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Ashprihanal Aalto Wins the 23rd Sri Chinmoy 3100 Mile Race

Ashprihanal Aalto is ready to go to sleep.

The 48-year-old Finn just won this year’s Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race. He crossed a duct-tape ribbon Friday after running more than 60 miles on each of 48 consecutive days around the same half-mile course in the Jamaica Hills neighborhood of Queens, N.Y.

This is Mr. Aalto’s 15th time completing one of the hardest footraces in the world, which requires runners to cover 3,100 miles over 52 days. It is often compared with ultra-endeavors like the 6633 Arctic Ultra that crosses the Arctic Circle and the Badwater Ultramarathon in Death Valley. The concrete sidewalk course wraps around one block that is home to Thomas A. Edison Career and Technical High School and its baseball field, with a view of Grand Central Parkway.

Guru Sri Chinmoy, an Indian athlete and philosopher who died in New York City in 2007, started the run in its current form in 1997.

His goal: to achieve the seemingly impossible—and in the process, transcend the limitations of the mind through meditation and persistence.

Not to mention, New York City’s summer heat, exhaust from nearby traffic and crowds of children walking to school.

Mr. Aalto isn’t the only one ready for a nap. The race relies on dozens of helpers and volunteers who work around the clock.

Hometown friends, co-workers and fellow disciples of Mr. Chinmoy, sleep very little for the month and a half. They spend all day on chores, including fixing the runners’ shoes and making tea and food for the eight runners participating this year who consume up to 110,000 calories a day total.

“You don’t want to have to come through here wondering what to eat,” said race director Rupantar LaRusso.

“I’m very happy,” Mr. Aalto said, who has won the race eight times now. “I can go do other things, rather than run, run, run.”

(08/06/2019) Views: 2,065 ⚡AMP
by Acacia Coronado

William Sichel has become the first person to run the 500 plus miles of Scotland’s answer to America’s Route 66

An exhausted former cancer patient from Orkney, Scotland has become the first person to run the 500 plus miles of Scotland’s answer to America’s Route 66.

Pensioner William Sichel completed the circular North Coast 500 mile tourist route in northern Scotland when he ran into Inverness at around 2am on Monday.

The route has been hailed as one of the greatest drives in the world but has never been run before.

William started at Inverness Castle in Scotland on April 13, with the goal of finishing the iconic route, solo, in eight days.  His official time was 8 days, 19 hours, 7 minutes and 7 seconds.

It took him to the west coast, up to Cape Wrath, through Caithness, through Tain and then down the east coast, to finally complete the loop in Inverness.

“I completed a recce run on the whole course in November last year when I was driven around the whole route, which is actually 518.7 miles and ran for up to three hours a day to get a feel for the area," William said.

“Following that experience I decided to have a go at running the whole thing.”

“I am completely drained. I haven’t slept for 21 hours but I made it in under nine days,” said William at the end of the run.

“It was incredibly demanding in every sense – mentally and physically. We made it – thanks to the team, it was a team effort. I’m now just looking forward to my bed.

“I was running into head winds at times but overall I got lucky with the weather. I had a lot of support. I was amazed how it caught on with people as I went round. I hadn’t expected that at all.”

William has completed 107 ultra marathons since 1994. Last summer he ran the Self Transcendence 3,100 Mile race in New York – the world’s longest certified footrace.

No one had previously run the North Coast 500 route although cyclist James McCallum, completed the route in 31 hours in 2016.

 

(04/23/2019) Views: 2,436 ⚡AMP

A movie that celebrates the spiritual side of running

Documentary filmmaker Sanjay Rawal lives in Queens, New York, where, for more than 20 years, he’s seen them: Runners tracing a half-mile loop around a city block. During 52, often sweltering, days of a New York City summer, these hardy souls try to cover an astounding 3,100 miles (an average of 59.6 miles a day). The race is named for spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy, who believed running gives people an opportunity to challenge themselves and overcome their pre-conceived limitations, a state he referred to as “self-transcendence.” “I always thought there was a film to be made from it,” Rawal  said before his newest film, “3100: Run and Become,” premiered in Sedona in July. “But visually, I thought one couldn’t show this topic of spiritual running by just filming people running around the block. You had to connect it to people in cultures that have been running for thousands of years.” (08/12/2018) Views: 1,755 ⚡AMP

Vasu Duzhiy wins Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100-mile ultra

Imagine running around the same half-mile city block, in the stifling summer heat of Queens, New York City, for 52 days. Since June 17, that’s exactly what ten individuals from seven countries have been doing as they compete in the world’s longest (but possibly smallest) ultramarathon, the 22nd annual Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100-mile race. This year’s race will end tonight at midnight for those who have not yet completed the distance. Vasu Duzhiy, 52, of St. Petersburg, Russia, won the race for the third time, around 10 p.m. last Tuesday (day 45). It was his seventh straight finish. Duzhiy works for a lumber company back home. Kobi Oren, a father of four from Israel and the first Israeli ever to complete this race, finished the next day, in the third-fastest time ever for a first-time runner. And Ushika Muckenhumer of Salzburg, Austria finished yesterday in third place, also his first attempt. Yesterday was day 50. Sopan Tsekov, a graphic designer from Sofia, Bulgaria is expected to finish late this evening. He was the youngest person ever to finish the race when he ran it in 2005 at age 24. None of the women has yet finished, but two are in a position to complete the distance by midnight tonight. Surasa Mairer, a secretary from Vienna, Austria is in the lead and expected to finish around 6 p.m. Mairer has three previous wins under her belt and holds the women’s course record. Kaneenika Janakova, 48, of Bratislava, Slovakia, is in second position among the women. Janakova holds numerous records at this event. (08/07/2018) Views: 2,060 ⚡AMP

Yolander Holder is all smiles but dealing with blisters 10 days into the world's longest race

Yolander is on the 10th day of the world's longest race. "I'll be walking for 18 hours a day, seven days a week, for over seven weeks to reach 3100 Miles as a participant in the 2018 Srichinmoy Race," she posted on her website.  Her goal is to break her record she set in 2017 where she completed the race in 51 days, 17 hours and 13 seconds.  She posts a video daily on her Facebook page.  This morning she filled us in on how she is doing. "The warmup is the hardest part of a race like this because I am walking on open blisters.  It is very painful and I just need to tolerate the pain.  I need to go to a happy place in my head.  My feet will heal. My feet were perfect before this race started.  These blisters came around mile 40.  The less I talk about these blisters, the better."  The race goes around a half mile city block on the sidewalks in Queens, New York.  The runners have 52 days in which to complete the distance, an average of 59.62 miles everyday.  Before the race started she said, "I’m the only American in the 3100 Mile Race (again).  I am the only African American male or female that has ever run or walk this race (again).  I’m the oldest woman (again).  I’m the only walker (again).  I am going to attempt to break my own World Record...No crying this year... Walk Baby Walk."    In 2012, Yolander Holder broke her own world record by completng 120 marathons or beyond in one year.  She has run over 540 marathons or beyond, over twenty of these were 100 milers. (06/26/2018) Views: 2,004 ⚡AMP
by Bob Anderson

William Sichel is set to take on one of the world’s most exhausting and brutal races in the running world

William Sichel, from Orkney UK and eight other runners will at 6am local time, on Sunday June, 17, toe the startline of an event recognized as one of the most exhausting and brutal in the running world — the 3,100-mile Sri Chinmoy race in New York. Sichel, who became the oldest ever finisher of the event in 2014, is anticipating being pushed to his breaking point once more, in his bid to complete 5,649 laps of the half-a-mile circuit in Queens inside the 52-day time limit. The 22nd annual event is set to finish on Tuesday, August 7, with competitors clocking up the miles between 6am and 12 midnight each day. He believed the support of the Orkney public could be key in crossing the finishing line, with the runner set to take to social media for encouragement throughout his time in New York. Since I did it four years ago, engagement through social media has become even more important. (06/16/2018) Views: 1,732 ⚡AMP

Sichel’s Returning to Run world’s longest certified footrace

Legendary ultra veteran William Sichel has accepted an invitation to return to New York this June 17th for the 22nd staging of the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3,100 mile, officially recognised as the world’s longest certified footrace. Described by the New York Times as the 'Mount Everest of ultramarathons', competitors must average 60 miles a day, every day in order to complete the distance inside the strict 52-day time limit. Sichel became the oldest ever finisher of the event in 2014 when completing the distance in just over 50 days 15 hours, an average of over 427 miles a week for the duration. (02/06/2018) Views: 2,020 ⚡AMP
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