Recently, the 14th edition of the 3100 Mile Self-transcendence Race finished with six runners completing the full distance and another four runners completing over 2700 miles.
photo by Jowan
This year the race was run in gruelling temperatures and humidity which made the race even more testing. The race was founded in 1997 by Sri Chinmoy, a keen advocate of promoting the concept of self-transcendence.
Video Of Race From ABC News
The race was won in a time of 46 days, 07:37:24 by Asprihanal Aalto
The 3100 Mile self-transcendence race was founded by Sri Chinmoy, with the distance of 3100 miles first run in 1997. See: About 3100 Mile Self-Transcendence Race.
Yesterday, Suprabha Beckjord completed her 13th 3100 Mile Self-Transcendence Race finishing the distance in a time of 60 days+08:58:51.
She was the final finisher of this year’s event. Making 11 finishers out of the 13 starters. The race was won by Asprihanal Aalto.
Suprabha Finishes 2009 edition of 3100 Mile Race. Photo by Alakananda
Suprabha is the only female athlete to complete the race and the only runner to complete all 13 editions. Her total distance in the last 13 races is a staggering 40,302.226 miles/ 64,622.160 km. Which is close to running twice around the world. When not running the 3100 mile race, Suprabha owns a small gift shop in Washington D.C.
Despite, heavy rain during this summer, seven runners have already completed the epic 3100 Mile Race Self Transcendence Race. The race was won for the sixth time by flying Finn, Asprihanal Aalto in a time of 43 days+16:28:06
The Self Transcendence 3100 Mile Race is an epic feat of running and self transcendence around a small 0.5488 mile loop in Queens New York. These are a few photos taken from this years edition of the race.
Asprihanal Aalto, from Finland won the 2008 3100 mile Self Transcendence Race. Finishing in a time of 44 days 2 hours 42 minutes and 15 seconds. This was his 5th victory and 8th time of finishing.
5 other runners have also finished including:
Pranab Vladovic, Grahak Cunningham, Pranjal Milovnik, Smarana Puntigam and Petr Spacil
In the next few days other runners are expected to finish.
Earlier this week, Asprihanal Aalto from Helsinki, Finland entered the record books as he crossed the finish line of the 3100 Mile Self Transcendence race in a time of 43 days and 4 hours, making him the only person to have won the race four times. The second and third place finishers, Ayojan Stojanovic from Nish, Serbia and Pranab Vladovic from Bratislava, Slovakia will both finish today after 46 days on the road. The race is still continuing for the other intrepid runners, and they will gradually be coming in over the next two weeks.
Asprihanal finished at around 10 a.m. in front of a cheering crowd of friends and wellwishers. During the ensuing celebration, an enthusiastic choir sang the song that race founder Sri Chinmoy composed in honour of Asprihanal after his completion of the race last year. His time is the third fastest in the history of the race and a personal best for him. Sri Chinmoy once said something to the effect that for Asprihanal, running was like drinking water; this certainly seems to have been borne out in his performances over the last year – he has finished first in both the San Franscisco 24 hour race and the Self Transcendence Six Day Race in April.
(Photo: Asprihanal (right) with his brother Antaraloy immediately after the race)
Today is the opening day of the Self Transcendence 3100 Mile Race, the longest certified road race in the world. For the best part of the next two months, 13 runners will be pacing around a half mile loop in Jamaica, New York for eighteen hours a day, aiming to push their capacities to the very limit in one of the toughest endurance tests imaginable. This is the eleventh holding of this epic race. Last year, Madhupran Schwerk from Germany shattered the race record, completing the distance in the astonishing time of 41 days and 8 hours. Madhupran is not competing this year, but three-time winner Ashprihanal Aalto from Finland will be looking to transcend last-year’s time of 43 days and 15 hours.
The race features three new competitors this year looking to try their hand at this most challenging of distances; Vlastimil Dvoracek and Petr Spacil (fresh – if that word can be applied – from his victory in the Self-Transcendence Ten-Day Race in April) from the Czech Republic, and Grahak Cunningham from Perth in Australia. Suprabha Beckjord, the sole female entrant in the race, is also the only person to complete all ten previous editions.
This race is organised by the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team, who have been putting on events for the sporting community around the world for the past 30 years. Many of their events, such as the 3100 Mile and Six and Ten Day Races in New York, the Triple-Triathlon in Australia or the 24 hour lake swim in Zurich, really offer a challenge to those who participate and an oportunity to extend their true potential.
You can watch a video of the 2007 race start on Sri Chinmoy TV…
