Interview: 5000K race winner Grahak Cunningham

Under oppressive the heat and humidity of a New York summer, Grahak Cunningham won the 2012 Self Transcendence 3100 Mile Race, which is the world’s longest footrace. But what makes 4989K event extreme isn’t the 51 days it takes to complete, or the 150+K per day that runners must run in each one of those days. It’s the course itself: a single 883m city block in Queen’s, NY. That’s 5649 laps.

Canadian Running caught up with the champion of the 4989K race to talk about all the shoes and stories that go along with the event.

Canadian Running: You ran almost 5000K race around one city block. Why?

Grahak Cunningham: The race is about showing the limitless potential of the human spirit. I actually watched a runner finish back in 2003 and I was inspired by all the struggles they’d been through and the challenges they’d faced, and in they end they seemed to come out better people.

CR: How did you prepare for such a long race?

GC: A lot of running and plenty of shoes. I did a lot of training and building up my mileage and ended up running around 230K for about six weeks. And you run everywhere. I was running to work and running home, running to my tennis games, running to return a DVD. And on weekends you go out for a five or six hour run on Saturday and try to do nine or ten hours on a Sunday. I take my credit card and some food on my wasitbelt and when I run out of food I just go into a store and use the credit card.

CR: How many pairs of shoes did you go through?

GC: I went through 15 pairs per race. The constant scuffing on the footpath wears the soles really quickly.

CR: How many times have you done this race?

GC: My first was in 2007 and I’ve done it four times. I ran in 2007, 2008,2009, and 2012.

CR: You must consider quitting when you run into obstacles. How do you get over those thoughts?

GC: A founder of the race, Sri Chinmoy, gave me some advice. He said the best way to run is not to calculate too much or think about how far you’ve gone or have to go. Just treat each day as a new thing and focus on the next hour or the next few laps. You have to run more with your heart than with your mind and really stay cheerful when you’re out there. That’s one of the secrets to overcoming thoughts about quitting.

GC: The course is on a footpath and unfortunately it’s very jarring on your feet and your bones, so I had shin splits and a swollen achilles. Your knees get sore, your back gets sore, but as you go along you start to get stronger and your start to adapt to it and you get faster and you get used to the pounding from the cement.

I also get bad rashes and skin problems so I use all kind of creams and potions.

CR: What suggestions would you give to someone interested in getting involved in events like this?

For anyone interested in ultarunning I would suggest crewing or helping someone who’s doing a race to learn the ins and outs and the ups and downs of different events.

After that, basically you just start with distances you’re capable of and try to go a little bit further and we often surprise ourselves with what we can manage and run further than we think we can.