Athletic Programs
In 1977 the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team was founded, which holds running, swimming, and cycling events worldwide, from fun runs to ultramarathons. Its precursor was the 1976 Liberty Torch Run, a relay in which 33 runners marked America’s bicentennial by covering 8,800 miles in 7 weeks, mapped out over 50 states. This concept was expanded in 1987 to become the Sri Chinmoy Oneness-Home Peace Run (later renamed World Harmony Run), generally held every two years. The first Peace Run was launched in April 1987 at the World Trade Center in New York City.
In 1985, Sri Chinmoy, with the then Mayor of Oxford, inaugurated the first "Sri Chinmoy Peace Mile", which is a measured mile in Cutteslowe Park, Oxford giving joggers something against which to measure their progress. There are now numerous "Peace Miles" around the world.
Many of Sri Chinmoy’s followers run daily for health and physical fitness. Sri Chinmoy himself continued to enter races until his 1960s when a knee injury hampered his ability to run; afterwards he turned his attention to tennis and weightlifting.
Other programs founded by Chinmoy include the Self-Transcendence 6 & 10 day and the Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race, described by the New York Times as the "Mount Everest of ultramarathons".
Read more about this topic: Sri Chinmoy
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