In the UK national 12 hour time trial championship, Tejvan Pettinger from the Sri Chinmoy Cycling Team finished in second place with a total of 284 miles. It was Tejvan's first attempt at the distance and it makes a rare double to win both the national Hill climb championship (2013) and gain a medal in the 12 hour championship.

The championship was held on a course in South Wales. It featured an opening leg of 90 miles, before moving onto a 26 mile circuit and finally a finishing lap of 19 miles. The riders had to contend with persistent rain for the last half of the race, which made conditions tough.

Speaking of his debut at the 12 hour challenge, Tejvan said:

"The furthest I have ridden this year was 103 miles, so a 12 hour was a step into the unknown. Although it was a national championship, I didn't think too much about the distance or result, but just concentrated on being able to finish the 12 hours and seeing how far I could go. In an event of this duration, you inevitably have good periods, but also difficult times. After two hours, I was already wondering how I would make it, but after these difficult early morning hours I got into a good rhythm and was going really well in the middle of the event. I think I started to enjoy it, despite the pain in the shoulders.

In the last two hours, the persistent rain seeped through and I suffered from the cold quite a lot, but I just about managed to hang on. Although it was tough, I can see the attraction of these long-distance events and am planning how to try and go further next year. Vilas Silverton, a fellow member of Sri Chinmoy CT, did a great job in helping out passing many bottles and energy gels - even though he did a 300km bike ride the day before.

It was also good to do a 12 hour time trial because every April, the Sri Chinmoy Centre put on a 12 hour walk to mark the anniversary of Sri Chinmoy's arrival in the West, but I never do it because I don't want to interfere with my cycle training, so this is a kind of compensation. In the future I'd like to do a 24 hour time trial, because Sri Chinmoy, with many other members of the Sri Chinmoy Centre, entered a 24 hour cycle challenge in the late 1970s."

Related

• Vilas's blog on a Weekend of cycling - 330km Audax ride + helping out at 12 hour TT
• 12 Hour Results at Cycling Time Trials

The Sri Chinmoy 100k race in Paris has been taking place since 1988; Unnatishil Bravo, race organisers shares with us a little bit of the history of the race.

Every year we have had 15 to 60 ultrarunners coming to this race in a country, France, which has 15 to 25 100 kilometre races a year; sometimes it is not so easy to be able to get many runners on a 1 mile loop, but still we regularly have runners from Europe, Russia and America.

Over the years, we have had some top runners - for example, members of the 100k french national team such as Denis Gack, who finished the race in 7 hours 13 minutes or Huguette Joulalt, who set the French record 100k for women here in Paris in 1991 with a time of 8 hours 15 minutes. We also hosted runners from the Russian national team here in 1990. Since 2006 we also put on a 50k race, and it has doubled the number of participants coming, with some very good runners among them - like members of the French national team coming as part of their training world 100k competition, and in doing so breaking our 50k records - under 3h45 for men and 4h10 for women! The race has also been widely praised in French running magazines. 

Video: The 2009 edition of the race; video by Kedar Misani

This year was the the 27th 100k and the 11th 50k race - we had members of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon team from Paris, Britany, Nancy, Besançon, Montpellier, Luxembourg and even Zurich, on hand, creating a specialy joyful atmosphere. The weather was perfect, a little cool the morning and not too hot in the afternoon with a little rain.

David Ardid, who is preparing for the TransGaulle (a 1200k race crossing France from north to south in august) won the 100k Sri Chinmoy race in 8h08'48". The 50k race was won in 3h54'17" (male) and 4h49'46" (female). The female winner, from the Netherlands, happened to be jogging in the area the morning, saw the 100k race taking place and was inspired by Mena, one of our race organisers, to start the race that day at 12! She had already run last year in the 100k Sri Chinmoy in Amsterdam. 

However the real star was Valerio Puccianti. At the age of 93 years old, he finished in 11h12'52" and set a real example for us wit hhis grace and humility. We brought him back to his home by car. At the end 14 out of 17 runners finished the 50k, 14 out 22 runners finished the 100K - a total of 28 finishes out of 39 participants. Jean-Michel Boiron, who has completed almost all the 27 editions of the 100k race since 1988, finished his 396th 100k in total. Always smiling, Jean-Michel is over 70 years old, but looks around 55. He is has written many nice things about our races in magazine articles over the years.

Some of our Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team members came from far abroad to run the 100k race. Andrea Marcato from Italy finished 3rd make under 50 in 9h34'54", a personal best, and André Ribeiro from Portugal finished in 12h33'35". 

On 19th June, 12 intrepid runners lined up for the 20th edition of the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race. Over the next  seven and a half weeks, the runners will attempt to complete 3,100 miles - which requires an average of just under 60 miles per day. 

The event was founded by Sri Chinmoy, a spiritual Teacher who saw ultra-distance running as an effective way to encourage physical and spiritual self-transcendence.

Last year, Asprihanal Aalto (Finland - lead runner on right in blue t-shirt) set a new course record finishing in a record time of just 40 days and nine hours to complete the 3,100 miles, averaging an astounding 76.7 miles a day. This year he returns to attempt a different record of completing the event for the fourteenth time - which will be one more than ultra-distance legend Suprabha Beckjord. Surasa Mairer (Austria) also returns a year after setting a female record for the event in a time of 49 days 07:52:24.

As well as the 12 runners, there are also numerous organisers, cooks, counters and volunteers who help to keep this unique race in motion over the summer months in Queens, Jamaica.

Start of 3100 Mile Race

This video, by Utpal Marshall captures a small glimpse of the opening moments of the race - the activity and dynamism of the runners and organisers, combined with an inner serenity as the challenge looms ahead.

How to follow the 3100 Mile race

• 3100 Mile home page
• Perfection Journey - video / photo blog by Utpal Marshall
• Latest Results

The 3100 Mile Race in the media

• Media coverage of 3100 Mile Race

Photos: Jowan

Vilas Silverton from the Sri Chinmoy Cycling Team took part for the first time in a 600km Audax ride, a long-distance cycling challenge also known as a Brevet or Randonee. Although they are not races, they do have time limits (in this case 40 hours) and require riders to pass through certain checkpoints en route to prove passage. Below is Vilas' entertaining account of what transpired:

The ride started from a small village hall near Tewksbury in England at 5.00am and headed into South Wales before crossing over to the west coast, heading northwards towards the top of Wales before returning back to the start in England. The ride contained 10,000 metres of climbing which, I discovered, is rather a lot!

Before the event I was excited and a little nervous, my longest ride to date had been 220km with Sri Chinmoy Cycling Team colleague Garga Chamberlain, which was made very difficult by poor weather conditions (ie non stop rain, and winds strong enough to blow you off your bike). However, since that ride in February, I had done other long rides that felt much better. After struggling to follow paper maps on my first Audax ride, I quickly bought a garmin which massively cut down the time I lost at road junctions etc where I was not always sure which way to go (directions are not my strong point!). This device had my route loaded onto it, so I could follow a little arrow on the screen which told me what roads to take. 

After checking all my equipment the week before, studying the route, and carbo loading for 3 days, I felt really thrilled to be able to start at dawn with about 40 other riders on the day itself. To begin with, we rode easily as a pack to the first checkpoint at Monmouth, which was 50 km away and got receipts from an ATM to prove we had got there. I was happy to ride with others at this point, as I couldn’t get my garmin to work at the start.

After the easy first section, we started heading into the hills of Wales where the group broke into pieces and people rode in small groups of 3-4 or just solo. By this time I had figured out my garmin and so was perfectly happy to ride at my own pace. Quite often, this did mean I enjoyed riding in the company of others, but I was also not worried about riding alone.

It rained gently most of the first day but it was warm also, so I rode in shorts, short sleeved jersey, gilet and arm warmers. It was a bit too warm for a rain jacket - for now. My plan was to err on the side of being too warm rather than too cold, as I didn’t want to use up energy by getting cold/keeping warm. In a long ride such as this, I kept the pace very easy on the hills and rode steadily on the flatter sections. This was to keep my heart rate low and stay as far as possible in the ‘fat burning zone’.

In training, I had some difficulty with digestion, and was a bit worried about getting through the event if nothing would stay down. I need not have worried however, and ate well at cafes and supermarkets en route. I also took a number of energy bars etc with me as some sections of the route (up to 100kms) passed through isolated and exposed countryside where there was nothing to eat (unless you are a sheep).

Around 12.30am I arrived at a control point that had beds and here many riders stopped to sleep. I felt quite good however, and decided to keep going. I did stop long enough for some pasta and a change of clothes (I had sent a bag on ahead). This meant I could change out of my wet shorts and socks - luxury! It also meant I could swap my leg warmers for full length tights for the night although the night time temperature probably didn’t get below 10 degrees centigrade.

I was really looking forward to riding in the night. The roads were very quiet, just a few cars now and then, but as I rode through the darkness, I had owls, bats and sheep for company. I couldn’t see the beautiful countryside at this point but I was happy to keep moving. Having helped at some multi-day running races in the past, I am acutely aware that night time is a special time for doing things. Most people can run or cycle in the day, but if you can forego sleep for a while to achieve an important task, it feels magical to me.

The consequences of riding for 24 hours with no sleep were starting to catch up with me however, as I started hallucinating at around 4.30 am. I saw people walking around in the road and cars coming towards me that did not really exist. I was also having a bit of trouble keeping my bike going where I wanted it to. I promised myself a sleep at the next control.

I was enjoying the night section though, particularly as the weather was dry. However, that changed after a few hours, and all my lovely dry clothes got soaked again, so I sat down on a deserted road, struggled to put on my waterproof jacket, shoe covers and neoprene gloves. About 6.5 hours after setting out from the previous checkpoint, I arrived cold, wet and uncontrollably shivering at the next one, a community centre/village hall in mid-Wales. A nice lady made me the classic dish of baked beans in tomato sauce on toast (she may have been an angel?) however, as my stomach was a bit sensitive, I couldn’t finish it, unfortunately.

Another rider was there too, and a few helpers asked me about Tejvan (Pettinger, Sri Chinmoy Cycling Team hill-climb champion) and his exploits. I was happy to have my mind distracted by other things at this point and very grateful to be wearing Sri Chinmoy’s name on my kit for all to see.

Spotting a blanket in a corner of the hall, I asked to borrow it and wrapped myself up and went to lie down, still wet and shivering. I awoke about an hour later, feeling warmer and better, so I put my wet shoes and socks back on and headed out of the door.

As the last section had been so hard, I foolishly thought the next one might be a bit easier. It was a bit shorter, certainly but the hills were very steep and relentless. They were very small lanes that went straight up hill sides rather than gently curving around. Since 150km however, I had pain in my right knee which meant I couldn’t really put much force through the pedals. As the pain was on the outer edge of my knee, I figured it was just the ITB that was tight and pulling on the joint, so I massaged it at every stop in order to keep moving. I was praying hard that this inconvenience would not stop me riding. I was very grateful that my knee pain would allow me to remember Guru too (Sri Chinmoy also was affected by knee pain during his considerable sporting career). The direct consequence of this situation is that I had to walk up the steeper slopes even though I had low gears on my bike. For a sporting cyclist, this is quite an ignominious position to be in, but here I was, limping up hill after hill in my slippery cycling shoes while pushing my bike. My focus at this time was to keep moving. If I couldn’t ride fast, I would ride slowly, if I couldn’t ride, I would walk, if I couldn’t walk, I would hobble and limp, and that was where I was right now.

At least I didn’t feel tired, the hour nap had done the trick, and I wasn’t cold. These were two big positives. In time, the rain eased, and the kilometres ticked away. Due to the steep, wet and gritty lanes however, I had a new problem, my brake blocks had worn down to such a degree that I no longer had a rear brake and my front was on borrowed time. Thankfully, the last stage of around 70 kms was on bigger, flatter roads that didn’t require me to use the brakes very much.

Before the event, I was concerned that I might not make the 40 hour cut off, but as it turned out, I rode the final stage feeling really good and riding strongly. With most of the ride behind me, I felt able to raise the pace, and gratefully, I finished in 35.5 hours.

Muhammad Ali was not just a sporting legend, he was a universal figure that inspired millions with his soaring spirit. The Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team would like to offer some remembrances of this great figure.

Sri Chinmoy was a tremendous admirer of Muhammad Ali, both as a figure of inspiration and also of his spirituality. The following are some excerpts from a conversation between the two in 1977.

Sri Chinmoy: You are changing the face and fate of mankind. Your very name encourages and inspires. As soon as people hear 'Muhammad Ali,' they are inspired. They get tremendous joy. They get such dynamism to be brave and face ignorance. Your very name does that. That's why I am so grateful to you, so proud of you.

Muhammad Ali: My goal is to be like you one day - to be peaceful and out of this sport working for humanity and for God....After we finish boxing I want to learn how to get out of this life and use my popularity and my intelligence for humanity - to help people in whatever way I can. I don't know how, but I want to do something - bring people together, work for God and help people.

During that meeting, some of Sri Chinmoy's students sung a song that Sri Chinmoy had composed for Muhammad Ali.

Greater than the greatest,
Swifter than the swiftest,
Ali, Ali, Champion!
Owner of a new vision.
Supreme boxer's jabbing thunders
Sport with art-beauty's wonders.  

Sri Chinmoy also wrote another song in praise of this great champion:  

Muhammad Ali, Champion Ali,
Greater than the greatest, really!
Sleepless you cry for Allah’s Grace,
Deathless you fight for the Muslim race.
Muhammad Ali, Champion Ali!
Your moon-pure heart and justice-light
Shall smash the frown of ignorance-night.
Ali, you are Eternity’s pride.
Your victory’s smile is the pole-star guide.

In 2003, Muhammad Ali became the 6000th person to be honoured as part of the Lifting up the World with a Oneness-Heart program; being lifted overhead by Sri Chinmoy using a special apparatus, together with his wife Lonnie.

Sri Chinmoy was always very grateful for Muhammad Ali's kind words of support for his weightlifting over the years, right back to when he first started in 1985:

Sri Chinmoy is a very spiritual man. I feel the reason Sri Chinmoy lifted this weight is because of his love of God and belief that through God all things are possible. This man has done the impossible because of faith, wisdom and love of God. Through God we can do anything and He allows us to reach beyond human endeavours. We may feel we can’t go on, but because we find inner faith, we do. The body says “stop,” but the spirit cries “never.” In the warrior’s code there is no stopping.

This article from Coach Magazine, a UK online website and  magazine concerned with fitness and health, examines the 2015 Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3,100 Mile Race. Included are interviews from 2014 finisher Willaim Sichel and associate race director Sahishnu Szczesiul, as well a collage of photos from each of the 52 days of the 2015 race. The article also examines what makes this race so unique and challenging.

"Imagine running a marathon. Then another. And, for kicks, finishing with a seven-mile jog. On the same day. Sounds ridiculous, right? Now imagine doing it all again the next day. And the one after that. In fact, for 52 days in a row.

"That, in essence, is what the annual Self-Transcendence 3100 mile race demands of anyone brave – or barmy – enough to take on the world’s longest certified ultra-running race. Yet every year a dozen or so athletes allow their bodies and minds to be put through the wringer."  Complete article »

The 2016 edition of the race will begin in Queens, New York on June 19.

Hiyamallar Shalom spent a few days with our eleven-time Channel Swimmer Karteek Clarke in his Edinburgh home, and pressed him for a few stories about his Channel swimming feats:

Picture this: it is a beautiful summer morning, and you are awakened by the sound of Bach being played on the violin as the sun splashes through the windows of your room in a lovely tree-lined city with almost fairytale architecture...idyllic, perhaps. On the other hand, you are crazy cold, hugging your blanket, because this is Edinburgh, a city which has no decent respect for the seasons, and your flatmate has already a) gotten up b) gone to the Commonwealth Pool (in the early morning!) and c) swum laps for hours. So begins another day in Scotland in the flat of Karteek Clarke, swimmer extraordinaire. 

While I was staying in Endinburgh with Karteek, I was able to have my ever-modest, if not self-effacing friend, talk about some aspects of his swimming not found elsewhere. I began by asking how he got the initial inspiration to take up long-distance swimming. 

In 1994, after reading some of the thrilling adventures of our earlier Channel swimmers, Karteek had the idea that he might like to try doing this. However, unlike most people (such as 99.99% of us), he went down to Dover shortly after and spent only a few weeks swimming in the harbor, perhaps doing one six-hour swim, his longest swim ever up to that time! (to put this in perspective, he routinely does two back-to-back days of six hours each for his crossings these days) 

Three weeks later he attempted his first Channel swim, and achieved an incredible twelve hours in his first experience of swimming in open water, before his inexperience and relative lack of training led to an end of that try. The following year, after having had more time to prepare, he was fully trained and ready to go, but one hour prior to the scheduled departure of his boat, the weather turned and he lost his spot. Due to other commitments, he was unable to stick around and try again. 

Finally, in 1997 he had his breakthrough first successful Channel crossing, which he describes as a "long hard swim" that took 11 hours and 57 minutes. That August, he vistied Sri Chinmoy in New York, and recieved his spiritual name, Karteek, the basic meaning being that of the "Divine warrior", who "places his teeming victories at the feet of the Lord Supreme". 

In 1999 Karteek successfully entered and completed the Lake Zürich 26-km race put on by the Swiss Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team. He had an excellent experience, and this reenergized his swimming. Thus inspired, he wondered if he could repeat his earlier crossing and decided to give it another go in 2000. What followed was one of his most difficult races, in windy conditions and with the development of sea sickness, which took him over fifteen hours to complete! 

At point afterwards, Sri Chinmoy called and asked Karteek how many times he had swum the Channel. When he was told that he had done it twice, he asked Karteek to swim the Channel two more times. Karteek agreed readily and proceeded to do just that, undergoing adverse conditions and having difficult crossings on each occasion. After four successful crossings, Sri Chinmoy again called and this time told Karteek that he should swim the Channel three more times! 

In reminiscing about these phone calls, Karteek remembers that while outwardly at times he might wonder what the point would be in repeating the swim, in each case Sri Chinmoy acted as the “perfect psychologist” as he puts it. To quote Karteek, he “picked up on my wish” to keep challenging himself, and his request came at just the right moment each time. On every occasion he was asked to swim the Channel, he had the feeling of intense joy, adding that he never felt forced to do this event, recognizing that Sri Chinmoy was confirming what he already felt - despite the fact that the fifth, sixth, seventh (and even the eighth) crossings were all accomplished under difficult conditions and took over sixteen hours! Sri Chinmoy told him that while patience was needed to do long distance swimming, “you also need to develop speed,” as “speed is determination”.
 
Now that Sri Chinmoy is no longer with us physically, Karteek still feels an inner urge to continue his Channel swimming; he has completed eleven at the time of writing.

A unique quality of the races organised by the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team is their focus on self-transcendence, a philosophy powerfully advocated by Sri Chinmoy. In its simplest form self-transcendence involves seeking to do better than before - going beyond our previous achievements, capacities and results.

Self-transcendence can take place with different aspects of our self - physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. They are many different ways we can seek self-transcendence, but the ultimate self-transcendence is integral; it comes not just from training the body, but also from developing all our mental, emotional and spiritual capacities.
 

Self-Transcendence in sport

Self-transcendence is an intrinsic aspect of sport. We practise to get stronger, faster, more skilled than before. In running, a great goal is always to set a new personal best - run a distance faster than before; this is something every athlete can relate to. To achieve this new personal best requires commitment, discipline, and all the different aspects of our being. Anyone who has attempted to improve their time has begun the process of self-transcendence.

Self-Transcendence and competition

    “We compete not for the sake of defeating others, but in order to bring forward our own capacity. Our best capacity comes forward only when there are other people around us. They inspire us to bring forward our utmost capacity, and we inspire them to bring forward their utmost capacity”

– Sri Chinmoy [1]

When we participate in sport, we often see it as an opportunity to try and beat our competitors, giving us the joy of victory or the sadness of defeat. However, another way is to concentrate on our own self-transcendence efforts. In this way, our joy of sport is not dependent on winning or comparison with others, but whether we feel we have sought to do our best.

Self-transcendence does not mean we have to compromise our chance of winning. In fact, it can help if we are calm and focused on doing our best, and we don’t waste mental energy thinking and worrying about our competitors. Concentrating on our self-transcendence helps us achieve our highest potential, but also teaches us that we can enjoy sport even if we don’t come out on top.

    “I do not have any set goal; my goal is self-transcendence. I always try to transcend myself. I do not compete with the rest of the world. I compete only with myself, and I try to become a better human being. This is my ultimate goal.”

– Sri Chinmoy [2]

Different ways for self-transcendence

It is a mistake to think self-transcendence only in terms of a personal best. These may come rarely - especially as we advance in age. Sport is a constant opportunity to transcend different things - the weather, difficult circumstances, learning to accept defeat with good grace, offering good will to other athletes, finding hidden capacities deep within, trying something new. All these are different types of self-transcendence.

The joy of self-transcendence

Sometimes athletes talk of that rare experience, where they are fully in the flow, the mind is quiet, but a seemingly strong inner will and energy carries them along. It is these transcendent performances that give the most joy.

Setting a personal best always gives a runner a smile, but PB’s may be few and far between. However, if we really gave the event everything, and if we were able to surrender the result, we can experience joy whatever the outcome.

No limits

    “We have to believe in a higher Power.
    Only by believing in a higher Power
    Can we go beyond and beyond
    Our limited, human capacity.”

– Sri Chinmoy

Self-transcendence means we can be open to hidden inner capacities. Not just listening to our own mind, which sets limits of what it can and can’t do. This is an inner spiritual force, which can help an athlete. From humble beginnings of running a couple of miles, who knows where it will take us?

Carl Lewis reads extracts on self-transcendence

Resources on Self-Transcendence

• The Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race - The distance alone gives an insight into the possibilities of self-transcendence. This epic race has seen numerous occassions of unique individual self-transcendence.
• Quotes on Self-Transcendence by Sri Chinmoy

Personal experiences of self-transcendence

• Abhejali swims the English Channel
• Karteek Clarke swims English Channel for 11th time
• Spirit of a runner - video on homepage of 3100 Mile Race about Suprabha Beckjord who completed 13 editions of the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race
• Personal experiences of Self-Transcendence by Tejvan Pettinger
• Interview with Vajin Armstrong - trail distance runner

Abhejali Bernardova from the Czech Republic completed the swim from Robben Island to Cape Town in South Africa. Stacey Marsh was assisting her from the boat and gives this account:

This was one of the shortest swims Abhejali has done, but one of the toughest. The ‘Freedom Swim’ as it is know, is the swim from Robben Island - where President Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years of his 27 years of imprisonment - to Blougberg in Cape Town. It’s a ‘short’ 7.5km swim in shark infested COLD water.

Abhejali arrived with a window of a week to find the perfect conditions to swim. In preparation for the expected 13 degree water Abhejali had been trying her best to do cold-water swims in an already cold Czech winter.

We arrived in Cape Town on Thursday to find the water temperature slightly less than ideal at 11 degrees! Not fazed by this Abhejali soon jumped in and spent a good half hour catching waves and doing some swimming to see how her body will cope with the decrease in temperature. That evening someone who had swam this many times, informed us it probably was not going to get any warmer over the next few days. And looking at the weather charts Saturday seemed the most ideal time to do it.

As the day approached, each person we contacted to confirm Abhejali was going to try on Saturday gently asked if we knew it would be extremely cold, and that no one else would be swimming it that weekend! After a brief pause to take note of all the warnings, Abhejali decided to continue a Saturday swim. The day arrived, the conditions looked good, and we made our way to the start. Our pilot gave Abhejali a stern talking to, telling her it would be tough — the distance may be small, but this swim is a hard one, and with these water temperatures it would be nearly impossible for anyone to finish.

As she jumped in to start her swim, our pilot radioed ahead to let them know someone had started, not giving a predicted finish time, as he privately expected he would have to pull her out. He noted that the temperature had dropped to 9.5 degrees — where it stayed for about half the distance — a detail we decided not to pass onto Abhejali. As she progressed she complained of cold and numb feet. Our pilot said that was a good sign — if she could not feel them it would be bad. Abhejali couldn’t talk much as her throat and mouth were too cold, but still managed to yell instructions to us from time to time — another good sign!

When Abhejali reached the 5km mark, we could see she was still strong. We relaxed a little, realising she might actually be able to finish! Our pilot was getting more confidence in her as she continued swimming strongly and even picked up the pace a little.

However, as we got closer to the shore she started to go ‘walkabout’ — instead of staying with the boat she started to swim sideways, parallel to the shore. At that angle she was going she was heading straight for rocks 800 metres from shore. We pulled her back on course, and as the boat could not go any further, I was told it was time to jump in and try and guide her to the shore. With strict instructions from the pilot and a buoy full of warm clothes and a hot drink for her, I headed into some freezing cold water.

It was tough keeping up with her even this late in the swim but she was now in the correct orientation as we made it into the shore. With large waves pushing us in, she landed on dry land 2 hours 35 minutes after starting on Robben Island.

In the lead up to Abhejali’s swim in Cape Town she was invited to speak to students at a primary school in Johannesburg — a school visited by the Sri Chinmoy Oneness-Home Peace Run in 2015. The Principal loves the Peace Run so much he invited anyone from the Peace Run who visits South Africa to come to his school and speak to the students. He was thrilled to hear Abhejali was coming to do the Robben Island swim, and jumped at the chance for the students to hear the motivation behind her long-distance open-water swimming.

The students congregated after lunch, loudly talking and giggling as they arrived. However when we started chatting with them before the talk, they fell silent, and shushed each new group of students arriving, so as not to miss a word. Abhejali spoke for about half an hour, showed videos of her swims and answered many questions. As the students made their way back to class, some hung back to talk some more with us. When they saw the Principal they quickly turned to leave, but he was happy they wanted to ask more questions; he told them they could stay and speak with us for as long as they liked. Students told us what they had learned from her talk: never give up; go after your dreams; nothing is impossible.