No-one seems to be able to agree on exactly when it happened, but some time in final quarter of the last century, four members of the Sri chinmoy AC set off on an ultradistance challenge run from London to Brighton.

One of them even made it back! The protagonists are all still active club members, and if you take part in our "Self Transcendence Races" in Bristol, Cardiff, London or Oxford you may well have met them: Richard (London), Purohit (Bristol), Kaivalya (London) and Sarvosmi (Oxford).

I have not yet been able to track down pictures of the event, though rumour has it that some do exist in a subterranean vault in the Wandsworth area, but here are a couple from that same era for you to enjoy: Sarvosmi (from an early international torch relay) and Kaivalya (from an aid station on the Masters and Maidens Marathon - accompanied by ever-youthful son Devashishu, who hasn't changed a bit).

Hopefully Richard and Purohit will add their memories at some point and supply equally charming photos from the 80s.

Until that point, members of our club here in the UK had rarely ventured beyond the marathon; this early journey of ultramarathon discovery heralded a new era which saw several teams make the trek to Brighton over the following fifteen to twenty years. In recent years the flow of such epic runs by club members has dried up a bit (with notable exceptions such as Tarit and Abichal, how many of us are out there running ultradistance?) so I hope this article inspires a new generation of Sri Chinmoy AC members to take on the challenge.

OK, enough from me, here are the stories!

Kaivalya's London to Brighton story
Sarvosmi's London to Brighton story

 

Roger, Sri Chinmoy AC Cardiff, Summer 2005