Day 19

Reached 1000 miles today. Madhupran has continued his recovery with 131 laps.

Day 18

Day 18 began in a furious storm with high winds and rain lashing the camp and the runners and prevented runners from accumulating their usual mileages.
The winds died down by mid-morning and the temps and humidity began to rise again.

Madhupran is still recovering from his stomach problem and Asprihanal ran hard all day to take advantage. Martin struggled with an uncomfortable blister and Rainald and Rathin contiued to make good mileages as did Suprabha.

Madhupran's helper, Helmut Schieke was 67 today and there was an ice-cream cake to celebrate.

RTL, the German TV station came today, Ted Corbitt came out to the race the day before

Day 16

Madhupran hits 80+ miles and Asprihanal completes a week of 70+ miles. It's tremendously inspiring to be with these runners.

Day 15

Asprihanal moved into second place today with another awesome performance - 80 miles despite some heavy rain showers early in the day.

Day 14

Camp was abuzz tonight as Asprihanal took the days honours with 79 miles - 2 laps or so ahead of Madhupran and cutting the gap between him and Srdjan, still in second place and who topped out at 72 miles today, by some 6 miles.

The rain came again today. Fortunately the showers were relatively short-lived. The humidity was very high all day and the forecast is for more of this over the next 4-5 days.

I am still ahead of 2004's position - by 600 metres



Hans-Jurgen Schlotter

Day 13

Madhupran reached a 1000 miles tonight, about 10:30 ish. Srdjan escaped tonight on 903 and Asprihanal had another good day to maintain third spot.

After threatening for some time, the rain finally arrived about 11:30 tonight and I left in a thunderous downpour. The high humidity today no doubt affected some with Rathin continuing his recovery after his good day on Day 11. Tsvetan has a little Achilles problem, Rainalds knee is improving. Pranab and Martin are doing well and Smarana also had to take it a little easier today.

Day 12

Not so easr

Day 11

Kuranga withdraws from the race while Madhupran Wolfgang Schwerk continues to pile up the miles with 781 after 10 days and a 478 6 day split. Srdjan Stojanovich lies second and Asprihanal Aalto is third.

The warm weather continues.

There seems to be a problem reaching the SriChinmoyRaces.org site.

The 10th Day

Several musicians come and play at various places and times around the course. Here we have Virendra playing drums and it immediately reminded me of a movie where this band was playing in such a rough dive that the stage was inside a cage.

Anyway, Premik came later with his Sax and played some entertaining songs.

The warm weather was here again today and somehow the day was particularly difficult and I finished grateful to have been able to cover 50 miles. Hans-Jurgen had a good day and seems to have recovered from his shin-splints.


Just before I left tonight I shot the scoreboard. Right-click for bigger image.

Day 9

Tonight I finished 100 laps with 5 miutes to spare. I have to thank Sundar and Dusan for dragging me out of the van with 8 laps and 75 minutes to go. I completely crashed out. Then, with 5 laps or so to go when I was shuffling around, 85% asleep, Smarana took me by the hand and encouraged me to go "A little faster" and I finally did it. Its great to reach goals, however humble.

Madhupran continues to impress with another great day - I didn't check the scoreboard so I don't know for sure who is where. It was a lot cooler today and escaped with a light shower in the evening.

Medur said he will put some photos up on the race site. As soon as I find a link I will post it.

Day 8

The temperatures rose higher today but fortunately the humidity is still fairly low. The 10 day says that there will be t-storms and rain for 9 out of the next 10 days so a change is due any moment.

Rainald and Stutisheel were slowed yesterday through injury and the course was busy with visitors yesterday, Sunday.

I am still ahead of previous races but getting the mileage up to 111 per day is very difficult.

Knees have been bothering me over the last few days interspersed with sore shins. Madhupran is still roaring away with the lead but no-one escapes "issues".

Day 5

Martin and Pranab are continuing their great start to the race, though others struggled a bit today. Hans Jurgen has shin splints and was also feeling the heat today which though a little warmer only had 28 % humidity this morning, according to Chanakhya. Asprihanal had a better day, Rathin and I hung in there for the bare minimum (BM).

Pradahan came today for a day or so and lots of other visitors came by.

My love affair with Fix You continues unabated

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Miles: Today - 50

Miles:Total - 281

Problems: Knees,

Severity: 7

Temps: lo 80's, cool in the eve

Mood: Middling cheerful

Light in the Dark

Well, maybe it's not really that bad but could only manage 50 miles today. The morning was ok but in the early afternoon my knees gradually began to seize and by late afternoon I was getting concerned enough to consider a return to the matrix. Suprabha and Rathin lapped me depressingly often and continued to do so all evening. I had this problem last year as well as the same back issue. I don't remember how I fixed the knee thing, which could be a real help now. I took some Iron, Adrenal Support and a couple k of Vit C but they're still very stiff.

Chanakhya said that I was ahead of my mileage in previous races which is good.

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Problems: Knees, blisters

Severity: 8, 2

Temps: moderate, cool in the eve

Mood: Thank God for the Matrix

Fix You

I dont know how I missed it but I've only just become aware of this song.
In a moment of desperation today I reached for my new MuVo and one of the first tracks that came on was Fix You. Its starts kind of slow, then there's a guitar bit, then there's this Moody Blue's-ish harmony section. I played it again. And again, over and over for about an hour. I took a break and came back out and continued to play it until a quarter to midnight. Now I've just found this on YouTube. I can' t put my finger on what it is but its about loss and separation and a bleeding heart. I'm a sucker for bleeding heart music. I call it Mourn.

Anyway today was another slide toward the bottom of the barrel. My back was killing me yesterday and today was a replay... until...












Anyway short term solutions sometimes help and I eventually made it to 100 laps. As did Rathin as it turned out and Suprabha scored 101 which is a good sign. Madhupran has established a lead over Kuranga. Hans Jurgen has shin splints but still managed a good day. Stutisheel finished strongly tonight.

What a difference a day makes

Multiday races are always full of surprises. Only Martin, Pranab and maybe Kuranga seem to have escaped unscathed by the end of Day 2 from the rigours of the race. Madhupran nevertheless blasted out over 75 miles to take the lead. Several of us today commented on the acclimatisation process. "Yes. It'll take us two weeks before we've really settled down". Of course.
Its amazing how all the little details get forgotten about and they return like long lost friends to accompany us again.

First Day

So thats it. Day 1 for me yielded 124 laps. Madhupran and Kauranga got off to a great start

Last day

Pictured are Chanakhya and Shishaldin, who both ran the 6 day race in April/May and came to checkout the course yesterday.
The weather is still cool which is good - weather.com gives a 10 day forecast predicting temps. in the mid 70's, although there will be some rain about.

Yesterday I bought a Creative MuVo and we will see how it holds up to the rigours of the race. I have been wanting to get an iriver but they're still a bit pricey.

I will be going in to the race with some new shoes. My basic stash is
Asics 2100, I have 6 pairs of those,
Asics Evolution
NB 856
NB857 2 pairs and
Brooks Addiction,
plus odds and ends lying around. The 2100's last about 3-4 days and hopefully the others a little longer. I will probably need 1 or 2 more pairs at the end of the race.

Run and Become in Victoria, London have been very supportive and generous and I am very grateful for all their kindness.

Cool June

There's been a lot of rain over the last week or so and its quite cool here at the moment which is great news as the start approaches. The intense heat and high humidity make not only the days uncomfortable but also the nights. I'm sure though it will warm up in July.

Rathin arrived yesterday, Madhupran comes today.

I saw Trishul a few days ago. He always has a positive outlook which is very helpful. This months UR magazine discusses the link between the mind and the body and drew out some interesting points. However they didn't dig to the roots of the runners faith. Faith is kind of a Christian word in my mind but beyond that, its structural importance in the psyche is very significant. Maybe they'll get to that another time.

2006 Self-Transcendence 3100

I had been planning to blog on the main blog but since people have been returning to this site I will keep this page going.

Just a week to go before the race begins. Already the runners are beginning to arrive - I spotted Ananda-Lahari last night.

There is a list of runners available on the 3100 site.

The weather is forecast to be fairly moderate for the next 10 days or so with temps in the mid 70's. Last years first three days were roasters. Threw us in at the deep end.