Chapter 1

There is only one dream
That will always be perfect
In your lifetime,
And that is the dream
Of self-transcendence.

Sri Chinmoy

This book aims to give some idea of the issues involved in running a multiday race. It is essential to create a set of training goals and then a plan for the race itself. The runner who is coming to a multiday race for the first time is entering a new world and some of the issues that occur during the race will be new. Gathered here are some of the experiences that runners have had and how they dealt with them. There is no single way to deal with these issues after all we are all unique individuals so what we have tried to show is that there are ways around problems however insurmountable they seem. Of course there are always the terminal injuries where the runner meets his limit. But often our limits lie beyond where our minds stop.

The multiday races are all about creating a new perspective not only within ourselves but also in and for the world and this alone is perhaps the most inspiring aspect of Sri Chinmoy’s philosophy – the creation of a new paradigm, a new way for the world to be, a new foundation and a new reality to help us move forward. Something has been awakened in the ultrarunner- inspiration, aspiration and dedication and with eagerness and enthusiasm life’s problems suddenly appear less significant, less indomitable, no longer an impossible task to get beyond them. The dream becomes reality.

This is the wider context of the significance of the multiday races, something that emerges from the simple activity of running. Once the inspiration has taken root then the unfolding of the latent capacities begins and it can be said that just as a tree grows from the seed then the achievement of the goal emerges from that original inspiration. If we are receptive to that inspiration then our lives take the new course and follow it to its realisation or as far as we are willing to go.

When inspiration
Comes into existence,
We run faster than the fastest
Towards our destined goal.

Sri Chinmoy

This page was last updated:  March 4, 2005 8:27