Personal information | |
---|---|
Birth name | Pekka Aalto |
Nationality | Finnish |
Born | Stockholm, Sweden | 27 August 1970
Sport | |
Country | Finland |
Sport | Ultramarathon |
Event(s) | 3100 miles run |
Club | Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team |
Achievements and titles | |
Personal best(s) | 40 days 09:06:21 (2015) |
Ashprihanal Pekka Aalto (born August 27, 1970) is a Finnish ultramarathon runner who began running as a hobby at age 25. [1] He currently works as a courier. Aalto is a member of The Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team. In 2006, Tarja Halonen, the President of Finland, recognized him as an "International Ambassador of Sport". [2]
In 1999, he started running multi-day races. [3] He ranked all-time second at the 3100-mile Race in 2006. On October 29, 2006, Aalto finished the San Francisco One Day 24 hour endurance race in first place, logging just over 125 miles (201 km) in a 24-hour period. Aalto is a three-time champion of The Self-Transcendence Six Day Race in New York City. For three straight years he ran all three yearly Self-Transcendence multidays in New York (six days, 3,100 miles (5,000 km), 700 miles). [1] He has won the world's longest certified footrace, the Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race nine times, finishing the 2015 race at record time 40 days 09:06:21 for a daily average of 76.776 miles (123.559 km). [4] [5]
Year | Races | Distance (Miles) | Time (days, hours, minutes, seconds) | Placing |
---|---|---|---|---|
1999 | Sri Chinmoy Ultra Trio 700-Mile Race | 700 | 09:09:10:40 [6] | 1. |
2000 | Sri Chinmoy Ultra Trio 700-Mile Race | 700 | 09:09:44:59 [6] | 1. |
2000 | Self-Transcendence 10 Day Race | 669 [6] | 10:00:00:00 | 2. |
2000 | Self-Transcendence 3100-Mile Race | 3100 | 47:13:29:55 [7] | 1. |
2001 | Self-Transcendence 10 Day Race | 349 [2] | 10:00:00:00 | — |
2001 | Sri Chinmoy Ultra Trio 700-Mile Race | 700 | 09:20:32:29 [6] | 1. |
2001 | Self-Transcendence 3100-Mile Race | 3100 | 48:10:56:12 [2] [7] | 1. |
2002 | Self-Transcendence 6 Day Race | 422 [2] [6] | 06:00:00:00 | 1. |
2002 | Self-Transcendence 3100-Mile Race | 3100 | 46:13:27:51 [2] [7] [8] | 2. |
2003 | Self-Transcendence 6 Day Race | 457 [2] [6] | 06:00:00:00 | 1. |
2004 | Self-Transcendence 6 Day Race | 433 [2] [6] | 06:00:00:00 | 1. |
2004 | Self-Transcendence 3100-Mile Race | 3100 | 46:06:55:11 [2] [6] | 1. |
2005 | Self-Transcendence 3100-Mile Race | 3100 | 49:10:28:49 [2] [7] [8] | 2. |
2006 | Self-Transcendence 3100-Mile Race | 3100 | 43:15:49:33 [2] [6] [8] [9] | 2. |
2007 | Self-Transcendence 3100-Mile Race | 3100 | 43:04:26:32 [2] [7] [9] | 1. |
2008 | Self-Transcendence 3100-Mile Race | 3100 | 44:02:42:15 [6] [9] | 1. |
2009 | Self-Transcendence 3100-Mile Race | 3100 | 43:16:28:06 [6] [9] | 1. |
2010 | Self-Transcendence 3100-Mile Race | 3100 | 46:07:37:24 [6] [9] | 1. |
2011 | Self-Transcendence 6 Day Race | 467 [6] | 06:00:00:00 | 2. |
2011 | Self-Transcendence 3100-Mile Race | 3100 | 46:07:37:24 [6] [9] | 3. |
2012 | Self-Transcendence 6 Day Race | 470 [6] | 06:00:00:00 | 2. |
2013 | Self-Transcendence 3100-Mile Race | 3100 | 48:16:14:33 [6] [9] | 3. |
2014 | Self-Transcendence 10 Day Race | 833 [8] [10] | 10:00:00:00 | 1. |
2015 | Self-Transcendence 3100-Mile Race | 3100 | 40:09:06:21 [4] [5] | 1. |
2016 | Self-Transcendence 3100-Mile Race | 3100 | 46:02:54:22 [11] | 2. |
2019 | Self-Transcendence 3100-Mile Race | 3100 | 47:01:39:34 [12] | 1. |
An ultramarathon, also called ultra distance or ultra running, is any footrace longer than the traditional marathon length of 42.195 kilometres. Various distances are raced competitively, from the shortest common ultramarathon of 50 kilometres (31 mi) to over 200 miles (320 km). 50k and 100k are both World Athletics record distances, but some 100 miles (160 km) races are among the oldest and most prestigious events, especially in North America.
Dean Karnazes, is an American ultramarathon runner, and author of Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner, which details ultra endurance running for the general public.
The Self-Transcendence 3100 mile race is the world's longest certified footrace. In 1996 Sri Chinmoy created this event as a 2,700-mile (4,345 km) race. At the award ceremony that year he declared that the 1997 edition would be extended to 3,100 miles (4,989 km).
Multiday races are ultramarathon running events which are typically either segmented into daily events of a specified distance or time, or staged so that runners can run as far as they want, at their own discretion, over a set course or over a set number of days. Multiday races can range from continuous 48-hour track events to staged transcontinental treks.
The Cliff Young Australian 6 Day Race was an ultramarathon race that takes place in Colac, Victoria. One of a small handful of Six Day races around the world, the Cliff Young has had many fine performances culminating in November 2005 with Yiannis Kouros, arguably the best multiday runner in the world, setting a new world 6 Day record. It started in 1983 and was renamed in 2004 after Cliff Young, a Colac farmer and winner of the inaugural Sydney to Melbourne Westfield's Ultramarathon in May 1983.
Madhupran Wolfgang Schwerk is an ultra-marathon runner, born 28 July 1955 and now living in Solingen, Germany. He was a trained retail-salesman, baritone opera singer, farmer, carpenter, and poultry breeder before becoming a house-husband in 1984. He has been married to opera singer Cornelia Berger-Schwerk since 1981 and they have one daughter.
Suprabha Beckjord is an ultramarathon runner from Washington, D.C. She is an owner of a gift shop and a disciple of Sri Chinmoy.
Dipali Cunningham from Melbourne, Australia now she lives in New York City, USA is an ultramarathon woman runner. Dipali is a Disciple from the spiritual Master Sri Chinmoy over 30 years.
The 6-Day Race became a standard footrace distance in the 1870s and was a popular form of entertainment with up to 70,000 paying visitors during such a Pedestrians event. However the widespread use of the bicycle from 1890 caused it to be replaced as spectator sport by cycle races of the same duration. It was in two forms: strict "heel-and-toe" racewalking, or "go-as-you-please" combination of walking, jogging, running.
The Self-Transcendence 6- & 10- day race are two concurrent multiday running events, held in Corona Park, a large public park in the borough of Queens in New York City. The course is one mile long. They are held annually in April and organized by the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team.
William Morley Sichel is a British long-distance runner.
Arthur "Al" Howie was a Canadian long-distance runner who won more than fifty marathons, ultramarathons, and multiday races in over two decades, including the 1991 Trans Canada Highway run in the record time of 72 days and 10 hours. A brass plaque on Victoria's Mile Zero marker commemorates this athletic event for which he raised $750,000 for a fund for children with special needs. Two weeks after running across Canada he won the Sri Chinmoy 1300 Miler in New York improving on his own world record time. Both the Trans Canada run and the 1,300-mile (2,100 km) race qualified for the Guinness Book of Records. He lived in Duncan, B.C., from 2005 until his death in 2016. He had been receiving treatment for Diabetes I. The City of Duncan awarded him the Perpetual Trophy for Excellence and Sportsmanship in December 2007, and in 2014 he was inducted into The Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame.
One of the earliest twentieth century multiday races was the inaugural Trans-American Footrace, which took place in 1928 starting at Legion Ascot Speedway in Los Angeles and finishing in New York City in Madison Square Garden for a distance of 3,423.5 miles (5,509.6 km).
The Lake Zurich Marathon Swim belongs to the world's longest swimming marathon races. It is held annually in August and is organized by the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team.
Eleanor Robinson is a British former ultramarathon runner and two-time winner of the IAU 100km World Championships. She was the first woman to run over 150 miles in a 24-hour endurance race. She was the winner of the first Badwater Ultramarathon in 1987. She was twice bronze medallist at the IAU 100 km European Championships.
Grahak Cunningham is an ultra-distance runner and motivational speaker from Perth, Western Australia.
Surasa Mairer is an ultra-distance runner. She works as a secretary and lives in Vienna. Surasa is a disciple from the spiritual master Sri Chinmoy.
Kaneenika Janakova is an ultra-distance runner and comes from Cerová near Senica, Slovakia. She has lived in New York for ten years. Janakova is a disciple of Sri Chinmoy. Because of him, she adopted the name Kaneenika which is a Sanskrit word meaning "vision beauty of the inner eye".
Vasu Duzhiy is an ultra-distance runner from St. Petersburg, Russia. Duzhiy is a disciple of Sri Chinmoy and adopted the name Vasu from him. He works as a foreman for a lumber company.
3100: Run and Become is a documentary about why people run, with portraits of runners and what motivates them. It was directed by Sanjay Rawal.