new zealand Susan Marshall and Finnish Ashprihanal Aalto They bring 46 days of racing with an average of 95.5 kilometers per day (59.6 miles) around a school on the outskirts of New York, to try to complete the 3,100 miles (4,989 kilometers) of the longest ultramarathon in the world. And the ‘Sri Chinmoy Selftranscendence 3.100 Mile Race‘, which is held in the Queens district, although in 2020 it moved to Salzburg (Austria) and is recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the longest race in the world held every year.
A physical, mental and spiritual test, as its organizers assure, the one born in 1997 and that this year puts twelve runners to the limitwho still have six days to reach the end of their journey.
Aalto’s dry face and lean body are a vivid reflection of the toughness of this test in which “the important thing is not to waste time” Aalto tells Efe during the race that he has covered 70 miles a day for 20 days (112, 6 kilometers) and that if he reaches his goal today he will finish second, behind The Italian Andrea Marcato, who crossed the finish line on Monday after 44 days of walking.
“You have to have discipline and train well,” says this Finnish post office official, who holds the world record for this ultramarathon, achieved in 2015 after 40 days, 9 hours, 6 minutes and 21 seconds of running.
As Race Director Sahishnu Szczesiul explains, the track opens every day at 6 am and closes at midnight for 52 days. In that time window, the runners can manage the time as they please.
“Here we appreciate the time, every second, all the time you move,” says Aalto, who says he feels “very happy” now that the goal is at hand. “When you run a marathon or when you do something difficult, you feel so happy afterwards. You feel that you have done your best, that you have tried with all your strength and you think: ‘I succeeded’, but it is also very hard and lasts a long time “, adds the Finn, who has been wearing the jersey since the first time he participated. in this marathon, named after its founder Sri Chinmoy.
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A Susan Marshall He still has several days left to hang up his trainers and rest. She is currently in fourth place and is the woman with the highest score. “I am grateful to have come this far“, he says without slowing down and before confessing that he thought he did not reach 2,500 miles (4,023 kilometers) and has already exceeded 2,700 (4,345 km).
It is the sixth time that this Canberra canteen cook embarks on this adventure, in which she participates following her intuition and because, she says: “It makes my heart happy”. “The truth is, I wasn’t prepared, I didn’t feel ready and I was terrified. I don’t know if there is really a way to really be prepared for this, “he says before pointing out the immense” mental challenge “of the beginning.” You have to feel a call “to jump into this race, he concludes.
They run on the premises of a technical secondary school and an adjacent playground, and with each lap they complete 0.5488 miles or 883 meters. It’s a residential area, mostly one-person homes, where runners share the sidewalk with schoolchildren and neighbors.
You can hardly imagine that the longest race in the world is taking place in that neighborhood up to glimpse stalls placed next to the sidewalk and where water and food are offered to the runners. The race facilities also don’t differ much from the mobile food stalls that can be found in many parts of the city.
Sanjay Rawak, director of the documentary ‘3.100: Run and Become’ in which he deals with this and other ultra-long runs in other cultures, and a resident of the Jamaica neighborhood, assures that he embarked on his work after living 30 years in that area to watch the runners wanted “understand what kind of internal or external energy the runners used to complete this distance“.
The joy of participating in such a race
Irish Nirbhasa Magee doesn’t hesitate to stop to answer several questions, he goes last and is aware that he won’t complete the 3,100 miles. Humorously, he explains that he contracted covid a few days before the race and that due to the birth he started three days late. Also, after ten days, he had a relapse that forced him back to bed.
Beyond discipline, concentration and “every second” control, this Irish nursing assistant stresses the importance of being relaxed and “quieting the mind as much as possible”
“When you can go beyond all of these challenges and complete 3,100 miles, it gives you a tremendous amount of inner confidence in your daily life, so for me now, it’s almost like a school of life without the distractions of the outside world“, he concludes.
