On June 10, Sri Chinmoy’s traditional 12 and 24 hour races took place at Rockland State Park, New York State. This year, the organizers added a night marathon, which received a good response from the runners. In total, about 150 runners took part in three events.
The circular track is a little less than 5 km and runs around a picturesque lake. The Sri Chinmoy New York Marathon Team has been organising a marathon at the end of August to celebrate Sri Chinmoy’s birthday for many years and use the same course. In the peak years, the race gathered up to 700 participants!
Due to the fact that the course runs around the lake, you can usually feel high humidity. In addition, the beautiful nature attracts many vacationers who organize barbecue picnics and loud music along the lake. I was preparing to resist the hustle and bustle of vacationers from the experience of last year, but this year everything turned out almost perfectly. The sun was hot only during the day (perhaps up to +27 degrees), but most of the route was in the shade of trees, and there was also a light breeze, so I hardly felt the heat. Although I took all necessary precautions so that the heat did not interfere with running.
At the beginning of the week, heavy smoke came to New York from burning Canadian forests. The air quality is said to have been the worst ever. However, by the weekend, the smoke cleared, and perhaps because of this, there were far fewer vacationers near the lake.
My start was at 8 am along with other runners for 24 hours. In the beginning, the run was easy, although I knew that I would not be able to maintain such a speed for the whole 12 hours. This run was part of my training program to prepare for the 3100-Mile Race, with start on August 30, 2023. It was a kind of qualitative leap in training, considering that previously I had run about 120 km/week.
The expected crisis came at 37 km. I slowed down but managed to level off. Marathon in 4 hours 20 minutes. I made my first stretching stop at 50 km. I felt a little better, but at 67 km I hit second crisis, just like last year. I ate a bit, used MCTs and L-carnitine, and in the end I was able to outrun this crisis as well.
Last year I was about 3km short of the 100km mark on lap 22. Then I said that I would see you next year. And we saw each other! This year I covered 100 km in 11 hours and 52 minutes! Dreams Come True!
100 км за 11:52
Although my result in these 100 km is not world class, I was extremely happy that I achieved my dream! (Usually I hit 100K on a 3100 mile run 4-5 hours late)
I took first place in the category 50-59 years old. And fourth place overall. It is worth noting that the 100 km mark was only 400 meters from the finish line, and this time the organizers counted only full laps. In addition, it was possible to credit another 1 mile and 2 miles to the full lap where the hydration points were. In short, my 100 km did not count. But it doesn’t make me worse – because I know I did it.
Let’s run further!
More info:
Official race website and results
Pictures
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