A misty Centennial Park as runners queue to register
These races are great fun. Very simply organised, well run, cheap to enter and topped off with free pancakes and fruit at the finish.
The next race is on Sunday 10th May at Iron Cove (The Bay).
Results
4km
Cheri (kb) 30:34
8km
Adam (Tick Tock) 34:40
Tarn 1:02:31
Kerry 40:34
Toni 48:44
Here is a bit about Sri Chinmoy the man:
Born Chinmoy Kumar Ghose in the small village of Shakpura in East Bengal (now Bangladesh) in 1931, Sri Chinmoy was the youngest of seven children. In 1944, after both his parents had passed away, 12 year-old Chinmoy entered the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, a spiritual community near Pondicherry in South India. Here he spent the next 20 years in spiritual practice - including long hours of meditation, practising athletics, writing poetry, essays and spiritual songs.
In his early teens, Chinmoy had many profound inner experiences, and in subsequent years achieved very advanced states of meditation. In 1964, he moved to New York City to share his inner wealth with sincere seekers in the West.
Sri Chinmoy sees aspiration - the heart's ceaseless yearning for ever higher and deeper realities - as the spiritual force behind all great advances in religion, culture, sports and science. By living in the heart and aspiring for continual self-transcendence, men and women can bring forward the best in themselves and find their path to true satisfaction. In his words:
"Our goal is to go from bright to brighter to brightest, from high to higher to highest. And even in the highest, there is no end to our progress, for God Himself is inside each of us and God at every moment is transcending His own Reality."
Sri Chinmoy serves as spiritual guide to students in some 60 countries around the world, encouraging a balanced lifestyle that incorporates the inner disciplines of prayer and meditation with the dynamism of contemporary life.
Sri Chinmoy's life was an expression of boundless creativity. His vast output spans the domains of music, poetry, painting, literature and sports. His contributions in each of these fields have been striking and far-reaching.
Sri Chinmoy frequently travelled throughout the world to offer free concerts, lectures and public meditations, to meet with his students, and to meet and discuss spirituality with world and community leaders. Sri Chinmoy did not charge a fee for his spiritual guidance, concerts, lectures and public meditations.
Sri Chinmoy entered Mahasamadhi - the mystic process through which spiritual Masters leave the body, on the morning of 11 October 2007.
And a bit about Sri Chinmoy the sportsman:
Sri Chinmoy was an avid sportsman from his youth and throughout his life. In the spiritual community where he grew up, he excelled in soccer and volleyball, and was the top-ranked sprinter. During his late teens he was also a decathlon champion.
In the 1970s and 1980s, he was an active long-distance runner, completing many marathons, ultra-marathons and shorter races. For many years he played tennis almost every day, and frequently competed in track-and-field events in Masters Games, including the World Masters Games in Puerto Rico in 1983, and the World Veterans Games in Miyazaki, Japan in 1993. He took up weight-lifting in the mid-1980s and over the years set several records in the calf-raise and one-arm lift.
Sri Chinmoy believed that a balanced lifestyle fosters harmony and inner peace. His integral approach to life encourages physical fitness and sports as a vehicle for personal transformation.
"There are countless people on earth who do not believe in the inner strength or inner life. They feel that the outer life is everything. I do not agree with them," he says. "There is an inner life; there is spirit, and my ability to lift heavy weights proves that it can work in matter as well. I am doing these lifts with the physical body, but the power is coming from an inner source, from my prayer and meditation."
Sri Chinmoy practised sports not only for the joy of it, and to keep the body fit, but also because he saw sports as a natural vehicle for expressing his philosophy of self-transcendence. Inspired by his example, several of his students have attempted to stretch their own personal limits - setting new world records in various fields, running multi-day races, swimming the English channel and climbing some of the world's highest mountains.
He established the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team, which annually presents hundreds of events and races around the world.
Ironman next weekend
Probably the biggest event on the triathlon calandar is on next weekend (Sunday 5th April) at Port Macquarie. It is, of course, Ironman Oz.
Balance Tri Club has 16 competitors who have trained long and hard for this huge event. So if you aren't heading up to Port as a supporter keep an eye on the Ironman live website to see all the action as it happens.
The Ironman athletes + baby Sam
Balance Ironman Competitors:
Alisa Wells
Ben Howard - Salty
Dallas Locke - Ice
David Bolt - Shot'is
Jacqui Webster - Lubey
Jonathan Fletcher - Fletch
Karin Kaehne - Aunty Karin
Ken Walker
Koppo Kopcikas - Koppo
Mark Brentnall - Gooey
Matty Clarke - Coolio
Millie Herzberg
Rob Lutz - Helmet
Scott Aliprandi - 2 Dogs
Tim Britton - Chopsticks
Dileen De Silva - Dilly
