Preliminary Visions – Prelude to a Multi-day

Personal statistics: 142 days until Heartland Prairie. Lesson 181 in ACIM workbook. Yesterday, I was false positive for a second birthday this year. What? Ok, I don't know how it could happen, but they announced my name and birthday on the local radio; so all day at work, people were saying happy birthday. But it wasn't my birthday! There is someone else with my name here in this dinky town? No one with my last name in the phone book, but there could be a student.

Well, today after work vacation starts. “Spirit Flower,” they ask, “Where are you going on your vacation?” “Running,” she says. I know my legs will hurt.

Outside of “training for an ultra,” why do a personal, 5 day multi-day?

1. I’ll probably never go to a real multi-day.
2. It is my Suprabha Beckjord imitation.
3. I want to have an experience.
4. A new pair of Sahara shorts will be delivered to my house tomorrow.
5. I can.

Thoughts on Training by Satyajit Saha

“Self-transcendence is the essence; the quintessential core of what multiday running is about. During a multiday transcendence event all the trivial nagging minute forces of human frustration and sorrow that dog mundane, habitual living melt away and dissolve in the one-pointed focus and mission of covering at least one more mile before taking pause, or giving in. The struggle of running becomes the sole mission, the all-consuming purpose of the runners’ consciousness. The runners’ consciousness becomes clear, uncluttered and untrammeled in its singleness of purpose. Just run one more lap. One more lap. One more lap. Nothing else matters. The body aches, the nervous system is taxed to its limit. But the mind is clear. The heart is clear. There is nothing to prove to anyone. No place else to be. No bonds, no cares, no worries. Just run, or walk, and be free. The rest of the world takes care of itself. Just run one more lap.

It seems to me that the other runners feel this and commune with this Spirit which percolates through the struggles of each. It is unspoken, but the runners know”

First of all, running a personal multi-day is not the same as running a race. There is no claim on finishing. No experience of camaraderie with others. There is no guide book detailing the satisfactions. It does not prove anything. It is done in silence. I will be a solitary person rounding a hilly 2 mile loop, walking and jogging, and going home to re-stock every few hours.

This a time of extreme joy; yet discerned in subtleties. It is not for training; but more for prayer. There is not really a goal, only a mentality: just a little more time, one more lap. It is an environment of infinite existence. It is a place and space to merely be.

Only someone who has considered this as a real possibility would “get” the idea of why I do this. The nuns don’t understand why I am not happy to stay there and do liturgy with them. The people at work don’t understand why I don’t do something sensible like shopping or a trip to the boat. Some people think I am doing something impressive or extra-ordinary.

What do I think I am doing? Ultimate contemplation, the darkness of unreflected light.