By Bryan Schwartzman
John Wallis, 63, leaned heavily to one side as he battled a side cramp and the afternoon rain Saturday to complete one more half-mile lap around Thomas Edison High.
With no majestic mountains or crystal blue lakes as a backdrop, the Jamaica school may be one of the least likeliest places to hold the world's longest sanctioned foot race for four contenders.
Now its in fourth year, the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team-sponsored, 3,100-mile race began June 18 and will continue until Aug. 8, requiring its four contestants to average 60 miles a day to complete the race, which offers no prize money to the winner.
Chinmoy, a Jamaica-based meditation teacher, has developed a worldwide following. The Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team has been sponsoring various endurance races for more than 15 years.
“It is convenient, and it's flat,” Bipin Larkin, one of the race directors, said about the decision to hold the race at Edison High School.
Larkin said that because many of the race's volunteers, who are students of Chinmoy, live in the area it makes sense to hold the race there. The four runners competing in this year's race each stay with race volunteers nearby.
Volunteers also monitor the mileage that each racer accumulates.
A race station has been set up in front of the school where race officials and trainers congregate. A portable bathroom and a van turned into a massage parlor also are on the site.
“This is an endurance contest, not a running one,” Larkin said. “The runners are getting a lot of joy out of this.”
While contestants are sponsored by the team, they often have to leave their jobs for several months in order to compete in the race.
The race begins at 6 a.m. every day, and the runners must complete at least 50 miles by midnight in order to stay in the race, Larkin said. The race changes direction each day to distribute the stress point on the joints by turning corners hundreds of times a day.
The contestants alternate between jogging and walking, and take several breaks each day for eating and resting. Larkin said the earliest any of the racers finish for the day is at about 10 p.m.
This past Saturday the runners gladly traded in the humid heat for a damp cool rain, while most of the race's volunteers were covered head to toe in rain gear.
Wallis, a retired school teacher from Michigan, finally took a break on the rainy Saturday at about 2 p.m.
“I've been on my feet for eight hours – it's time for a massage,” said Wallis. “I don't even think about tomorrow.”
Wallis got a full massage from Vajra Henderson, a Jamaica resident, and talked about the difficulty of maintaining the race standards. While he has run more than 1,500 miles, his pace may be too slow to complete 3,100 miles in 51 days.
Trighur Cherrs, a Middle Village resident who ran last year, said that because the scenery is fairly plain, it forces the runners to focus on the struggle within their own minds.
“It's like being in orbit,” said Suprabha Beckjord, a 44-year-old gift shop owner in Washington, D.C. She is the only woman worldwide to compete regularly in multi-day marathons, Lark said. Beckjord said she is so focused internally the repetitive scenery does not bother her.
“This race is not about scenery,” she said.
Logistically there are many things the runners must keep in mind, from making sure they have enough pairs of shoes to complete the race to getting enough nutrients to press on.
Cherrs said he consumed nearly 10,000 calories a day, many times the normal intake, and still lost 20 pounds.
“I couldn't afford to race this year,” he said, indicating he could not take more than two months off from work.
For the runners the race is a spiritual pursuit that few outsiders may be able to understand. But the runners have made friends along the way.
Henderson, who said he left competing to participate in massage therapy and treating sports injuries, tried to sum up the philosophy of the race.
“Man is infinitely capable of transcending his own limits,” said Henderson.
Larkin said while Chinmoy, originally from India, derives his teachings from Hinduism, he has developed his own philosophy which combines mediation and athletic achievement.
Namitabha Arsic of Yugoslavia, and Pekka Aalto of Finland have been trading off for the lead and are significantly ahead of the other two racers.
