Section 1

Greg Meyer: Why Do I Get More...

Greg Meyer: Why do I get more satisfaction from training than from racing?

You get more satisfaction from your training than from your racing because when you train, you have more oneness with your inner life, which embodies infinite satisfaction. When you race, you are competing with others because you want to defeat them. The challenging spirit that comes in competition quite often suffers from anxiety, worry, doubt, hesitation and despair. When you are just practising, however, you are performing before the most intimate members of your family—your body, vital, mind, heart and soul. In fact, these intimate members of your own being are practising and performing with you, in you and for you. It is totally a family entertainment.

While practising, you are consciously working to transcend your capacities. At that time, you are listening to the message of the ever-transcending Beyond, and this message itself is complete satisfaction. But when you compete against others, you are more concerned with victory than with self-transcendence. Naturally, at that time hesitation, anxiety and doubt have a free access to your heart and mind, and you do not and cannot have satisfaction.

But when you practise, you and your aspiration, you and your dedication, you and your eagerness to increase your capacities work together for your improvement and perfection. And from improvement and perfection, you are bound to get abiding satisfaction.

Because of the feeling of separativity in the mind, we may get fleeting satisfaction when we defeat others. Your supremacy in the Boston Marathon this year, for example, undoubtedly gave you tremendous satisfaction. But perhaps quite a few times during your practice you have had more illumining and more fulfilling satisfaction, for practice carries the message of oneness and self-transcendence, whereas competition carries the message of division and supremacy.

Greg Meyer has held the American record for 15k, 10 miles and 20k. His most famous accomplishment was winning the 1983 Boston Marathon in 2:09:00, which at the time was the third fastest in the long history of that race.

Craig Virgin: How Do I Cope With...

Craig Virgin: How do I cope with the pressures of winning or, on the other hand, the disappointment of losing in a sports competition?

You can cope with the pressures of winning if, a few days before the race or even just before the start, you can imagine the pleasure of rejoicing in your victory. Imagination is not wishful thinking; it is not a baseless reality. Imagination is reality itself in another world. We bring it down to this world the way we bring down fruits from a tree.

To cope with the disappointment of losing, you have to ask yourself whether the mind is disappointed or the heart is disappointed. You will come to realise that it is your mind that is disappointed and not your heart. The mind creates division; the mind is division itself, and division is another name for pain, devastating pain. The heart, on the other hand, creates oneness; in fact, the heart is oneness itself, and oneness is another name for joy, spontaneous joy. When you live in your heart, even if your worst rival wins the race, you will not feel miserable. To your wide surprise, you will find that his joy quite unconsciously and unexpectedly will enter into you and widen your heart. Then you will feel almost the same joy that the winner feels.

It was your heart that was speaking in and through these illumining utterances of yours: "Running is the people's sport. When was the last time the average person played ball with Reggie Jackson? Yet millions of people run in the same races and rub elbows with the top runners. In what other sport can the average player run the same course and go through the same trials as the top stars?"

You have already established yourself as a supreme runner. No matter how many races you lose from now on, even if you lose every race (which is absurdity on the face of it), no disappointment on earth will dare to challenge the flood of joy that you have received from and offered to the world running community as a result of the innumerable races that you have won in a variety of distances.

Some good runners, unfortunately, are not sharp. In your case, you are sharp, very sharp; bright, very bright; quick, very quick. And something quite rare in the running world—you have intuition. Your intuitive faculties remarkably add to your success in racing. To our great joy and satisfaction, your body, vital, mind and heart speedily and breathlessly follow your intuitive flashes. You have brought considerable name and fame to America, your beloved country. For that, America's great speed is richly proud of you and America's deep pride is unmistakably grateful to you.

Craig Virgin has the distinction of being the only American ever to win the World Cross-Country Championship, with back-to-back wins in 1980 and 1981. A fine track and road racer as well, Craig dominated his sport in the USA in the early 1980s. His personal best in the marathon, 2:10:26, gave him a second place finish in the 1981 Boston Marathon.

John Dimick: What Should A Good Runner...

John Dimick: What should a good runner do when he finds that the pressures of his family, community and job mean he cannot train at high mileage or undertake frequent racing?

In order to become such an excellent runner, you have already made a great many sacrifices in terms of expending time and energy and giving up the comfortable, pleasure-loving world. Now, if you go one step ahead and train at high mileage or undertake frequent racing, you may lose your job, but you will not lose your family or community, to be sure. As a result of your tremendous successes, the temporary pressures you have to undergo from the members of your family will all be transformed into innocent and enriching treasures. And there is every possibility that you will get a better job at a higher salary because of your greater successes.

You are a superb runner. For you the hour has struck. Those who are even unconsciously stand ing in your way will one day cheerfully and unreservedly support you. Please feel that you have already started a race. Now your only aim is to reach the goal, no matter how many obstacles you have to surmount on the way. Your victory will ultimately be the victory of your dear ones and also the victory of the world running community.

It is my earnest request to you that you practise as many miles as you want and run as many races as you want. When the pressures you now face are transformed into treasures, not only your dear ones but also all and sundry will deeply value and gratefully enjoy them.

John Dimick ran 2:11:53 to win the New Orleans Marathon in 1979 and took second place in the 1981 Copenhagen Marathon with a time of 2:15.

Dick Beardsley: Recently I Ran A 2:08:53...

Dick Beardsley: Recently I ran a 2:08:53 marathon with primarily a road-racing background. Would it improve my chances of making the 1984 Olympic marathon team if I partake in training and racing the 10,000 metres on the track? If I get the speed down in 10,000 metres, will I run a faster marathon?

Definitely you will improve your marathon time if you run 10,000 metres on the track. Running is a physical subject, a mental subject, a philosophical subject and a subject of the Beyond. In the physical aspect, nobody will be able to tell you more than you already know. In the mental aspect, if you become used to running shorter distances, it can really help you.

When you are running a marathon, mentally try to feel that you are running only thirteen miles rather than twenty-six miles. If you can convince the mind of this fact, and if the mind can convince the body that it is running only thirteen miles and not twenty-six miles, then it will be a great advantage for you. This is not a mental hallucination. A new discovery has dawned in the mind and the mind is passing it along to the body. Both the mind and the body will have to act together in order to reach the ultimate goal.

In the philosophical aspect, you have to feel that your problems are as insignificant as ants and pay no attention to them. You have had problems with cows, dogs, puddles and road hazards of all kinds. You should take these problems philosophically. Although these things are extremely unfortunate and discouraging for a great runner like you, you have to feel that they are almost part and parcel of a runner's life. If you can see them in this way, then when discouragement and temporary lack of enthusiasm attack you, you can easily, successfully and fruitfully overcome these obstacles on the way to your sublime goal.

Finally, if you can think that through your running you are doing something that has a direct connection with the ever-transcending Beyond, which is far beyond the domain of the earth-bound physical mind, then you will get tremendous inspiration. This inspiration embodies added strength, added joy and an added sense of satisfaction. In your case, if you can consciously think of another world—which we call 'the Beyond'—if you can add another vista or dimension to your already surprising approach to running, then you are bound to be more successful.

In your case, it seems to me that mentally you are not confident of your fastest speed. Either because of your own personal experience or because of ideas that others have thrust upon you, you feel that you do not possess extraordinary speed—specially towards the end of a race when speed is badly required.

To get rid of this absurd notion for good, twice a week try to run between thirty and fifty metres as fast as possible, at intervals of a minute or even longer, for twenty-five or thirty consecutive times. Your mind will all of a sudden be fully awakened to a new discovery of your own speed, which has all along been unnoticed, if not ignored. This mental discovery will help you considerably.

Kindly try this new method and the other suggestions that I have offered. Although you are a great runner, you still have not yet reached your highest potential. Your world-surprising potential is ahead of you and beckoning you.

Dick Beardsley won the Grandma's Marathon in Minnesota in 1980 in 2:09:36 and the London Marathon, a tie, in 2:11. His best marathon time was in 1982 when he duelled with Alberto Salazar in Boston. Ahead of Salazar through the latter stages of the race, Dick traded surges and then sprints during the last mile. Finally, Salazar won out with a 2:08:52 to 2:08:53 for Dick, whose time was the fourth fastest ever recorded for the marathon and the fastest non-winning time in history.

Rod Dixon: Am I Being Reasonable To...

Rod Dixon: Am I being reasonable to expect my family to understand my physical urge to pursue my running life? I want to please my family, yet I also want to please my running career.

You are a great runner. Already you have achieved astonishing glories in your running career. In order to achieve such sublime heights in the running world, you have made tremendous sacrifices, and the members of your family also have made tremendous sacrifices. This kind of mutual sacrifice is in no way an indication of your negligence towards your family. In the course of thinking of the ultimate or meditating on the ultimate, along the way you make apparent sacrifices. You have to know that eventually these sacrifices themselves will become a source of illumining satisfaction or they will pale into insignificance when you are repeatedly crowned with Himalayan success.

With their human hearts, the members of your immediate family want to possess you and have you all the time around them. Your affection and love for them and their affection and love for you mean everything to them. Perhaps your running laurels are secondary to them. But again, these same members of your family each have a divine heart. Unlike the human heart, which wants to possess and be possessed, the divine heart wants only to give of itself, widen itself, receive the vast world and be received by the vast world. These are the messages that the divine heart receives from the higher worlds and offers to the outer world at large.

Those who live in the divine heart are meant for the whole world. The messages that this heart gives them they do not keep secretly and sacredly inside their immediate family. No, they offer these messages to all of humanity. So if any want to possess you or want to claim you as their own, very own, they should try to live in the divine heart, just as you are doing.

If you and also the members of your immediate family can all live in the divine heart, then your commitment to your dear ones and their full understanding of what you were, what you are and what you are going to become will eventually and unmistakably bring boundless joy and boundless satisfaction to you and also to them.

You come from New Zealand and you now live in America. Like the members of your family, New Zealand may think that it has lost you. But if we look at the truth from a new angle, then we see that, like the members of your family, your country does not actually lose you when you go abroad to run. The way the members of your family have offered you to the world at large, to be claimed by the entire world, New Zealand also has offered you to the world. Yet it can and does still claim your astounding triumphs as its own, very own.

Not only are you bringing tremendous glory to your beloved country, New Zealand, but you are also bringing glory to America and to the entire world. Nobody loses anything. All of us only gain—not only for our personal selves or for the members of our immediate families, but also for the community of nations, for the entire world.

When we use our wisdom-light, we illumine our ignorance-night and add abiding satisfaction to our own small worlds and also to the vast world that is around us.

Rod Dixon was ranked first in the world in 1979 in 5,000m and 2 miles. He received a bronze medal in the 1972 Olympics (1,500m) and fourth place in the 1976 Olympics (5,000m). He won six major races during 1982, including the Bay to Breakers 7.6-mile race, the Auckland Marathon, the Pepsi 10k Nationals and the Pepsi Challenge 10k. Rod went on to win the New York City Marathon in 1983 in a close duel with Geoff Smith. His time of 2:08:59 still ranks as the fastest time by a New Zealander.

Eamonn Coghlan: Given An Olympic Final, When...

Eamonn Coghlan: Given an Olympic final, when ten competitors are lined up in the race, and all are 100 per cent physically fit and prepared, what does it take for one runner to win over the others?

Suppose there are ten runners. They are all ready for the race and they have practically the same capacity. It is not just a matter of luck as to who wins. There are two ways to become the winner. One way is to concentrate on each runner and, like a magnet, draw into oneself the will-power that each one has. In that way, you empty the other runners of their will-power or life-energy. This is called sheer determination-power. The determination-lion devours the weaker animals.

The other way is to identify oneself with the sources of the fastest speed and endurance. Here one consciously becomes one with the higher realities that are invisible, yet infinitely faster and stronger than the outer realities or, let us say, outer capacities. If a runner is a conscious truth-seeker and God-lover, then he will adopt the inner way and not the outer way. The outer way is the way of the lion: roaring and devouring the rivals.

Sometimes inspiration, encouragement and determination can come not only from one's fans, but also from a departed soul. In your case, after your father left the body, on the one hand you were stricken with grief. On the other hand, you have to know that definitely his soul has considerably helped you to add substantially solid glory to your already immortal glory.

Eamonn Coghlan, nicknamed the 'Chairman of the Boards', held the world indoor best for the mile at 3:49 for many years. He won the prestigious Wannemaker Mile seven times at New York's Millrose Games. He placed fourth in the 1980 Olympics in 5,000m and fourth in the 1976 Olympics in 1,500m. In 1987 he won the World Championship 5,000m race in Rome. A crowd favourite in New York running circles, Eamonn once ran the New York Marathon to experience a long race with a lot of other people alongside. He still competes in Masters events.

Don Kardong: Why Do You Think That...

Don Kardong: Why do you think that runners often are able to achieve a meditative state while running?

Concentration, meditation and contemplation are three members of the same family. When a runner focuses all his attention on a particular race, he is in a position to free his mind, liberate his mind, from uncomely distractions. Here one-pointed concentration is the pathfinder for a deeper meditative consciousness. Your personal experiences are in perfect harmony with the experiences of a seeker-runner.

What Role Should Competition Play In One's...

What role should competition play in one's running?

If the runner is a seeker, then he has a special role. His role is to compete with himself and try to increase his own capacity. But he has to know that he will increase his capacity only by virtue of the infinite Grace of God, if so is the Will of God. So the seeker-runner will try to consciously surrender to the Will of God during his running career.

If the runner is not a seeker, his aim is immediate success and the immediate manifestation of his unparalleled supremacy. He wants to defeat all his rivals mercilessly and, like Julius Caesar, to declare, "I came, I saw, I conquered."

Don Kardong finished fourth in the 1976 Olympic Marathon in 2:11:16 and won the 1978 Honolulu Marathon in 2:17:04. For many years he won or placed high at the Bloomsday Race in Washington State, and later organized it and made the race into a mega-attraction for runners in the Northwest. He is currently President of the Road Runners Club of America and has written many articles about running and training for magazines and other publications, including Runners World, Footnotes and Running Times.

Mike Spino: If Higher States Of Consciousness...

Mike Spino: If higher states of consciousness are possible when running, will this always result in superlative performances? Can there be a poor performance and a gain in the life quest? If so, how can this be recognised?

It is not guaranteed that if one is in a high state of consciousness, one will perform extremely well. Sixteen thousand runners ran in this year's New York Marathon. I do not want to brag, but I do not think that ten or eleven thousand of them had a higher consciousness than the poor runner in me; but they still defeated me. So capacity is of paramount importance. But along with capacity, if one can invoke a higher consciousness, then one is likely to do very well. Again, we have to know that an increase in capacity comes quite often not only from regular training but also from the descent of Grace, which is part and parcel of a higher consciousness.

In Our Last Meeting I Was Fortunate...

In our last meeting I was fortunate to have you observe a film of the late Percy Cerutty demonstrating his canter and gallop techniques. You made insightful commentary on the nature of his spirit as it related to this late phase of his life. Could you elaborate further?

First of all, I wish to tell you that your article on the great Australian coach Percy Cerutty is most remarkable. I had read Cerutty's famous book and I learned much about running. But I did not know much about the man. Your article made it clearer to me how he wanted people to run and also told me a lot about Cerutty, the real man.

When I observed your simple but moving and soulful film of Cerutty in the evening of his life, I saw an unusually indomitable spirit encaged in a lean earthly frame. To me, it seems that the power aspect of Cerutty came more to the fore than his compassion and love aspect. Some took him to be an eccentric while others admired him for his staunch belief in people's inner and hidden capacities. To me, he was neither a lunatic nor a fanatic. I found him to be uniquely dynamic. But this dynamism of his was sadly misunderstood by many critics.

America Is Seeking A Form Of An...

America is seeking a form of an Olympic training centre, yet the American lifestyle negates the use of any mental training that is larger than biofeedback or personality inventory. As a university coach seeking a mental training technique with objective timings, how does one balance the objectives of a programme? Is it a 'given' that as we seek dual purposes of spirituality and performance, we will remain an iconoclast, understood by only a small circle and questioning our own methods?

It is quite likely that you will be understood by only a small circle because most runners are either unaware of the inner realities or are apt to feel that the inner realities cannot be manifested in the outer world. The inner realities are for the inner world; the outer realities are for the outer world: this is what they think. But no, the inner realities, meaning the inner capacities, must be executed on the outer plane. The seed must germinate; it has to grow into a plant and then into a huge banyan tree.

I Have Experimented With Moving Visualisations In...

I have experimented with moving visualisations in an attempt to transfer 'sitting awareness' to running consciousness. What suggestions can you make for this transfer, and is sitting a necessary prerequisite for the development of elated running consciousness?

Always think that you are standing in front of the sea. The surface of the sea is very dynamic; it is all waves and surges. But the bottom of the sea is all calmness and peace. You can identify yourself with the surface of the sea and also with its depths. Similarly, you can identify with both the outer world and the inner world. While looking at the outer life, you see dynamism and speed. But even while you are looking at the outer life you can dive into the inner life, where it is all peace and inner poise. If you dive within and become inseparably one with inner peace, then easily you can bring inner peace to the fore so that it inundates your outer life.

'Sitting awareness' is stillness, calmness, quietness, while the running consciousness is all dynamism. Again, the runner's outer speed has a special kind of poise or stillness at its very heart. A plane travels very fast, yet inside the plane we feel no movement at all. It is all tranquillity, all peace, and this inner tranquillity we can bring to our outer life. The outer life, the outer movement, can be successful only when it comes from inner poise. If there is no poise, then there can be no successful outer movement. Poise is an unseen power, and this unseen power is always ready to come to the aid of the outer runner.

Mike Spino was formerly a track coach at the University of Georgia and at Esalen Institute in California. He is the author of a number of books on running, including Beyond Jogging and The Zen of Running, and has offered new techniques of concentration, meditation and visualisation to help athletes attain their potential.

Gary Fanelli: Sometimes When I Am Racing,...

Gary Fanelli: Sometimes when I am racing, I ask myself, "What am I doing here, beating my brains and body out?" I've had some injuries, but I continue racing. What is the best attitude toward this?

Dear Gary, you are an excellent runner. When you run fast, please try to feel that your speed itself is a great success. Try to feel that through your success in running, humanity is taking one step forward in its march towards its ever-transcending goal.

You are an American. Americans take life as a challenge from the cradle to the grave. When you run, you are challenging yourself and nobody else. When you work very hard in your running and get severe injuries, you should try to have a divine attitude. Try to feel that the constant increase in your capacity to endure pain is of paramount importance. When you increase your capacities, automatically you establish a glowing hope and a soaring promise for your fellow runners all over the world.

Gary Fanelli has been dubbed 'the Clown Prince' of road running. He is the first American to win the Umbria, Italy 60-mile, 6-day race (1982) and has won numerous US races as well, including the 1980 Philadelphia 10k, in which second and third places went to Bill Rodgers and Rod Dixon. Also a respectable half-marathoner (1:03:58) and marathoner (2:14), Gary is more known for his antics of running a marathon dressed up in a suit or other costume. He would often run at the head of a pack of fast runners in a serious competition or set a blistering pace as a rabbit for 10 or 15 miles.

Cahit Yeter: After Averaging Nearly 7, 000...

Cahit Yeter: After averaging nearly 7,000 miles over the past three years, I believe I have satisfied my thirst for very long, long runs. Meanwhile, I am still entering many long races. Most of the time, winning itself does not come into my mind, but sometimes I think of running beyond the records most other men have run. I'd like to know, since winning is everything in America and I am part of it, why I have lost my desire to win.

My dear brother-friend, you are an ultramarathoner par excellence. You have covered thousands and thousands of miles in the past few years. You have also given us, your dear friends, boundless joy. It is true that winning is everything in America. Again, you have to know that there are two kinds of races: the outer race and the inner race. There are also two kinds of desire: the outer desire and the inner desire, which we call aspiration. The outer desire says, "Run, reach, then smile." The inner desire says, "Smile and run, run and smile. The goal is nowhere else save and except in smiling and running, and running and smiling."

You have won an amazing number of races on the strength of your outer desire. Now aspiration, the inner desire, has come to the fore. It wants to play its role most significantly in you, just as the outer desire has played its role over the years. Until now you have exercised your outer desire to conquer the world and show what you possess in order to draw the world's attention and admiration. You are now trying to exercise your inner desire to show the world what you have to offer for the world's improvement, which is an intrinsic part of your own improvement. Previously you wanted victory for your own satisfaction, and that victory you achieved by defeating others. Now you want the victory that comes from the satisfaction of establishing oneness, genuine oneness, with others.

A radiant example of your oneness we saw recently when you ran in our Sri Chinmoy Marathon held in New York. Out of your loving, sympathetic oneness-heart you asked that your prize be given to the runner who came in last. Such is your feeling for your fellow runners! For you, they are like members of your own family. As the older one, who is more experienced, you encourage the younger ones to come forward by spreading your joy and satisfaction all around. Fortunately or unfortunately, one of the members of our Team stood last, and she was deeply moved to receive your trophy.

A prolific racer and marathoner, Cahit Yeter once ran 2:13 for the marathon in his native Turkey. Later emigrating to the USA, he began a resurgence in his running after an accident had severely damaged his legs. At age 44 he ran 2:26 at the Boston Marathon. In 1981 he ran 155+ miles in a Sri Chinmoy 24-hour race, setting a North American record. He later set a Masters record for 100 miles on the road (13:33) which stood for several years. He also ran 468 miles in the New York Six-Day Race in 1984.

Mary Slaney (formerly Decker-Tabb): It Is Known...

Mary Slaney (formerly Decker-Tabb): It is known that some female athletes, because of drugs, have a chemical advantage over their competitors. How can a natural athlete, such as myself, justify the use of world rankings, knowing that other athletes using drugs are consistently ranked higher than so-called natural athletes?

Sometimes it is good and necessary to know what others are doing. If one is a runner, this can encourage one's competitive spirit. Again, sometimes it is a great hindrance when we know what others are doing. It puzzles us and, at the same time, we have no inclination to adopt their methods. In cases like this, it is always good to depend on one's own natural ability.

Nature embodies the cosmic energy. This cosmic energy is infinitely stronger than any man-made chemicals. This energy comes from the ultimate Source and it leads us to the ultimate Source while fulfilling and satisfying us along the way. Chemi cals and other artificial things will ultimately fail, for they are unnatural. Anything that is unnatural is like a balloon. For a while it will dazzle us and puzzle our human mind, but eventually it will burst.

One of my poems speaks about naturalness. It says:

Live in naturalness

If you want to grow

Into the fulness

Of God's Vision-Reality.

Stay with your natural ability. Already you are a radiant example of nature's unquestionable supremacy over the so-called chemical miracles. You have been chosen as the US Athlete of the Year. You can definitely bring high, higher and highest glories in the running world not only to your beloved country, America, but to all mankind.

Mary Slaney set her first national junior mark in 1974 at 800 metres (2:01.8) as a high school student, a record which still stands. Her stellar career has lasted over 20 years. She still holds American outdoor records for 1,500m (3:57.12), set in 1983; one mile (4:16.71), set in 1985; 2,000m (5:32.7), set in 1984; and 3,000m (8:25.83), set in 1985. Her still-standing indoor American records are: 1,000m (2:37.6), set in 1989; 1,500m (4:00.8), set in 1980; and one mile (4:20.5), set in 1982. She won an exciting World Championships 1,500m gold medal in 1983. She has been a member of three Olympic teams.