To complete the Self-Transcendence race, you would have to run around the track in the BCLC 31,000 times. If you ran 65 miles a day (650 laps) it would take you 47 days. At a 9-minute mile pace, you would be running for 10 hours straight and burn almost 7,000 calories. So what are you waiting for? Get off your computer and go test your endurance, willpower, and self-discipline!
If the distance itself isn’t mind-numbing enough, just imagine running it all around 1 square block in Queens, New York. Runners rely on spiritual endurance to run lap after lap after lap 5,649 times. Wolfgang Schwerk, a German furniture maker and opera singer, finished in 41 days, averaging just over 75 miles per day.
Running a few thousand miles is as much a mental challenge as it is a physical one. Sri Chinmoy, a spiritual leader and avid runner, started the race in 1997. He found running to be “a useful way of confronting—and ultimately surmounting—the physical boundaries of the body and the psychic limits of the mind” (WSJ). We find ultimate joy by achieving that which seems impossible. The mind says “3,100 miles? There’s no way,” but the heart and body are able to overcome the mind’s limitations. Runners endure blisters, New York City humidity, rain, injuries, pedestrians, and obviously exhaustion to reach the joy they find at the finish line.
Runners begin running at 6 a.m. every morning and don’t stop until 11 or 12 at night. Runners eat at least 10,000 calories a day, snacking on everything from chia seeds to coffee to ice cream to keep their bodies going. They wear through 12 pairs of shoes until they can feel the sidewalk on the balls of their feet. And that’s pretty much it. They run, eat, and sleep a little. But mostly they take time to reflect on themselves.
It is extremely important for runners to listen to their bodies. They have to know when to persevere through pain and exhaustion and when to take it easy. Nobody wakes up every morning energized and ready to go run for eighteen hours, but doing just that is the key to finishing. (Though, a blister that is more pussy, discolored and painful than usual, gets checked out.) But, injuries will happen, and as long as they’re not life or limb threatening, runners power through them.
This race teaches us a lesson we could all use: just because you want to stop, does not mean that you have to. Goals are not equivalent to limits. Self-transcendence means surpassing the goals that you set for yourself.
We should never be satisfied with our current grades, sports performance, artwork, or involvement in the community. There are always ways to improve. Please don’t go run 60 miles right this minute, but do go above and beyond what you set out to achieve. You may be amazed at what you can accomplish.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Rhodes chapter.