Today, after the 2025 race I finished earlier this week, I was going through my diaries from the eleven Sri Chinmoy 10-day races I have done since 2013. These races involve running/walking for a 10-day period, allowing oneself to sleep whenever necessary (usually 3-4 hours a day).
I was mostly going through practical notes in preparation for my possible 2026 10-day race. I did go through my practical notes, but in the process found notes about insights and inner inspirations. I will try here to remember and comment on a few of those impressions in a general manner.
You can read the notes from my first 10-day race here.
Identify with everyone
After about 4, 5 or 6 days of running, one might have been through enough suffering to let go of self-pity and start to embrace others’ suffering by virtue of having experienced it oneself. Many times I have felt this expansion, as if really everyone was doing the same thing, had the same (unfathomable) goal, each one endeavouring to move closer to it with different experiences. And not only runners – even the helpers and volunteers. They are not going through the pain, etc, but nevertheless you feel that they also need your smile, goodwill and energy. They are giving you an opportunity to share what you have received.
Love everyone
You care and feel for others as you would care for yourself – not in the sense of sacrifice, but in the sense of union. Quoting Walt Whitman, “I am large, I contain multitudes”.
“All seems beautiful to me”
Once more quoting the poet of the vastness, after some 7 or 8 days I would invariably get to the point where “All seems beautiful to me”. The people in the park, the trees, the birds, the skies, the wind, smiles, tears, all were singing in unison, supported by a full orchestra of solid truth as canvas to the experience.
Simplicity in strength
As you start, there is so much to be done, so much equipment to adjust, including the body’s sleeping times, diet and muscular condition. After some 6-7 days, all seems to have become simple, and you are strong enough just to run, and run, and run, and not to worry.
Lofty poise
Many times a period of dynamic poise took over me in the later days of the race. I feel strong, centered, poised and that nothing is there to worry about. But even more important, there is just some sort of solid peace backing the whole experience. You feel like flowing in the ocean of experiences.
Self-knowledge
I have a few but very precise entries in my diaries, where I was really understanding more of my relationship with myself, with the world and, especially, with my Spiritual Master, Sri Chinmoy. There are no more words to explain it than just that I have increased my understanding of these relationships. It feels solid, dense, but light at the same time.
Gratitude
I remember in particular in days where I was struggling physically or mentally (as a result of the physical pain), that at times I would give up suffering and just be grateful that I was having the opportunity to improve on myself through the myriad happenings that a single hour of running can provide during these races. It sounds very mental as I write, but once you have the experience, the whole reasoning falls of itself and only the feeling of gratitude remains.
Surrender
With 11 years of experience, I have learnt how to deal with many of the physical challenges that come up during the race. Yet there is always a new and unexplored experience to be had. One you could not be prepared for, and do not have an answer to. This puts you “against the wall”, and even when that fails to produce a solution, it makes one realise that on that moment it is only through surrender to a higher force that we can become higher ourselves, and thus the challenge was simply a catalyst to provide us a chance of opening up to the light.
Sincerity
I have some notes on “calling on God more sincerely during the race” as a reminder for next races. Not to waste time during the race with too many practical details, but use wisely the special 10-day frame to open doors which had been "closed for millennia", to quote Sri Chinmoy's poetry.
Courage
Sometimes, there is no solution. Just brave through something, like it is nothing. And lo, there is the solution. I remember in particular the severe shin splint injuries in my early races. When it got to the point where I could not even walk a few meters, and had to make stops to take a breath and relax after some much pain, I decided to simply run through it no matter what - and it did work!
Progress
One year in one of the later races I had a shin splint which I feel came from self-doubt. It was day 10, and I had been running strongly for the whole afternoon – like never before. I was worried that I might be setting myself up for some injury, and decided to have a shower and just fast walk the rest of the night, “cooling down” after a very intense day. After just one hour of walking, a most severe shin splint popped up, without notice. There was nothing I could do to improve it enough that I could at least walk slowIy, so I ended up stopping my race after 9 days and 20 hours. Interestingly enough, on my next year, on the first day, the same pain came, as if it was an immediate continuation of last year’s day 10. This time I was more brave, and did not surrender nor let it run its full course. It was solved inwardly, and only a little pain stayed as a reminder.
