The Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team don't organise any formal races for the public in Ireland, but we do have an informal 2-mile fun run amongst ourselves most Saturdays, and anyone is welcome to join! If you are interested, you can leave an enquiry on our contact form at the Sri Chinmoy Centre site .
We have members all over the world - as well as organising races, many of us are athletes. For example, Samunnati Nataliya Lehonkova from the Ukraine has won the Dublin Marathon twice, and also the Belfast and Edinburgh.
Samunnati finishing the Dublin Marathon in 2017
The Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team also organises some of the world's most challenging endurance events, including the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race - the world's longest certified road race. Nirbhasa Magee from the Irish Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team has completed the race twice, in 2015 and in 2017. In this video (taken before his first race in 2015) he is talking to fellow 3100 Mile Runner Grahak Cunningham about the race.
Interestingly the very first winner of the 3100 Mile Race, Ed Kelley, is an American of Irish descent....
However, most of us are not excellent athletes, and we participate in sports to keep fit and to get joy from pushing our own boundaries. The founder of the Marathon Team, Sri Chinmoy, pioneered the concept of self-transcendence - that people get satisfaction not from competing with others, but with their own capacities.
"One thing that everybody agrees upon is that everyone knows he has to make progress. Progress is self-transcendence and self-transcendence is undoubtedly true perfection. According to me, perfection is self-transcendence, perfection is constant progress which is always transcending itself. Otherwise, if I say that this is perfection, you will say no, something else is perfection. So there will be no end to our dispute. My perfection need not be your perfection, but my self-transcendence will always give me satisfaction and your self-transcendence will always give you satisfaction." - Sri Chinmoy
