:: Contact :: Subscribe

Race Reports

The 3100 Index

Sopan Tsekov

I would like to share a few impressions from this year's 3100 Mile Race. Every race is a totally different experience and this one was no exception. The beginning of the race is always difficult because the body is put under extreme and shocking conditions. As you may know the 3100 mile race takes place in a half mile circle and you have to run 18 hours a day around the block.
The runners have to do this day after day, week after week 6 a.m. to 12 p.m. which is quite an experience by itself.

During the first three weeks I was trying to be extra careful and focused because it is so easy to get injured when the body is not yet well adapted to the hard concrete and the hot weather.
On day 4 I was really weak and at night I got very cold and shaking. I got better during the next few days. I was glad that I was able to run for some four, five or six days very well and than have a little lower recharge day.

Every runner will say that I am not a morning person, walking very slowly the first laps and even after that I wouldn’t have a great speed and number of laps for the whole morning. Some mornings I was so tired that I had to walk for hours or run only down hills. When we run in counter clockwise direction there are three very nice down hills so you just have to slide down very nicely. This still saves a whole minute every lap compared to walking. Of course if you walk very fast you can still take a lap for 9 minutes. I did that quite a few times for a few hours or even a whole day inspired by Smarana. Two times I had a very funny experience with Smarana and his fast walking. Smarana would very often walk in the evenings so once I was running a good pace ( 7 laps an hour ) and couldn’t believe that he was following me for quite a few laps and he was only walking! He says that he is a much better walker than a runner but I don’t agree.

I just wanted to say that so many times I was amazed at the end of the day with the number of laps I had remembering how tired I was at the start of the new day and how low my morning was. There definitely was some divine force which just wouldn’t let me finish the day with insufficient number of laps. So I was able to keep under control the balance between good days and a little lower days until the end of the race.
We all had many hard days but among the hardest were three extremely hot days with 90-97 F. You could see how everybody was just trying to get through the day and just survive.

I felt so many times on the edge of life and death really pushing the limits getting the ultimate experience of pushing and tiredness. I remember after these three days when I got home in the evening I was almost crying with gratitude that I survived and the next day I was so deeply grateful that it was over and we finally had a cooler and cloudy day. People coming to the race looking from outside never get the idea of what we are going through. Some would say “smile, smile” but if they only knew or had a shred of the experience that we had for example during these three hot days they would never dare to say even a word.

In this way I feel that this race is so transforming, it makes you go beyond your abilities or, in other words, let the divine in you work on the physical and the mind.

I am glad to say that I had no serious injuries or problems during the whole race excluding the last 10 days when I got some problems and sharp pain under the front bones of my feet. It all started after a few raining days. This year we got quite a lot of rain and most of the time it was just like a tropical downpour continuing for half or one whole hour. One day we had five or six of these downpours! One morning it just started pouring rain like anything and blowing a real strong wind. The camp was simply destroyed! The funniest of all was that after the rain the sky cleared completely and the sun was shining and burning stronger than ever. You would never say that only 15 min. ago there was pouring water from the sky.

But no matter what this years 3100 mile race started for me with a lot of joy I was much happier than before especially during the first two weeks and I was so much happier at the finish.

It doesn’t matter if you have completed the race before it always feels so unbelievable at the end. It’s like you can’t believe that that you have finished one more time.
We the runners say that this race is a mind breaker. The mind can never believe or imagine so many days of running in circles from 6a.m. to 12p.m. with 5 or less hours of sleep.

This year the race had so many great performances. First of all Madhupran breaking his own record with more than a day and averaging 75 miles, Asprihanal having an average of 71 miles and becoming the only person to ever run over 70 miles for 23 straight days. The top ten runners ran personal best times. 10 runners completed the race under 52 days and 9 runners completed in less than 51 days.

Sri Chinmoy came so many times to inspire us very often four or even five times a day. He would so many times ask us about anything showing his concern for us not only inwardly but also outwardly. He would write prayers for us every day or bring gifts for us from Japan where he went to visit during the race. We all are deeply grateful to him for encouraging us!

Sopan