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Why I Started Long-Distance Running

This is one of the stories in our Story-Gems project, a collection of our experiences with our Guru, Sri Chinmoy. Project homepage »

Jamaica High School track, where many of our events were held

I was in my early 40s and new to Sri Chinmoy’s path. It was Father’s Day weekend in New York. I was out jogging and came across our Father’s Day Marathon being run around a high school track nearby, so I stopped to watch. I saw Guru at the far corner of the track.

As our 'spiritual father', Sri Chinmoy would often celebrate Father's Day and offer us sweet messages such as this one in 2005.

As I watched, he started walking in my direction, but he was within the fenced-in field so I continued watching from outside the fence. He slowly came closer and closer, and then to my surprise stepped through a large hole in the fence I hadn’t noticed.

He continued to walk straight towards me! My heart started thumping. What should I do? I folded my hands and tried to be in my best consciousness, I had never been so close to a realised Master before. Guru walked right up to me, stopped, and looked at me in silence for a few moments. Those few moments felt like eternity.

Then he said, “What? Not running?” Since I had already been running, I understood he was asking me why I wasn’t running the marathon. Without thinking I found myself saying, “Next year.” Guru smiled and nodded, then continued on his way. I was left with an inner confidence that I would run a marathon.

I began researching how to run a marathon and I started training. It took me more than two years, but as a result of Guru’s words I did run not just one but many marathons and ultramarathons, and discovered both a love of running and a big help to my spiritual life through it.