I looked at the website for the Chicago lakefront 50/50 and it seems they will now have a certified Marathon at the same time, with a limit of 200 runners. This could mean that there will be around 400 runners out there this weekend, which of course means that we will not get lonely. Everything seems to be going well as far as my preparation goes, I just have to go out there and enjoy myself. I will give a report on the race when I get back.

It is Sunday and time for Utpal and I to go for our usual morning run. Running has the ability to heal and that is exactly what we needed at this time. We ran about 9 miles ( 15k ) on a beautiful sunny morning with blue skies. It is 6 days to my race in Chicago and I have to say I feel ready to do the race. Back in May a friend died just as I was about to run a 50k race and I dedicated that race to him, now I have the opportunity to do the same thing in Chicago. I feel truly blessed.

I was fortunate to attend the very moving memorial for Sri Chinmoy yesterday October 14th.It was both a sad occasion and a joyful one.There were several traditional ceremonies. many guests that were in attendance offered tribute and remembrances. Over 1000 of his students along with the various guests closed the service by offering a rose as they walked past the open casket. His inspiration continues to grow in the hearts of everyone of us.

I was fortunate to attend the very moving memorial for Sri Chinmoy yesterday October 14th.

Yesterday Spiritual Teacher Sri Chinmoy died. He was my teacher and the biggest inspiration and source of encouragement for all my running. For the last 34 years I have tried to honour that inspiration whenever I run a race, I will continue to do this in his memory. This is all I have to say at the moment.

Well things seemed a lot better today. First of all the weather is quite warm here in New York for this time of the year. This meant that it was T shirt and shorts for my Sunday morning run. We decided to go out to Flushing Meadow and run out by the tennis center, by running this with an easy pace it became a 2 hour run.After the problems I had with my sciatica last week it was really nice running and feeling quite loose. If all goes well I can spend the next 2 weeks putting in some decent miles in preparation for Chicago. I am not sure what will happen with the 6 hour next weekend and will wait on Ray K to see what he is going to do. He had a pretty easy 24 hour last weekend running just 76 miles. Have to see what he says. Anyway I am really happy that I feel better.

After I got back from the 24 hour in Ottawa I felt really good. The next 2 Saturday's I ran some fast(for me ) 2 mile races and my recovery seemed good. Then things changed a little, it started with an ankle problem then a a stomach bug and finally sciatica. Sometimes we get all excited about running more and more, but the body decides to slow us down. I have a 50k race coming up and wanted to do some serious training, but I think what I really need is to fully recover. When I look back I can see that I have done quite a lot, since July I have run 2 24 hour races and a Marathon, then I started running fast 2 mile races. Finally my wisdom has caught up with me and made me realize that I need to take it easy between long races, if I don't my body will stop me. Anyway I have 3 weeks before the 50k in Chicago, I have to slowly let myself build up to it I have the training mileage in the races I've done, so I just have to let it happen.