3100: Run and Become

What would you do to transform your life? How far would you go for a metamorphosis? Would you drive, would you fly, would you run?

The most elusive, elite multi-day race in the world, the Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race, takes place in Queens, New York City each summer. This race is held around one square sidewalk block (0.56 miles) and requires at least 59 miles a day for 52 straight days to complete the event.

The Race promises personal expansion and, indeed, participants come from around the world to shatter their limitations and discover a deeper sense of self. At the same time, the act of running to transform oneself is as old as time. Ancient man and woman ran not just for survival, but to connect with Nature and the Divine.

We follow Aspirants of the Highest from three cultures whose own narratives parallel that of two 3100 Mile Runners – a diminutive paperboy from Finland, Ashprihanal Aalto, and a female cellist from Austria, Shamita Achenbach-Koenig. These three heroic Aspirants (Shaun Martin-Navajo, Gaolo-San Bushmen, Gyoman-san-Monks of Mt. Hiei Japan) run not for glory but for spiritual enlightenment, universal oneness or because they simply have the responsibility to run.