I started running 29 years ago.
My running and meditation have always gone together.
Meditation is such a natural thing.
Everybody has meditated before you.
If you think of when you were at the ocean
and the sun was rising and you were in the woods
and it was all green and sort of misty and peaceful.
That's meditation.
I try to go into my heart
and I try to not focus on my mind's thoughts and so forth
but just focus on joy and beautiful qualities
that I want to bring forward in myself and positive things.
When you get to the point where you can focus your mind
and really just concentrate,
meditation is like an expansion, it's like an opening.
To many people in marathon seems like very long distance.
A lot of people who run know about 100 mile races
but sure, 300 miles seems like a big stretch.
I've been running two longer runs a week,
at least two hours or more.
In the other days I've been running more like 45 minutes.
A lot of the training with really long mileage
was like training for the mind
to get away from the fear of distance.
I need to gain some weight before the race.
I have a little over a month and I need to gain about 7 pounds.
I always try to start a little heavier
because you lose a lot of weight during the race.
Shri Chinmoy gave me the name for the store.
When I first opened it,
I just came up with my own name to start.
We called it visions of beauty.
Shri Chinmoy came by my shop
and gave us that name.
And we're always trying to live up to it
because it's a big name.
Transcendence, perfection, bliss of the beyond.
For me it's become like a spiritual journey
when I run the race.
There's always different inner challenges.
Meditation is kind of a combination
of inner and outer running.
It's so much a part of you.
It's like your life.
3100 miles, 31.
God's mind, God's heart,
my life has won.
3100 miles, 31.
We're the sponsors of the self-transcendence
3100 mile road race
which is the longest certified road race
I guess race in the world.
I'd like to thank you.
This year will be special in a way
because Shri Chinmoy will no longer be
visiting us and so forth
because he passed away in October.
Shri Chinmoy really loved the 3100 mile race.
He would always find time to visit the race
and say hello to the runners.
He'd drive by in his own small,
cute little car that he had
and constantly cheer in the runners on.
This is our 12th year
and the race will go on.
As long as I'm race director
hopefully it will continue after that.
Shri Chinmoy will be a matter of
kind of going a little deeper inside
in our meditation
and kind of feeling his blessings inwardly.
I really feel that his spirit will be there.
Now I'd like to introduce
Shufrava Beckford,
our only female competitor
from Washington,
the U.S.A.
Shufrava is the only 11-time finisher
and still the only female competitor.
To date she has ran
101 miles around the 3100 mile race course
after totaling the 3100 miles
and the original 2700 miles.
That's pretty good running.
I feel very happy
to be able to start the race on Sunday.
I feel very grateful
that my body is cooperating.
I definitely know what I'm in for
having done it so many times.
I guess I do have some confidence.
It's more for me like I have faith somehow
that God's grace will carry me through.
It's always worked out that way before.
Shufrava Beckford
Why would anyone do this?
Why would someone come out here?
Why would you come out here for two months,
spend all this money,
take your time off,
suffer and then get maybe a pat on the back
in the trophy if you even finish?
Why would anyone do that?
We have 14 runners and this year is the best.
Our next finisher.
Starter.
The supreme finisher.
She has 11 fetishes in this race.
Please往 axis!
Ahhh-
Ok.
We're done!
onlar
because it just seems overwhelming.
But if you just keep moving, it just happens.
Ever since Sri Chimoy turned 47,
we've had a 47 mile race in August
at the time of his birthday.
So for years I would do that race.
At one point, he started weightlifting.
Within eight months he did 200 pounds with one arm.
For people who know about weightlifting,
apparently this is really incredible.
We were inspired, some of us,
on our marathon team to have a 200 mile race
to celebrate his 200 pound lift.
I had a really powerful experience.
I enjoyed it a lot.
Every 20 miles that I completed,
I chanted gratitude 20 times.
Actually, I came in second overall.
At one point, Sri Chimoy wanted to increase the distance,
so he added a race that was 2,700 miles.
27 was a special number for Sri Chimoy.
He was born on August 27.
At the end of that race, he said,
next year the race will be 400 miles longer.
3,100 Sri Chimoy was born in 1931.
56 peter, 56 pranjo, 54 ananda lahari.
That's how they break up the day by laps.
We give the conversion there with the miles.
They always think in laps.
They count your laps and they add your mileage
onto the scoreboard.
Your mileage just keeps growing on the board.
I started meditating with the Sri Chimoy center 29 years ago.
What really spoke to me were his paintings.
They're very spontaneous and childlike
and full of light and beauty.
I was studying art at the time in college,
so that was kind of my language,
so I really could relate to the paintings.
I wasn't consciously looking for something specifically,
and then I took a course on Eastern philosophy,
and that was it.
And then when I read about it, I said,
wow, this makes sense.
Coming from a real strict Catholic background,
it's like you're shopping for something.
You can spend your money foolishly,
or you can be careful and see if it's the right purchase,
that you're doing the right thing.
And in the spiritual life,
you know you're doing the right thing
when you get a happiness.
We live a very disciplined spiritual life,
very disciplined,
but that doesn't mean that you have to live in a cave.
When Sri Chimoy sees someone,
or sees a student,
if one of his students
he doesn't see like you see,
he looks in and he sees all their good qualities,
and what their capacities are.
He's not saying this is what I'm telling you are,
he sees that's who you are,
so the name only reflects who you are.
The full meaning is the brilliance,
radiance, effulgence,
and perfection satisfaction
of the soul beauty always,
to please the beloved in his own way.
Sri Chimoy really emphasized
that each person on earth has a beautiful soul.
I feel so lucky to know the meaning
of my soul's qualities.
My parents were always looking at me like,
she seems different, but she seems happy.
And my father's like always my daughter gone,
she's got a different name,
and what's going on?
But something changed.
He said to me the last months of his life
I just want you to know
when you became Sri Chimoy's student,
and he gave you that name,
I struggled with it,
but I want you to know now
that you're a Diwali to me.
And I think what entered into me
entered into them.
They saw I was peaceful,
I was in my heart,
I was satisfied,
and now I found my home.
In this particular race
she has a team of handlers.
There are seven different girls
who take turns
each day of the week
to come and bring her
to the race in the morning.
She has different handlers during the day,
she has three different handlers
who take shifts.
We're close actually,
she's kind of,
how can I put it,
she's family actually.
I wouldn't say like
a mother figure
more like my sister.
I take care of her
each time she comes around,
I make sure she's
had enough to eat.
They have to eat
10,000 calories a day,
which is huge.
They keep bringing food
all day basically,
which is good
because we need to keep eating.
Most people stop
and walk with their cups.
If you eat a whole meal at once,
then it's difficult
to keep moving again
whereas if you eat
a little bit at a time,
you can keep moving.
What we do is
charge the runners
but we can't charge them
what it costs
because they couldn't afford it.
So we tell them
if you can't collect more,
then that's fine.
But if you can collect
from your friends
another additional amount,
that will help.
And that's how we do it.
We do fundraisers.
Our marathon in August
pays for a lot of it
because that's one of
the reasons we do it.
This is a very expensive race.
It's a very expensive race.
Part of my duty
is to
keep track of our chupabur
around the course.
The 12 years of the 3100
after it gets dark,
I go around with her
on the bicycle.
I'm one of the race directors
and this is my evening shift.
We always have two race directors
on in the evening.
It's definitely
much safer than it used to be.
A couple of years
Shreachin Moi asked me
to keep track of my laps.
I think the most I ever did
was 785 miles one year.
Boredom is not a question.
Same with the runners.
They don't get bored.
It wouldn't work if you...
I don't think you could do it
if you got bored
or allowed yourself to get bored.
At the moment it's
really hot,
90 degrees.
And we're putting
every few laps
she has some ice
under her head.
The important thing is
a good sunblock.
One of our top runners
was negligent
in putting sunblock on
and that was it.
They suffered for days
even though it was overcast.
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I usually rest for 5 minutes
and then
I take care of my toes.
I only have one
toe that's really
in kind of bad shape.
It's longer than the
other toe
It gets patched.
This is the worst surface to run on in the world.
It's concrete.
The worst surface.
The foot gets wider and longer.
Literally flattens out.
At the end of the race, you'll have two sizes bigger.
Well, here's his shoes.
Because we've got so many peers here, we have markings.
If you look closely, these have got pine trees,
different symbols, smiley faces.
They cat them.
They're here.
And they take away this because it just rubs on the feet.
A lot of the runners cut out their toes.
You try to change your shoes, you change your gate,
you change your socks, you do all these different things.
But if you've got a blister, what are you going to do?
You've got to live with it. You've got to treat it.
Usually what happens is you just end up running right through.
Ouch, ouch.
You'll see them sitting here at their shoe wall,
picking the bottom of their feet with a...
This looks like something from a hospital, but actually,
most of these toes are doing fine.
But I'm doing that because in the rain,
there was peeling and, you know, they got more sensitive.
They just weighed us today, and now my weight is very low.
I still feel pretty strong, but I have to work,
really work on somehow getting some weight back.
How much weight have you lost?
I've lost, like, 12 pounds.
Even maybe 13.
If you're one of the skinnier runners,
and you start losing weight, how do you stop it?
You know, sometimes you just drink the heavy cream in the dessert,
but you have to get calories.
Do you have a feeling of the end being inside?
I'm not quite yet, but I'm definitely ahead of last year
by a little more than a day, so that's encouraging.
Shui-Tian-Wai has written many, many beautiful things
about self-transcendence.
He wrote,
self-transcendence is man's conscious awareness of perfection.
When you put self-transcendence into action,
it's really going beyond what we feel our capacities are.
Today I run one mile, and tomorrow I run two miles.
When I accomplish two miles, I get a lot of satisfaction from that.
Our races are all called the self-transcendence race,
say, today you do 60 miles.
Well, the next day, that's your starting point.
Okay, then the next day, that's just, and it goes on and on and on.
That's the essence of self-transcendence,
is just going beyond what we previously have done.
Shui-Tian-Wai,
Shui-Tian-Wai,
Shui-Tian-Wai,
I am the world's longest distance,
the ring and shattering rider,
my supreme lord,
sun power's love,
and his moonless love,
who will dare.
Thirty-one hundred miles,
thirty-one.
You really feel a connection with everyone who's involved.
It is like a family, like the ultra-family.
Thirty-one hundred miles, thirty-one.
A number of years ago, Shui-Tian-Wai gave me beautiful advice.
He said, just imagine that you're five or six or seven years old.
You're a child and you're running for the joy of it.
And just imagine it's kind of like a game.
And it's so true because if you examine the details of the race,
and you're running on a sidewalk and there's cars going by,
people are taking your laps down.
You have all these laps and time and so many hours in the day and so forth.
But if you focus just on those details,
really it takes all the joy out of it.
Whereas if you focus on just what you really love,
which is the running and the movement and the enthusiasm
of getting out every day and accomplishing,
that gives you everything you need, really.
Kind of a supply of sweetness and joy
that really propel you.
Shui-Tian-Wai.
Shui-Tian-Wai.
Shui-Tian-Wai.
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Babe., lifetime, 12-time,
and the greatest female,
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People get so much inspiration from it.
And they see somebody like Shubhapa who is so slight doing this.
They get inspiration while maybe I can do something.
I really find her extremely inspiring and I always will.
Who's run so many races like this, nobody.
And if you ask her to talk about it, she won't.
Because she's so humble, she's so quiet and she's an amazing little person.
She's so strong, she's little but she's so strong.
She's probably one of the strongest people I've actually ever met.
She's quiet, like she's very light.
But she's tough, I mean you've got to be around her.
Shubhapa is a world class runner.
There's so much caring and love that goes into it.
And I think that's part of the beauty of it.
Our marathon team just puts out this tremendous effort and there's so much love.
That's one of the things that always strikes me in the race, how much love it brings forward.
Everyone is different.
Richard Moyer was so unique because he always used the term God's Orchestra.
We're working together.
It does have a tremendous simplicity and at the same time it's profound
because it's something that you really feel when you're there on the course, the power of it.
Shubhapa is a world class runner.
