Yiannis Kouros on DVD
October 31st, 2007 by ScottRecently I had the opportunity to view the documentary “Forever Running†which chronicles the life and running pursuits of the legendary ultramarathoner Yiannis Kouros. While including archival race footage and interviews with Yiannis in his home, at work, and while training, Yiannis shares with us his upbringing, historical events, and inspirations that led him to amazing feats of endurance. Over the past thirty years Yiannis has set many world records that may, in his own words, last for centuries. His records span from the 200K to the 10 Day distances. These include his spectacular marks which no one has come near for the 24 Hour road at 290.2 km and 24 Hour track at 303.5 km (188 miles, 7:38/mile)!
Having great respect and admiration for this great Greek runner, I feel he is an inspiration for all runners aspiring to explore the depths of their endurance and inner abilities.
“Forever Running” is available for the first time in the US and can be purchased online through ZombieRunner.
November 1st, 2007 at 8:39 pm
Thanks Scott- just ordered the video. What beautiful form he has in the photo!
November 3rd, 2007 at 9:37 am
Hi Scott - Thanks for the info on this DVD; sounds very cool.
November 29th, 2007 at 10:00 am
I got it.
I watched it.
I am gonna watch it again (kept reading subtitles or watching footage
couldn’t do both well).
2.5 hours of sleep per day?
My guess: his father was right.
Superhuman.
The path to becoming a god is not easy.
I find his respect and fascination for Nikos Kazantzakis equally
fascinating. Nikos nearly won the Nobel prize for literature in 1956
(I think). Albert Camus beat him by one vote and Camus said that
Nikos was 100 times better. Wikipedia him to learn more.
Quote: Russians don’t have souls.
It takes a lot of work and sacrifice to be number 1.
This guy is a nut.
This guy is a hero.
This guy lives next to a cemetery.
This guy will love you or hate you or both and more all at the same time.
Music. Drumming.
The polish influence. What is it with Poles and Greece?
Amen.
BFT
November 30th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Here are a few quotes that I copied down from the film that caught my attention:
…to run for 24 or 48 hours or 6 days. No one completes the race via his body but via his mind.
The verb “endure” is not a physical verb, it’s a spiritual one. Endure means to withstand.
Without patience, you will never conquer endurance.
Some other interesting tidbits includes his masters degree in literature with research on dance and music as portrayed in Kazantzakis’ works.
BFT
December 8th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
I thought of this important point that Kouros mentions in one of the interviews, and that is how he imagines or senses that the heroes of Greece’s past sort of possess him, or he relies on their spirit and senses them inside him when he runs.
This is quite fascinating.
Somehow endurance running takes him to a place where he is able to sense an opening within himself where the living energy from the past is able to enter him and give him strength.
Interesting.
Which really feeds into his concept of the spiritual nature of endurance running. It becomes a spiritual quest where reliance on spiritual energy (meaning this imaginative capacity within humans to sense something bigger than themselves and more and beyond themselves).
He also mentions about having the equivalent of out-of-body experiences. Situations where he is rising above and behind his body…just watching it as it moves forward.
These experiences he mentions and is very open about are experiences shared, it seems, by shamans and other spiritual seekers in several of earth’s religions and spiritual traditions.
Understanding how he himself has synthesized his personal experiences into positive energy to be used in his running and in his own spiritual quest and in the unfolding of his life are things you will get a sense of in this video.
BFT