"Each step forward has a sacred meaning of its own"   Sri Chinmoy

Sri Chinmoy Sports Day 800m Race Walk - St John's University - Queens NYC - 25 August 2025

I finished the 1 miler at sports day having pushed myself into the nausea zone, but I felt good and recovered pretty quickly. At first I decided not to do the walk as well - after all, I had bagged a medal and come through that 1 miler apparently uninjured so why throw the dice again? I couldn't resist it though and once they called walkers to the start I went with them, throwing in a few short speedwalk-intervals as minimal warmup. My challenges were to try and walk a fast pace, stay on the right side of legal to avoid disqualification, and again see if I could sneak into the top 3. This was a race of truth, with only 50+ guys in the field, so everyone was in it together and there was no doubt over who was in one category or another. One single, simple race. Two laps of a hot track in New York in high summer.

I lined up behind Pushkar and Amalendu, with Ekalabhya to my left and Pratul on the inside track. I was in lane 3. We went off at a sharp pace and soon I was able to tuck in behind the surprisingly fast Amalendu with last year's champion Pushkar, a man for whom nothing is impossible, widening the gap ahead of us as he led the race. Switching from run to walk is hard, but fortunately I had been throwing some half-mile speedwalk intervals into my training back home. I was able to edge ahead of Amalendu, then a guy I didn't recognise came up on my shoulder and I surged to hold him off, moving out into lane 2 to slowly edge myself ahead of Ekalabhya too. That was how it stayed, as we kept up a tough 9-minute pace. I was never in any danger of catching Pushkar but having him ahead gave me something to focus on and kept me at full race-pace. I could hear the scuffing of feet behind me and realised I couldn't relax if I wanted 2nd place, so that also kept me honest.

My heart rate was up to the same level as I'd hit in the 1-mile run, I was sweating intensely and cooking a bit in the late morning sun, but I held on to 2nd and finished, breathless, very happy with my sports day effort. Looking up at the trees swaying over the St John's uni building I was suddenly transported into one of those moments where you just think to yourself "what a beautiful world". The laughter and chatter of everyone in the stands and warming up for the next race, the competitors all congratulating each other and feeling the joy of their achievements - it was a really lovely event and a very special day.

My finishing time was roughly 4:40 and garmin gave me a pace of 9.06 (which I guess allows for some moving out into wider lanes to pass people). That's a race I won't forget.

Sacred Steps Home