The SCMT organises races of all distances from two miles upwards, but it has become most well known for its pioneering work in organising ultrarunning races (races of longer than marathon distance). Many of the races organised by the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team have now become established favourites in the countries they are held in. The 24-hour races organised in New Zealand, Switzerland and Great Britain are also the national events for those countries, and the Six-and Ten-Day races held in New York every year are extremely popular races in the USA ultrarunning calendar. In Australia, the SCMT offers an unparalleled range of multi-discipline events, including the famous Triple-Tri , a triathlon performed three times over in the scenic outskirts of Canberra. However, the jewel in the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team's crown is the 3100 Mile Self-Transcendence race , the longest certified road race in the world, which is run each year in New York between June and August.

The SCMT's love of hosting endurance events is a reflection of the core philosophy behind the team's activities. The races are organised on the principles of self-transcendence, where each runner competes against himself and his own previous capacities rather than against his fellow runners. Endurance races allow each competitor to go deep within and truly find the best within themselves in order to persevere and finish, and even though there are trophies for the leading finishers, in truth every runner who completes such long distances is a winner. Over the years, the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team has gained a reputation for the level of care and support they provide to the competitors in their raises, raising the bar for the level of care in ultra races in general.

Many SCMT members have performed remarkable feats in different disciplines over the years, showing that indeed anything is impossible if one just has faith in oneself. Perhaps the most well-known Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team member is Ashrita Furman, who currently holds over 70 Guinness world records in many disciplines, including the fastest five miles run on stilts (a record which had previously stood for over 100 years) and the fastest mile crawling. Every year in Munich, Germany, the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team hosts the Impossibility Challenger event in which specialists in unusual disciplines from all around the world arrive to try and achieve world records in their respective fields. Suprabha Beckjord from Washington DC holds the distinction of being the only person to finish the 3100 Mile Race every year it has been run. Karteek Clark from Scotland has swum the Channel eight times now; the forty-odd successful attempts by SCMT members at crossing the Channel makes it the team with the most Channel crossings by a long margin. The founder of the Marathon Team, Indian-born athlete Sri Chinmoy , was himself a prolific marathoner and ultramarathoner in the seventies and eighties, and was setting records in the field of weightlifting right up to his passing away in October 2007 at the age of 76.