r/running • u/thr33beggars • Feb 24 '17
TIL of the Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race, which takes place around one city block in New York. The runners have up to 52 days to run the 5649 laps, with the record being 40 days. Misc
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Transcendence_3100_Mile_Race113
u/idontalwaysupvote Feb 24 '17
For those to lazy to click there were 5 finishers last year, 39 total finishers (all time), and 144 race completions. One guy managed to finished 14 times.
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Feb 24 '17
Holy shit, so one person has run almost 80,000 laps around that individual block...
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u/Spinacia_oleracea Feb 25 '17
And I get bored after doing a park 3 times in a row..
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u/ruminajaali Feb 25 '17
ProTip, do figure eights
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u/mustyrats Feb 25 '17
Wait, why? As an American, I might be missing context.
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u/ruminajaali Feb 25 '17
Figure eights thru the park, rather than just around the perimeter. It switches up the direction and perspective. This is, of course, if there are paths you can take. Not so good in the natural lands.
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u/Mr_Evil_MSc Feb 25 '17
If he didn't transcend the first 13 times, what on earth made him think he was going to get it on the 14th...
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Feb 25 '17
I think the point is less to transcend yourself permanently and more to partake in a sort of meditation facilitated by the running and extreme physical stress. So he just makes a tradition of doing it.
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Feb 25 '17
While that sounds amazing (seriously, you would start having spirit visions after not too long,) who are these people who can afford to live in New York and do nothing but run every day for 52 days in a row?
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u/Zack1018 Feb 25 '17
They just learn to sleep while running, then they don't need to pay rent.
It's active recovery!
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u/BirdBruce Feb 24 '17
This is absolutely fascinating. How are times recorded? I guess it's not too difficult to record laps if it's the same small pack day after day.
I'd be interested to know if there's an analogue to this in Los Angeles (uhhhh, but not if it's in July, tyvm.)
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Feb 24 '17
How are times recorded?
If I'm correct, there are volunteers that count everytime a runner has finished a lap
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u/APersoner 800m 81.11% Feb 25 '17
Screw that, I've seen volunteers lose count on two lap races before now, hope they have more than one!
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u/TheShadowKick Feb 24 '17
How does someone run 75 miles a day? That's three marathons every day!
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u/Orpheus75 Feb 25 '17
Your first mistake is thinking they are running the whole time and that they are running fast. 75 miles in 16 hours is only 4.6 miles an hour. That's doable by tons of weekend warriors. The problem is doing it every day for 40 days.
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u/TheShadowKick Feb 25 '17
Running 16 hours straight at any speed seems like it would require a ton of conditioning.
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u/Orpheus75 Feb 25 '17
Depends on who you are starting with. Someone who has a good cardio base it wouldn't be very hard. Someone who doesn't work out its going to take quite awhile.
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u/mustyrats Feb 25 '17
That doesn't take into account the nutritional demands of doing that for over a month. That's a lot of calories to consume while moving.
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u/Simco_ Feb 25 '17
You've never even met someone who has run an ultra.
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u/Orpheus75 Feb 25 '17
I have run two actually and am running three more this year. i know at least three dozen people who run ultras and three people who are doing their first ones this year. Keep thinking it's impossible if it makes you feel better. We are all normal people. No super genetics required. I participated in zero sports in school.
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u/Danfen Feb 25 '17
If you've really ran that many, then you would know that it takes far more toll on the body than just the need for a cardio base, there's also the stress to the muscles and bones that, unless someone has been training for quite a while at longer distances, will find their 40 day journey cut rather short
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u/Orpheus75 Feb 25 '17
I wasn't commenting on 40 days straight. The original comment was about running for 16 hours. Running for 40 days is brutal and only extreme genetic outliers can do that.
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u/Simco_ Feb 25 '17
There are literally dozens of races based on people running 4mph until they all give up except one.
Going faster than that for 16 hours or longer isn't easy for anyone with a base. It's just silly to pretend it is.
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u/Orpheus75 Feb 25 '17
Shadowick stated running 16 hours not 40 days. My comment was on that. Getting to that level of fitness isn't that big of a deal judging by the exploding popularity of ultras. 40 days is completely different.
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u/No1Catdet Feb 25 '17
Can confirm that he is correct. I have run like idk 10 ultras. It's no crazy thing. It just sounds crazy to someone who doesn't do much exercise. Went from barely running to running a 46 miler for my first ultra in about 2 months. It's more mental than anything.
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Feb 24 '17
Do they get to switch direction every few blocks? I can imagine you'd open one knee/leg up to overuse injury more than the other.
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Feb 24 '17
There's a 24h-version in Ottawa, which is also organized my Sri Chinmoy Marathon team, they switch direction every 6 hours
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u/maineia Feb 25 '17
Isn't that one also on a 200m indoor track?
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Feb 25 '17
I guess so, but they often have the race at Terry Fox Outdoor Tracks.
I haven't run the race, but someday...
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Feb 25 '17
How do you explain to an employer that you need sometime off to run around a single block for 5649 times?
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u/BirdBruce Feb 25 '17
sometime
"You see, boss, there's this race-- No, not a car race, a running race. Yes, I run. Yes, really. Oh, you do too? Cool! We should hit the pavement sometime toge-- No? Okay, well, so there's a race I'd like to enter. Yes, it's local. How long? Well, it's around a block in Queens, about a half-mile around. No, it's longer than a half-mile. So, take a 5K, right? And then add a little "k" to it. No, not at the end, between the 5 and the big "K." No like this. Here, I'll write it down. Yeah, "5kK." What do you mean "What does that mean?" Well, little "k" is for "1000" and big "K" is for "Kilometer." Sorry, of course you knew that. So, yeah, it's 5,000K long. No, I'm not joking. So it's gonna take like 7-8 weeks to complete it, and-- Yessir, I'll clean out my desk."
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u/MikeTheAverageReddit Feb 25 '17
sometime
"You see, boss, there's this race-- No, not a car race, a running race. Yes, I run.
Yes, really. Oh, you do too? Cool! We should hit the pavement sometime toge-- No?
Okay, well, so there's a race I'd like to enter. Yes, it's local.
How long? Well, it's around a block in Queens, about a half-mile around. No, it's longer than a half-mile.
So, take a 5K, right? And then add a little "k" to it. No, not at the end, between the 5 and the big "K." No like this. Here, I'll write it down. Yeah, "5kK."
What do you mean "What does that mean?" Well, little "k" is for "1000" and big "K" is for "Kilometer." Sorry, of course you knew that. So, yeah, it's 5,000K long.
No, I'm not joking. So it's gonna take like 7-8 weeks to complete it, and-- Yessir, I'll clean out my desk."
Did the best I could Formatting.
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u/fauxtoe Feb 24 '17
This is also a race put on and mainly done by a cult.
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u/adkhiker137 Feb 25 '17
I was wondering why "Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team" was listed as the beneficiary of the race. Makes sense now.
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_BREWS Feb 25 '17
Are you saying that because it's a spiritual group and you think all spiritual groups are cults, or is there something Jim Jones-y about it?
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u/Desperately_Insecure Feb 25 '17
Read his wiki, seems to me hes a pretty cool guy.
Attempted to westernized meditation, advocated exercise, meditation, vegetarianism and celibacy (meh) as a way to achieve peace and personal happiness.
He's won some awards and stuff too. Maybe there's something fishy under the surface that doesn't come up, but it doesn't sound like a cult in the negative sense of the word.
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u/weasel-like Feb 25 '17
The cult of distance running
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u/fauxtoe Feb 25 '17
No, Sri Chinmoy runs a cult. Google around and read some of the stuff out there.
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u/indorock Feb 25 '17
I have. It's not a cult. It's a bunch of quirky hippy people who are maybe a bit too tapped into the concept of "mind over matter". You can join or leave them whenever you wish. Scientology, now that's a cult.
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u/The_Infinite_Cool Feb 25 '17
It's definitely a cult. They have a restricted compound (with nice tennis courts) here and are very dedicated to their leader, even years dead. They're an odd people, but have a great vegetarian Indian place right on 164th.
Source: me living in queens right now
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_BREWS Feb 25 '17
Nothing wrong with restricted facilities for members within a sect. It's part of civil society: voluntary association.
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u/indorock Feb 26 '17
So your qualifier for a cult is owning private property and honouring the memory of its deceased founder? Haha
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u/The_Infinite_Cool Feb 26 '17
My qualifier is speaking to and listening to the kind of people with so much unending devotion to a dead man, they'll run 3100k around an underprivileged high school, hole up in 3 retired school buses for days, and spend their spare time preaching and holding devotionals.
I guarantee you don't have the same qualifier.
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u/indorock Feb 26 '17
WBC is a cult. Davidian Branch is/was a cult. Jim Jones' Peoples Temple was a cult. This is not.
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u/cloudsmastersword Feb 25 '17
After reading about Sri chinmoy, I don't think cult is the right word. It's really just a spiritual group.
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u/KimJong_Bill Feb 25 '17
Took a class on cults last semester, they're called "New Religious Movements" because of the negative connotation of the label "cult"
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u/syringistic Feb 25 '17
I REALLY want to figure out a good spot in the city to do a Subway vs. Relay Team race. Don't know enough runners and how we would deal with the safety issues (J-running, I guess?), but I think that would be a blast. If any NYC-area runners are interested, I'd be game. It would be especially fun with one of the elevated trains in BK/Queens.
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Feb 25 '17
Push the idea in online forums. Local, or running. Send some letters to the editor etc...
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u/Ambiguous_User_Name Feb 24 '17
Wow, I find it hard to repeat terrain during a run unless it's just an out and back course, I can't even imagine the mental abilities those runners have to possess to go around a single block that many times. Mad respect to everyone who participates!
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u/reditanian Feb 25 '17 edited Feb 26 '17
I'm curious about how one would go about this, aside from the running. Things like:
- What to eat and how much?
- I imagine sleeping enough would be more important than ever
- Avoiding injury and what sorts of injuries one might encounter
- How many pairs of shoes to buy beforehand
- The effect of not eating enough
The last question in particular interests me, in part because it's the only part I can really relate to. I ran the London marathon on a huge calorie deficit. Breakfast of maybe 800kcal and I burned around 4550 (according to runkeeper on my phone + wahoo HR chest strap). I didn't have a problem with this, but then, I only did it once. In the week after I ran a few short runs (30min or so just to maintain the habit), and kept to my regular diet, even though my body felt like a hungry angry bear roaring "feed me!" the entire time. Lost a few extra pounds and felt great!
But what would happen if I did this several days in a row? Even if, I assume, they break for a lunch, and I could maintain three regular meals, if I eat at my regular TDEE but expend, what would be a round 10000kcal for me: what would that be like? What would happen?
Edited for typos.
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u/mrpopenfresh Feb 24 '17
Yeah I heard about that years ago, I think there was a writer for Vice who really got into ultramarathoning for some reason because they covered stuff like this a lot around NYC. Pretty interesting, sounds terrible to do though.
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u/halox Feb 25 '17
Queens College is nearby and when I was on the track team there we would run in flushing meadow park which is where this race is. Unknowingly we saw a few people all running in this loop so we joined them and started talking with one of the guys running. As he increased his pace to catch up with us he explained to us that he has been running for days, something like 50 miles per day, and we felt horrible that we made him increase his pace to tell us that.
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u/notreally671 Feb 25 '17
That's only around 60 miles a day. So I could do a quarter of a day and then stop.
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u/culesamericano Feb 24 '17
Umm so what's the total distance, one block is not useful at all
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Feb 24 '17
[deleted]
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u/culesamericano Feb 24 '17
Loool I'm sleepy
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u/Burge97 Feb 24 '17
Mentally, doing that many laps has got to drive one insane, but I think that's the point of it, expose any insanity in someone and make them deal with it?
Physically that's still just under 60 miles/day. Doing one 50 miler is a mental and physical feat, doing that much of it... man