Ultra runner Eoin Keith has won the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence Six-Day run held in Flushing Meadows, New York.
From the start at midday on Wednesday, April 23, Keith lead the race. He ran 123 miles on his first day, well clear of Galya Balayskyy with 108 miles and Dipali Cunningham, the first woman, who ran 102 miles.
He then played a steady game, running 94 miles on day 2, 79 miles on day 3, 89 miles on day 4, 73 miles on day five and stopping when he reached his goal of 500 miles after running 42 miles. He then went off and had a long shower while awaiting the official end of the race at 12 noon yesterday.
Finishing second overall was the remarkable Cunningham, a 55-year-old Australian who lives in New York and is a disciple of Sri Chinmoy for over 30 years.
She ran her first multi-day event in 1991 and had never stopped. In 1993, she won a 1,000m mile race, finishing in 15 days 1 hours 52 minutes 2 seconds. She set a world best of 51.3 miles for the 6-day in 2009 at the age of 51. She has won this event outright more than once since it was first held in 1998 and on this occasion, ran a total of 475 miles.
Second man was Balatskyy with 453 miles, while third was John Geesler – an old rival of Tony Mangan’s- on 422 miles The world record of 643 miles was set in Australia by the Greek runner Yiannis Kuoros – the greatest ultra runner of all time – at the age of 49 in 2005.
The race took in a flat, scenic one-mile loop of the park. In other words, Eoin Keith ran 500 mile laps for his victory and admits he found it mentally very tough indeed. To give this some perspective, the entire length of Ireland from Malin to Mizen is 365 miles. For your 500 miles, you could also take a fair stab at the 605 mile distance between Land’s End and John O’Groats on our neighbouring isle. Maybe next time, Eoin?
Well done by the way!
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