep: All blisters! Can I say something gross?

Waka: No thank you! Did you discover something new about yourself?

Pradeep: I realized I had a tendency to feel sorry for myself. So I had to conquer that. I could not complete the race unless I could truly feel I could do it. The process of overcoming my weaknesses became a valuable experience.

Waka: Has your life perspective changed after the race?

Pradeep: Yes. The wonderful experiences during the race stay inside myself even after the race finished. I feel that happiness means progress; going forward. In ordinary life, many times we think we are going forward but are actually going round and round in the same place. But in this race, though we were running round and round, I felt I was going forward. Those are what I learned through the race. My weaknesses unavoidably came forward so I had no choice but to conquer them, which led to joy and happiness.

Waka: What is your goal now?

Pradeep: There are many. Everybody needs a new goal. My first aim is to improve my marathon time, from 3 hours 4 minutes to under 3 hours. I also want to write a book about my 3100 race experiences. Most importantly, I feel Sri Chinmoy’s philosophy “Self-Transcendence” is wonderful. No matter what field you are in, the important thing is to transcend yourself.

Waka: You have said so much today that resonate with our souls: ‘Continuous self-transcendence,’ ‘Importance of feeling inner thrill in your heart’, and ‘Happiness means progress’.

Dear listeners, are you doing something that thrills your heart? Are you trying to transcend yourself now? Yes, you can start today! I was so moved to meet Mr. Pradeep. Thank you so much!

• Transcript of interview on KBS radio (Japanese)...
• 3100 Mile race website...

Our members consider sports, and running in particular, to be an integral part of their inner life, along with more traditional spiritual disciplines such as meditation. Vasudha, who helps to organise our Marathon Team events in San Diego, speaks eloquently about how the role that running plays in her own life, and how running and meditation complement each other.

From her interview: "Running is my church - its just absolutely where I can go and feel a sense of connecting to something higher. My spiritual life helps my running and my running helps my spiritual life - for myself, I can't separate the two. It's so much a part of who I am."

Sri Chinmoy spoke often on the inner benefits of running - including an answer which Vasudha refers to in the video:

While you run, each breath that you take is connected with a higher reality. While you are jogging, if you are in a good consciousness, your breath is being blessed by a higher inner breath. Of course, while you are jogging if you are chatting with one of your friends about mundane things, then this will not apply. But if you are in a good consciousness while you are running, each breath will connect you with a higher, deeper, inner reality. (source)

Abhejali Bernardova became the first person from the Czech Republic to swim the North Channel on August 15th 2017 in 10 hours, 23min, 48 seconds. Crew member Dhavala Stott was kind enough to write a few words telling us what it was like to be on the boat...

It's 5am and I'm on a converted lifeboat leaving Donaghadee harbour on the eastern Northern Irish coast. There's a little wind, and a faint red glow of sunrise peeps between the clouds as we look across the twenty-one mile stretch of water towards Scotland. This is the day that my good friend from the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team, Abhejali Bernardova, will attempt to be the first swimmer from her native Czech Republic to successfully swim the North Channel.

It's a body of water that is particularly challenging to swim for several reasons. There are swarms of lion's mane jellyfish, sometimes such that swimmers have been stung over 100 times on a North Channel attempt. Abhejali had been badly stung by box jellyfish on her Molokai strait crossing in April this year - for several months she carried a faint scarring from these stings. Because of this, she was initially quite wary about the threat the jellyfish might pose here. There's also the cold water which averages between 11-14 degrees and poses a serious threat of hypothermia. And there is the variable and unpredictable weather in these parts - think of all the cliches you've ever heard about typical Scottish/Irish summer weather and that's what we were looking to avoid. The ideal day would have very little wind and a good amount of sunshine so the swimmer doesn't get too cold. We were also looking for favourable tides. Many channel swimmers have found themselves at the mercy of the strong unpredictable currents which pull them off course as they approach Scotland. 

As Abhejali took her first determined strokes, leaving Ireland at 5.29am, it seemed like a small victory that she had the opportunity to make the crossing at all that day. Abhejali had a six day swim window but the forecast throughout the whole week wasn't promising. Tuesday looked like the only day with potentially swimmable conditions. When the boat pilot for the swim, Quinton Nelson had called us at 6.30 the previous evening he said there was only a 50-50 chance the swim could go ahead the next day. He said the latest forecast had worsened, showing high winds (force 6-7) towards Scotland later in the day which would make it almost impossible to reach the Scottish coast. He asked Abhejali if she was happy to meet at 5am at the boat for a final decision, and made it clear that if the forecast didn't improve we wouldn't be going anywhere the next morning. Abhejali said she definitely wanted to be ready if there was any chance to go. She was completely surrendered to the situation and trusted Quinton that he would make the right call to give her the best possible chance of a successful swim and to keep her safe. It wasn't until the day after the swim that Quinton told us how very close he was to phoning back and cancelling on Monday night. Given how things turned out we were all grateful that he had the patience and experience to wait and see what the morning brought. 

We were a support crew of 3 - myself, Jana (Abhejali's younger sister) and Jayalata, also from the Czech Republic who has herself been part of a successful English Channel relay team and been crew on many of Abhejali's previous swims. We had all been part of Abhejali's crew for her English Channel swim in 2011 and were happy to be reunited, a little further north, for this one.

Coming from Edinburgh, I was especially excited about this swim as it felt like Abhejali was swimming 'home'! On Monday evening Abhejali had sent out a message to many friends around the world asking them to pray for the weather forecast to improve. When the morning came we were expecting a discussion about conditions and I think Abhejali was even ready to be faced with a decision whether to go ahead in less than favourable conditions, or take a chance and wait to see if she would get a better opportunity. When we arrived at the marina Quinton looked at Abhejali and asked "Are you good?"  She said yes and he turned and walked towards his boat. It was only when the boat started moving that Abhejali realised that brief exchange of words was the agreement for the swim to go ahead!

Abhejali arrived in Donaghadee very well prepared. Knowing that staying in the cold water long enough could be the greatest obstacle of this swim, she came to Scotland twice to train and take advantage of our beautifully cool summer temperatures compared to the heatwave in her native Czech Republic! She first visited Edinburgh in early June and swam in the beaches along the East Lothian coast. At this time the water was around 11-12 degrees and she initially struggled to stay in longer than an hour and a half. I then spent a week with her in Ullapool in July where we were hosted by longtime members of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon team Suruchi and Tirthika Gero. Over the course of 6 days she put in a total of 21 hours in the water, including a 6 hour swim in temperatures below 13 degrees. Some days it was probably closer to 11. Through those swims I could see how cold she was, with her hands visibly shaking at times when she came in to feed. Still, she kept returning to the water, knowing that each hour of training would be valuable for her body's ability to handle the hours she would face in the North Channel. Another bonus, if you could see it that way, of these training swims was that Abhejali encountered Lion's mane jellyfish (they love the cold Scottish water!). She was stung a few times by them, and found the stings not as painful as those she got in Hawaii. This meant that even though she was stung about a dozen times on the actual swim (we could see the jellyfish from the boat) it was something she had trained with and knew she could swim through. 

Abhejali made a strong confident start and covered 6.5 miles in the first 2.5 hours and was halfway in just over 4 hours. Both the pilot and the official observer said that although the weather wasn't ideal and there would be some wind it was better than we could have hoped for from the forecast and that she had been given a real opportunity for a successful swim. Within the first few hours we saw dolphins, a seal and a rainbow from the boat, all of which we took as good omens. Quinton asked that Abhejali swim the first hour without stopping in order to avoid strong currents close to the Irish coast. She then stopped every half hour to feed. We had a routine of waving a red towel five minutes before feeding. She drank mainly fresh ginger tea with maltrodextrin and 'ate' mainly liquidised porridge. Later in the day she started agreeing to the soup we had been offering her for several hours and she also munched on bananas and pieces of crystallised ginger. Jayalata added a variety of 'extras' to these drinks - magnesium, warming pills, anti-histamine for the jellyfish stings. We fed her these concoctions in bottles attached to a rope which we put in a basket with a long handle. To avoid getting too cold or being carried off course by the currents we tried to keep feeds as short as possible, ideally within 30 seconds and certainly no more than a minute. 

All the preparation seemed to be paying off as Abhejali told us after about five hours that she wasn't feeling cold. She was also avoiding sea-sickness, which had plagued her on several of her other swims. We were also happily avoiding sea-sickness on the boat. As recommended by Jayalata I stuck to eating white bread jam sandwiches and the odd piece of chocolate (the chocolate wasn't particularly recommended but I seemed to get away with it!) Somewhere near the middle part of the swim the wind picked up and the sea was noticeably more choppy than at the start. Abhejali commented on one feed that is was like a battlefield to swim through the waves. We counted stroke rate every half hour and Abhejali noted afterwards that it was higher than her usual stroke rate of 48-52 and that she was basically swimming as hard as possible to stay warm. Starting at 57, she dropped to 52-53 between hours 5 and 8, then increased to 55 for the last few hours. 

We were sending messages about Abhejali's progress to many friends around the world who were then sending back messages of support. We would write some of the messages on a whiteboard for her to read and she would often smile when she read them. These messages and prayers of encouragement and camaraderie, received both during and after her swims are something Abhejali really treasures. When there was around 5 miles still to go the pilot said she could be on course for a finish of under eleven hours. Jayalata conveyed the message at the next feed stop that if she kept going at the same pace she would finish 'in ten hours'. Abhejali looked extremely confused by this supposedly encouraging piece of information. It was only as she swam off we realised she had misunderstood and thought we were telling her she would need to swim another ten hours to finish !! In hindsight, she took it pretty well! Jayalata wrote her a note on the whiteboard to reassure her that wasn't the case and that she was on for an exceptionally fast time. 

We were blessed with blue skies a lot of the way, with the sun giving some much needed warmth as Abhejali did start to feel cold later in the swim. As a crew, one of our tasks was to look out for signs of hypothermia. I was heartened to see that even though she said she was feeling cold, she was still completely coherent, maintaining stroke rate and showing no visible shaking like she had on her training week in Scotland. On the boat we were all wearing around five warm layers most of the way, so warmth is all relative! When we were about 3 miles from the Scottish coast the infamous currents started to come into play. We were fortunate that in Quinton, we had an experienced pilot who knows the North Channel and its tides very well. He had been aiming for Killantringan lighthouse which gives the shortest swim possible. He said we should encourage Abhejali that if she had anything left to give a big push to get through the currents and avoid being taken south, which would mean a longer swim. We could now see dark rain clouds forming to the north while it was still quite bright blue sky to the south. What did I say about typical Scottish weather? When the rain inevitably came it passed over quite quickly and Abhejali ploughed on regardless, undeterred from her goal of touching the Scottish shore. We told her that she was in danger of being taken south and having to swim an extra half-mile; this meant either 1.2 or 1.7 miles to go. She seemed to much prefer the idea of 1.2 miles, as she found the energy to really make a last push. 

As she swam for land, only a few hundred metres south from the ideal landing spot, I reflected on how deceptively straightforward she made it look to do something that less than fifty people have ever achieved. She had told me previously that she never thought she would be brave enough to take this swim on due to the cold water. She has been practising meditation for over twenty years, and feels that the inner qualities meditation develops are key to her successful swims. As she ticked off the other Oceans Seven swims it became inevitable that one day she would come to face this one. Her meditation teacher, Sri Chinmoy, teaches a philosophy of self-transcendence, of going beyond any pre-conceived barriers or limits we put on ourselves. By the day of the actual swim, it seemed to me that through the experience gained from her other Channel swims and her meticulous planning and preparation, she arrived both physically and inwardly ready for the obstacles that would be faced in the North Channel.

On August 8, Harita Davies became the first New Zealand woman to finish the 3100 Mile Race, breaking the overall NZ record in the process. Her fellow New Zealanders seem to be pretty inspired by it, as evidenced by the amount of media coverage she has received! Here are links to some of the interviews:

• TVNZ's News One programme, as well as appearances on the Breakfast Show
• TV3's Newshub: meet the woman running two marathons every day
• Radio New Zealand's Nine to Noon and Sunday Morning programmes
• Newstalk ZB radio: Kiwi runs 96km a day in ultramarathon
• In print: New Zealand Herald and Central Leader

In one of the interviews, when asked about different problems during the race, Harita replied:

"I've had shin spints and ankle problems, probably every part of by body has had problems, but the amazing thing is that the human body has this incredible capacity to go on and to heal itself…Sri Chinmoy really promoted these races as a way to tap into the unlimited potential that we all have within ourselves and to go far beyond the problems of the mind, because the mind will always say that its impossible."

On Aug. 29th, 2017, Tatiana Kvasova (32) from Moscow became our first Russian Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team swimmer (male or female) to conquer the English Channel -  marking the 47th solo crossing by a member of our international team, and the 4th Russian woman overall.

Background

Born in 1985 in Siberia in Novokuznetsk, Tanya learned to swim from the age of 6 and from then on loved to spend hours and hours swimming in quarry lakes and a huge fresh water reservoir in her region. Her sister used to call her "crazy dolphin".

After meeting Sri Chinmoy in 2004 on his visit to Russia she became his meditation student. Studying at the Pedagogical University in the Ural region in Tchelyabinsk to become a teacher for English and French, she read about swimming the English Channel for the first time on the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team website. Immediately it gave her a feeling of joy and a sense of freedom – the idea of swimming as long as you wanted to! She talked about the idea with her friends, and they advised her to start training right away if she really wanted to do it. So she started to train - a little bit. However, it all seemed as unreal as going to another planet.

Then, after graduation, Tanya moved to Moscow. During the following years, as an active member of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team, she did more running: quite a few marathons (10 or so), a 50 km ultramarathon, a 24 hour race, a 13 hour run. Running just became part of her daily routine and spiritual practice, but she was also inspired by Sri Chinmoy`s motto of "self-transcendence" in general.

As she started to organise SCMT races and other events in Moscow and was working more with athletes, the dream of swimming the English Channel came back again. In October 2013 she started her swim training again, this time more seriously, and in June 2014 she decided to book a boat for the English Channel at the earliest possible date - which was the end of August 2017.

For August 2016 she planned a great training swim, the 26 km Rapperswil-Zurich Sri Chinmoy Marathon swim in Switzerland - but as it turned out she was far slower than expected. In spite of having trained with a coach and gone to Croatia and other places for training, she underestimated her speed in the open water and did not make the halfway cutoff. Instead of 6 hours, it took her about 7:30 hours to reach the 14 km cutoff point in Meilen. Her teammates advised her to postpone her English Channel swim for another year to 2018 – but Tanya was determined.

She took a 4 week rest and then upped the intensity of her training, her mileage and speedwork, and became even more serious about her discipline under the guidance of her new coach Maxim Korshunov. Training in Moscow on a tight budget, eating properly and continuing to organise sports and Peace Run events etc. was quite a challenge for her. In early May 2017, when she had planned a long cold open water swim in the Black Sea during a meeting in Eupatoria on the Crimea, the water was still too cold for a 20 or 30 km swim, so she came back again at the end of May, booking a boat for a couple of days to get some proper training in Channel temperatures and conditions. Her longest swim in the Black Sea was 11.5 hours in quite challenging conditions.

In retrospect, she feels: "This (intense) training already made me another person, I have learned to understand myself better, my mind, my body. By working hard in the training and going forward step by step overcoming difficulties you really become a different person, more determined, more confident, and at the same time you become more patient and learn to understand others better."

Dover and the Swim

Booked for the neap tide (neap = between 5.3-6.1m tidal difference, weaker currents than on spring tides) between Aug. 28 to Sept. 4, she decided to go to Dover a few weeks early to acclimate and do some more serious training in Channel waters. A 10 hour swim in the harbour that went very well increased her confidence that she would be able to do it.

Then, on Aug. 27, the day before the neap tide would start, the call from pilot Eddie Spelling came: be ready for a 3 p.m. start the next day. The weather forecast was extremely good for a couple of days, so good that Chloe McCardel from Australia had already started on her unprecedented quadruple (4-leg) solo-attempt of the English Channel. Everything including two helpers (Manogati and Olga from Belarus) was ready – and on Aug 28 at 4 p.m. Dover time, the big adventure finally started.

We got the news while on our annual international celebrations retreat in New York, and so hundreds of wellwishers from N.Y., UK and Russia, including her family in Siberia, supported Tanya`s swim inwardly, praying for her and sending good vibes – with a few of us outwardly following the tracker on the internet deep into the night and again early in the morning (she started 11 a.m. N.Y. Time).

Tanya knew she was in for a 20 hour swim or more, and she told so to her pilot when he asked about her estimated time. She reached the separation zone dividing the Channel into the two NE and SW shipping lanes only after about 7 hours, in the middle of the night (the halfway point geographically but not necessarily timewise). Around 4 hours later, almost in the middle of the French shipping lane, the tides changed as expected and currents pushed her back northeast, away from the Cap, away from the receding French coastline, but she just ploughed on, undeterred, through the colder hours of the night into the morning dawn. Pilot Eddie posted: "Coming up on our 15th hour she's still smiling". She had looked at a lot of swim tracks of over 20 hour swims in her preparation, and so she was also mentally and psychologically prepared to seemingly go backwards and to do a few "extra laps". However, conditions stayed very favourable and only 4 hours after the first big tidal change the currents started to slacken again, and with the next change of tides, about 16 hours into the swim, she entered French inshore waters where the currents are less strong, moving closer and closer to Cap Griz Nez. However, it would still take her four more hours! The last challenge was to pass the Cap once again, tantalizingly close but out of reach, yet slowly and steadily making headway towards the coast. When we called again from New York at 6:30 a.m. our time (11:30 a.m. Dover time, 12:30 French time), Eddie told us "only 30 more minutes to go" – what a relief! And finally, after 20 hours 13 minutes of determined effort, Tatiana reached her goal, stepped on dry land and manifested her long cherished and hard worked for dream: she had become a true English Channel swimmer (solo, no wetsuit), the 4th Russian woman and the first Russian swimmer in our team - in the 40th anniversary year of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team.

Tanya was blessed with amazing conditions right from the start: Eddie posted: 19.9°C water temp (Tanya thinks it was more like 18.5°C - 19.9°C maybe just on the surface, but still), 22°C air temp, waters calm, wind 2 knots NE. Her observer was King Kevin Murphy himself, with 34 EC crossings, the most for a male swimmer. And with Eddie Spelling, she had one of the best pilots who had already helped fellow SCMT member Vijaya Claxton reach her treasured goal in 2007, and took our relay safely to France in 2009 and myself on my Channel-triathlon in 2010.

Tanya`s personal report about the swim is still to follow, and also Kevin Murphy, who never forgets to mention that he was honoured and lifted overhead by Sri Chinmoy in London, promised to write a few words about Tanya`s great swim.

Be courageous,
Be determined,
Be self-giving.
The Goal will be all yours.
           - Sri Chinmoy

Tanya also took some inspiration and helpful information from Adriano`s book about his English Channel solo swim 2013, entitled "The Challenge of the English Channel - a spiritual approach to the Mount Everest of Swimming".

Here a nice article with video footage of the swim in Russian: http://tvn-tv.ru/news/society/novokuznechanka_pereplyla_la_mansh.html

Running in rhythm with the heart, Jayasalini Olga Abramovskikh's account of her epic finish of the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race, is now available in a new English translation.

In 2014, Jayasalini became the first Russian woman to complete the race when she crossed the line in 51 days, 12 hours and 31 minutes - less than 6 hours before the cut-off. Before she attempted this race, Jayasalini was also a regular participant in the Sri Chinmoy 6 and 10 day races held every April in Flushing Meadows, Queens, invariably finishing in the top three runners.

In the book - subtitled 'A book on the love of running, and the dream to cross the finish line of the longest race in the world' - Jayasalini talks about what inspired her to contemplate such a long race, her training and preparation, and her experiences during and after the race. Originally published in Russian, the English translation came out this month.

• Purchase the book on Amazon
• Video: Jayasalini talks about her race experiences

 

 

Dancing with the Lion Mane Jellyfish: Abhejali swims from Northern Ireland to Scotland (35 km) in 10 hours 23:48

On Aug 15, 2017, Abhejali Bernardova, a member of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team from Zlin, Czech Republic, completed her 6th Oceans Seven challenge by conquering the North Channel from Donaghadee in Northern Ireland to Portpatrick in Scotland (35km - about the same distance as the English channel) in an excellent time of 10 hours 23:48, assisted by her experienced crew (Catalina, EC, Tsugaru): her sister Jana from London, Scottish team member Dhavala Stott and Jayalata from N.Y. According to the ILDSA (Irish Long Distance Swimming Association) it was the fastest crossing of the six solo swims so far of 2017.

The North Channel is widely regarded as one of the hardest sea swims in the world, due to low water temperatures (10-14°C, warmest in August), ubiquitous Lion mane jellyfish that surface with the sun, strong currents and very unpredictable and changeable weather. Abhejali is the first Czech swimmer – male or female - to swim the North Channel, the 17th woman overall and only the 49th person in the world to successfully complete the swim.

A 50:50 chance of a swim

The night before her actual swim, pilot Quinton Nelson said there was a 50:50 chance for a swim the next morning. Some forecasts were good, some predicted strong winds. It was agreed to meet at the boat at 5 a.m. in the morning to assess the actual weather conditions and make a final decision. On Tuesday morning, conditions on the Irish side were very calm, so it was a go – still with conflicting forecasts for the rest of the day and the distance. The team asked all her supporters to pray for conditions to stay good and swimmable - and maybe it helped. The wind only picked up a little to force 3 or 4 for a few hours later on, even though some forecasts had predicted force 6 or even 7. The sun came out quite soon, and rain came only an hour or so before the landing (it rained heavily on the way back). A few days after the spring tide, the currents were still quite strong and Abhejali was asked to swim hard, to feed only every hour to avoid wasting time and being swept off course, and even hours from the finish the pilot told her to keep up the pace and to give it her all. Still, currents pushed her back south past the nearest landing point, the lighthouse, adding another ½ mile. Water temps hovered around 14°C – but she had trained for that with ice baths at home and arriving early to the Irish Sea to acclimate, plus swimming hard all the way also helped.  Special blessings were a dolphin and seal near the start and a beautiful rainbow over the landing point. Jellies were present – but the 12 stings on her arms were nothing compared to the painful stings she got in the Molokai Channel, Abhejali said.

The first successful swim across the cold North Channel actually took place exactly 70 years ago by Brit Tom Blower. The first woman in 1988 was Alison Streeter, the Queen of the English Channel. Abhejali said after the crossing: "I knew it was going to be challenging, because of the cold water, so I put on 12 pounds in preparation. The weather was not perfect, but it was the only slightly possible day in my swim window. In the end I was the only swimmer to attempt a North Channel swim that day. I encountered a lot of Lion Mane jellyfish and got stung by about a dozen of them, luckily not in my face. The weather worsened and the water was really cold, so I tried to swim as quickly as possible. Eventually we were caught up in heavy rain."

The Oceans Seven Challenge

Having swum 6 of the toughest Channels in the world: the English Channel (2011), Strait of Gibraltar (Europe to Africa, 2013), Catalina Channel (USA, 2015), Tsugaru Strait (Japan, 2016) and the Kai'wi Channel (Molokai to Oahu, Hawaii, 2017), only the Cook Strait in New Zealand is missing for Abhejali to complete her Oceans Seven, the marathon swimming equivalent of the Seven Summits mountaineering challenge, which only 7 people (3 women) in the world have achieved so far.

Abhejali has been practicing meditation and a vegetarian lifestyle since 1995, and she clearly feels that wholesome plant-based nutrition and the inner peace, poise and focus gained by her regular meditation practice are helping in her athletic endurance challenges in many ways. She also is a multiple Czech running champion for 100k and 24 hours and completed a six-day race in New York with 616 km.  In March 2017 she organised the first 6 hour indoor swim race in the Czech Republic, which was quickly fully booked out. In her free time she also runs in and organizes the Sri Chinmoy Oneness-Home Peace Run, the longest relay run for Peace and Friendship in the world.

Through her channel swims Abhejali tries to connect places and people and inspire others to overcome their own perceived limitations.

For more information or to interview Abhejali, please contact: [email protected]

And here a very inspiring video about Abhejali's North Channel swim:

 

 

Sri Chinmoy completed 22 marathons, 5 ultras and countless sprinting and middle distance races over a career that lasted many decades. He always felt that running and meditation should go together, and that competitions and races could help one inwardly progress as long as the runner had the right attitude. Here are a selection of his writings on running and competition:

The value of competition

We cannot properly evaluate our own capacity unless we have some standard of comparison. Therefore, we compete not for the sake of defeating others but in order to bring forward our own capacity. Our best capacity comes forward only when there are other people around us. They inspire us to bring forward our utmost capacity, and we inspire them to bring forward their utmost capacity. This is why we have competitive sports.

Before a race

Before the race starts, meditate most soulfully for five minutes. Try to make yourself feel that you are not the runner, but that somebody else is running in and through you. You are only the witness, the spectator. Since somebody else is running, you are at perfect liberty to watch and enjoy. While you are running, sometimes it is very difficult to enjoy the race. Either the competitive spirit or frustration is killing you, or your body is not abiding by your mental will and you feel that you are literally dying. So many problems arise.

But before you start, if you can convince yourself that you are a divine observer and that somebody else is running in you, through you and for you, then fear, doubt, frustration, anxiety and other negative forces will not be able to assail your mind. Once these thoughts occupy the mind, they try to enter into the vital and then into the physical. Once they enter into the physical, they create tension, and this makes you lose all your power of concentration. But if you feel that you are not the runner, if you feel that you are observing the race from the beginning to the end, then there will be no tension, and these forces will not attack you. This is the only way to overcome these forces and maintain the highest type of concentration from the beginning to the end.

This is what I do. Right from the beginning I try to become an instrument and feel that somebody else, my Beloved Supreme, is running in and through me. At the beginning of the race, I offer my gratitude-heart to the Supreme, and at the end, after I finish the race, I also offer my gratitude. If you can offer your soulful gratitude to your Inner Pilot before the race, during the race and after the race, then there can be no frustration, no decline of aspiration. Your aspiration and your power of concentration will remain the same throughout the race.

Coping with losing

To cope with the disappointment of losing, you have to ask yourself whether the mind is disappointed or the heart is disappointed. You will come to realise that it is your mind that is disappointed and not your heart. The mind creates division; the mind is division itself, and division is another name for pain, devastating pain. The heart, on the other hand, creates oneness; in fact, the heart is oneness itself, and oneness is another name for joy, spontaneous joy. When you live in your heart, even if your worst rival wins the race, you will not feel miserable. To your wide surprise, you will find that his joy quite unconsciously and unexpectedly will enter into you and widen your heart. Then you will feel almost the same joy that the winner feels.

This article is part of the Sport and Meditation series on this website.

48 days and 14 hours after starting the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race, Kaneenika Janakova,47, of Bratislava, Slovakia set a new women’s world record for the distance. Her final time was 48 days+14:24:10, averaging over 63 miles for nearly two months of daily racing.

Kaneenika broke the previous women’s record set by Surasa Mairer by over 17 hours. Her performance was also sufficient to finish 2nd overall.

After a difficult opening few days, Kaneenika was a model of consistency averaging well over the required minimum daily distance of 60 miles. She remarked how over the course of the race she felt stronger - despite the accumulation of miles and physical fatigue.

“At the beginning of the race I actually didn’t feel so strong, the first week and maybe even 10 days.  But then all of a sudden it felt as though I was gaining the strength.  It just all started happening.   It was all coming from inside.” - Kaneenika

Vasu Duzihy overall winner

 

The overall winner of the race was Vasu Duzhiy 51, of St Petersburg, Russia, who won the 21st Annual Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race for the second time in 46 days+17:38:22. It was Vasu’s sixth consecutive finish and his second consecutive first place. His performance was all the more remarkable for a serious back accident eight months ago, which left him unable to train and barely able to stand. Speaking after the race, Vasu expressed his joy of competing in the contest.

“I love this race.  I don’t know why I love it.  I just love it and do it.  I am happy here and I am able to do self transcendence. I hope that I can inspire some people to be better citizens of the world.  They inspire me and I inspire them.” - Vasu

Over 100 spectators came to see the finish of the runners who had braved extremes of temperature, sickness, and the unremitting nature of the concrete block which had been their home and sporting pilgrimage for the past several weeks.

3rd place for Nirbhasa Magee

 

On Saturday night, Nirbhasa Magee, a native of Dublin, Ireland finished second man, third overall in a personal best time of 48 days+16:47:01. It was Nirbhasa’s second attempt at the distance, managing to improve his finish time by two days plus 19 hours faster than his previous effort in 2015. For Magee, the spirit of self-transcendence is the essence of the race, remarking:

“It is nice to transcend yourself…  I am not leaving anything on the table.  It is not like I am taking it easy.  What you see from me every day is my absolute best that I can put out." - Nirbhasa

The race continues for a few days with Harita Davies (NZ) and Yolanda Holder (US) within striking distance of finishing the race within the allotted time of 52 days.

Follow the race at:

• 3100 Mile race at Sri Chinmoy Races
• Perfection Journey by Utpal
• Photos of race by Jowan

During this year's edition of the 3100 Mile Race, Dipali Cunningham has been coming out to the course every day to share her enthusiasm and expertise with all the runners. Dipali has broken the women's world road record for 6 days numerous times, the most recent being the still-standing record of 513 miles set in 2009, aged 53.

While at the course, she has made a series of videos titled 'Dipali's Race Tips', where she explains some of the things the runners are doing in order to complete the distance within the 52 day cutoff.

The importance of a good helper

In this video, Dipali explains that the runners just want to be free to run, and not have to deal with any of the logistics involved in keeping moving, and how a good helper allows them to do that.

Coping with the sun and heat

During the summer months in New York, temperatures frequently get into the high 80's and 90's Fahrenheit (over 30 degrees Celsius) and so a good strategy for dealing with the heat and the sun's rays is a must.

More of Dipali's videos can be found on the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team Vimeo channel, as well as daily race updates from race director Rupantar LaRusso. The videos were shot and edited by Utpal Marshall; more of Utpal's videos can be found on perfectionjourney.org

Abhinabha Tangerman from just recieved confirmation from Guinness World Records for the most one-handed claps in a minute - an astonishingly fast 427! Abhinabha, a member of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team from Holland, set the record at the Impossibility-Challenger record breaking festival in Germany.

Abhinabha is also a very fast marathon runner, with a current best of 2:27, and holds the current record for our 12 hour invitational walking race in April at 65 miles. The record has gotten quite a lot of attention recently, which Abhinabha admits to being a little surprised by. He was introduced to the world of record breaking by his friend Ashrita Furman, also a Sri Chinmoy Marathon team member, who currently holds more Guinness World Records than any other person.

This year, Yolanda Holder aimed to be the first person to complete the 3100 Mile Race race by walking the entire distance. The New York Times' Corey Kilgannon came to visit the course and wrote a profile beginning as follows...

"On a recent weekday, a woman in hot pink exercise wear and a matching fedore strode briskly but effortlessly down a sidewalk alongside the Grand Central Parkway in Jamaica, Queens. The woman, Yolanda Holdler, 59, an endurance racewalker known as the Walking Diva for her fashionable race outfits, has drawn attention as a first-time entrant to an unusual race held every summer in which runners circle a single block for more than seven weeks straight, 18 hours a day, breaking only between midnight and 6 a.m. to sleep."

• for the complete  2017 New York Times article »

 

The Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team in Bristol, England has been holding triathlons since 2013, getting particular satisfaction out of encouraging people who have never done triathlons before to try one. In this vide, husband and wife Garga and Kokila Chamberlain, who are part of the organising team, explain how Sri Chinmoy gave them the initial inspiration for the triathlon, and what inspired them to aim their triathlons towards beginners.

As Garga says in the video: "We organise races for people because races bing out the best in everyone. You have to be so focused...being in a race, with that group energy, striving to give your best on the day; I think it brings out a really special part of each human being who takes part."

 

This year sees the 21st edition of the Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race. 10 runners took to the start line on June 18th to embark on the epic quest to complete 3,100 miles over the course of 52 days. Each runner will need to tap into deep reserves of - stamina, fitness, and inner strength - to meet the 60 mile a day average needed to complete the race. The race was founded by Sri Chinmoy, a spiritual teacher keen to promote physical self-transcendence as a way to the inner and outer enlightenment.

The race attracts international media attention for the unique personal challenge it presents. The race promoted by the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team has an international flavour with runners drawn from Europe, US and New Zealand. In addition to the ten runners a team of volunteers look after the runners through cooking, medical team and lap counters.

    “Go beyond, farther beyond!
    Do not limit yourself
    By comparing yourself with others
    Or even with your own self.”

– Sri Chinmoy

Sri Chinmoy, Twenty-Seven Thousand Aspiration-Plants, Part 99, Agni Press, 1984

Photos

Jowan and Utpal.

• Daily updates at 3100 Mile Race

Daily blog by Utpal at Perfection Journey

The runners this year include:

Vasu Duzhiy Age 51, St. Petersburg, Russia (5 finishes, 1 win)
Smarana Puntigam 46, Vienna Austria. Seven straight finishes.
Nidhruvi Zimmermann, 51, Vienna, Austria
Nirbhasa Magee, 37, Dublin Ireland
Andrey Andreev, 51, St Petersburg Russia
Sergey Kuzmin, 44, Nizhniy Novgorod Russia
Kaneenika Janakova, Age 47, Bratislava, Slovakia
Ananda-Lahari Zuskin, Age 42, Kosice, Slovakia
Yolanda Holder, 59, Corona,CA USA
Harita Davies, 42, Christchurch New Zealand

Full bios of runners