Self-Transcendence 2 Mile Race Sanur, Bali, Feb 2009

 

The night before the two mile race I was feeling tired, and I woke up much the same, but after a good fifteen minute warm up I felt good to go. I could have kept jogging up right to the start to get as loose as possible, but decided I was warm enough in the hot, humid conditions after around 20 minutes and spent the rest of the time I had stretching and getting focussed. My target was to hit the 11.34 I ran on this same road 5 years ago, but I knew I would wilt in the heat if I went off too fast.

After the moment of silence and the reading of one of Sri Chinmoy's "race prayers", we were off down the road in the thick, sultry air with no sound except the thud of our feet on the tarmac and the encouragement of the handful of spectators. Lap one went fine, leaning into the camber of the road on the corners and just trying to stay in the pack of ten or so at the front. As usual Artur was way ahead, and being chased by the challenger Tristan from Oz, with the rest of us well back and eighty or so strung out behind the pack. Everyone was running their own race against their usual crew of similar-paced runners they compete with whenever we have our international gatherings, and as usual I was behind Swiss Chris - unusually I was just ahead of Amalendu from Canberra (not in his usual awesome shape, and still stiff from our epic on Mt Agung). As the end of the second loop came round, I saw we were somewhere between 7.30 and 8.00, which meant I should hit my target with a decent final lap. The loop seemed to get longer and Amalendu's footsteps got closer, but as I rounded the bend for the last time I saw the clock and put on a surge to maintain my 5th place and hit the target with 3 seconds to spare - 11.31.

This was probably my best race of the trip, and it was very satisfying to keep pace with my younger self!

 

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