The Run and Become Experience

We are a specialist running shop, specialist in that we endeavour to stock everything a runner might need / wish for in as much depth as possible, not specialist in a only for serious runners way. We have a very mixed customer base; lots of new runners looking for guidance in choosing their first set of kit, plenty of long term runners who value a shop dedicated to their sport, and runners from more niche areas of the sport—fell runners, sprinters e.t.c.—who know we will be able to supply them with the correct gear.

All our staff are carefully trained to fit customers out with the right footwear, give advice on anything from the best running watch to what you need to eat before a race, and most important of all, to listen to each individual and serve him/her to the best of their ability. We also have quite a high percentage of long term staff who have accumulated a lot of knowledge over the years. As to the running talents of our staff, we run the full gamut; we have Adrian in Edinburgh who is the proud owner of a GB vest, a very experienced and respected ultra runner, and then some very good, some moderate and some a little on the slow side runners, most of whom have done at least one marathon, and then we have Cherry Smith (wife of Tony who started the business) who is absolutely our best shoe fitter – there have been instances where a decent physios and podiatrists have sent clients in to see her saying ‘I’m not sure what’s wrong but Cherry will be able to tell you and get you the right footwear’ – and she’s never run a step!

When a customer comes to us for running shoes, the first thing we do is ask a few questions. Such as: how much running are they doing (or how much they intend to do), what shoes , if any, are being used at present and whether there are any injury problems. Then we put the customer in a pair of neutral running shoes and watch him/her run a few strides to see how the foot moves. We don’t use treadmills for this as we prefer to watch people on the surface they usually run on—the road—plus we get a more accurate idea of what support the foot needs; treadmills are sprung and tend to show a more neutral foot strike as the impact doesn’t have such a powerful effect on the body, plus people are generally more tense on a treadmill—trying to stay on it—and this also affects how the foot moves. For those who run mostly on treadmills rather than roads the shoes fitted out by our process will still be fine and correct. Watching the customer run gives us an idea as to which type of shoe is likely to be most suitable for the foot strike. Then we bring out as many pairs as necessary, watching the customer run in each of them, working together until we find a pair that works well and feels good.

In addition to shoe fitting, we also carry a very wide selection of clothing over 12 or so brands, everything from a budget priced tee shirt to the latest technical Goretex jacket, and our staff can help customers to find what they need and advise on the differences between makes. We also carry a stack of accessories; food and drink supplements, books, magazines, watches, heart rate monitors, speed distance monitors, rucksacks, water carriers, stretchy laces—the list goes on!

How We Started

We go back to the year 1979. Many members of Sri Chinmoy A.C. were inspired to take a marathon and 'why not?' thought I. There were few choices of marathons in these days. It was before the London and all the other city marathons had come to fruition, but there was an established event down in Surrey. Known as the 'Masters and Maidens', it had been organised for some years and took in scenic and hilly stretches over the countryside around Guildford.

So along with several other members I decided to give it a go and several months training lay ahead of me before the fateful day in October. I started my training in a pair of training shoes that I had had for some years. Very soon I was being encouraged to go and get some 'proper' shoes. I was not sure what was meant by 'proper' and in those days I was unaware that there were shoes designed specially for road running.

There used to be a sports shop close to where I worked on Victoria Street, so I went in for my 'proper' shoes and I came out a short while later with a pair of Adidas Jeans training shoes. It was much much later that I was reliably informed that these shoes were designed for beach wear and generally loafing around in. But I was happy, I had my shoes and my training began.

The marathon was hard work from 19 miles onwards but I finished it in 3.47 in my Adidas Jeans.

Now I was hooked and promptly decided to enter the Barnsley Marathon in November. This time I did 3.39 but in a proper pair of running shoes. (Adidas Marathons)

After both of these marathons I could hardly walk the next day and had to hobble around my quantity surveyors office, where my fellow surveyors showed me no sympathy at all. Rather they thought I was pretty foolish o be attempting such events at my age. I was only 40 but it had been fourteen years since I had chased a rugby ball in earnest and in the intervening years I had done nothing. But it was a great feeling and a real sense of achievement and I was hooked. When's the next one? I asked.

I realised that there were other people around who felt likewise and before I knew it, for once in my life, I was helping lead a boom in road running. The first London Marathon followed in 1981 and then the phenomenon of marathon running exploded.

Now one thing really seemed to be missing. There seemed to be no sports shops that catered for this boom. So I thought, why not start my own specialist running shop? But I would have to give up quantity surveying, the profession I had been in for 25 years. It would be a wrench moving away from the safety of regular income and entering into the unknown of retailing.

It was at this time that Sri Chinmoy was very supportive and encouraging. He liked the idea of me having a running store and assured me not to worry. So I decided to make a break ~ a mid-life career change. Reason suggested it was fraught. How could I earn enough from a specialist retail outlet to fund a mortgage and bring up a family with two small children? But my heart was set on the course and with Sri Chinmoy inspiring and encouraging me all the way, I could not resist.

So I terminated my partnership with quantity surveying and set off to find a suitable location for the shop. After many mishaps I finally settled on a store at 42 Palmer Street, London SW1 and Sri Chinmoy named the shop 'Run and Become, Become and Run'. The name comes from one of his aphorisms:

“Run and Become. Become and Run.
Run to succeed in the outer world.
Become to proceed in the inner world.”
~ Sri Chinmoy

I was overjoyed at this name and we finally opened on 7th June 1982. Yes we are still there and have now joined up with no. 40 Palmer Street, as well as opening Run and Become stores in Edinburgh and Cardiff.

So the change was made from quantity surveying to running shoe retailing. Looking back now I am not sorry to have left surveying and I am very happy to be ensconced in 'Running Retailing'! It was not an easy transition but it worked and I have to thank and offer gratitude in abundant measure to Sri Chinmoy, whose inspiration and encouragement was so great to have, not only then but right through to the present day.

So let me conclude by saying that without Sri Chinmoy this enterprise would never have started and that with Sri Chinmoy it has blossomed into something real and I hope, a great benefit to runners."

Ongkar Tony Smith

About Sri Chinmoy: The Inspirer of Run and Become

Sri Chinmoy was born in 1931, and was an avid sportsman until his passing in 2007, aged 76. In the spiritual community where he grew up, he excelled in soccer and volleyball, was the top-ranked sprinter, and during his late teens became a decathlon champion. In the 1970s and 1980s he was a very active runner, completing many marathons, ultra-marathons and shorter races. Sri Chinmoy believed that a balanced lifestyle fosters harmony and inner peace. His integral approach to life encourages physical fitness and sports as a vehicle for personal transformation.

Sri Chinmoy’s teachings advocate sport not only for the joy of it, and to keep the body fit, but also because sport is a natural vehicle for expressing his philosophy of self-transcendence. Inspired by his example, many of his students have learned to extend their own personal limits—setting new world records in various fields, running multi-day races, swimming the English Channel and climbing some of the world’s highest mountains.

Sri Chinmoy has students in some 60 countries around the world, following his inspiration to lead a balanced lifestyle that incorporates the inner disciplines of prayer and meditation with the dynamism of contemporary life. During his life he regularly traveled throughout the world to offer free concerts, lectures and public meditations, to meet with his students, and to meet and discuss spirituality with world and community leaders. He did not charge a fee for his spiritual guidance, concerts, lectures and public meditations. In a similar spirit, Sri Chinmoy Centres around the world offer regular meditation courses and concerts free of charge.
More information at www.srichinmoycentre.org

SRI CHINMOY’S RUNNING & RACES

The Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team is the largest ultra-distance running organisation in the world. Sri Chinmoy founded the Team in 1977 as a service to the running community and to help promote personal growth and harmony through sports. The Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team (Sri Chinmoy Athletic Club in the UK) has become a major organiser of road races, marathons, triathlons, multi-sport events, long-distance swimming events and Master’s track-and-field meets. It has hosted several national championships, and numerous world records have been set in its races.

This international volunteer network sponsors more than 500 athletic events each year, including the annual Sri Chinmoy 3,100-mile foot race. In the UK the Sri Chinmoy Athletic Club, in association with Run and Become, hosts races from 1km, 2-mile and 10k to ultra-marathons, including the national annual 24-hour track race in London.
More information at www.srichinmoyraces.org

SRI CHINMOY’S SELF-TRANSCENDENCE

Sri Chinmoy began weightlifting in June 1985 at the age of 54. After developing a knee injury and being unable to continue running, he set several records in the calf-raise and one-arm lift. Even in his late 70s his achievements continued to astonish and inspire those in the weightlifting community. He honoured thousands of individuals in his “Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart” Programme—a unique award recognising people from all walks of life who have inspired and uplifted humanity. He lifted them overhead using a specially constructed platform. He lifted Heads of State, diplomats, religious leaders of many faiths, distinguished achievers in the arts and in literature, Nobel laureates and world class athletes. In his own words:

“I am trying with my capacity to encourage and inspire people in various walks of life who have inspired others in sports, literature, science or politics, or in their own personal lives. I lift them up to show my appreciation for their achievements.”
—Sri Chinmoy
* * *
“Self-transcendence gives us joy in boundless measure. When we transcend ourselves, we do not compete with others. We do not compete with the rest of the world, but at every moment we compete with ourselves. We compete only with our previous achievements. And each time we surpass our previous achievements, we get joy.”
—Sri Chinmoy
* * *
“What gives life its value
If not its constant cry
For self-transcendence?”
—Sri Chinmoy

More information at www.selftranscendence.org

SRI CHINMOY’S MUSIC

Sri Chinmoy saw music as the universal language of the heart, dissolving barriers of race, language and culture. “It is through music,” he said, “that the universal feeling of oneness can be achieved in the twinkling of an eye.”

Sri Chinmoy was a prolific composer with almost 20,000 songs to his credit, in his native Bengali and English, as well as other languages. He played many instruments from all over the world, including a variety of flutes, the Indian esraj, cello, harmonium, piano and pipe organ. During his life Sri Chinmoy offered over 700 free concerts around the world, dedicated to world harmony. The venues included Sydney Opera House, Westminster Abbey and The Royal Albert Hall (pictured), as well as at the Kamakura Buddha in Japan, and the Great Wall of China.

Sri Chinmoy felt that soulful music can draw us beyond the limitations of the mind into the calm beauty of our own inner being. He composed while in a meditative consciousness, so his music is imbued with a profound meditative spirit. Even at its most powerful, it contains an underlying stillness that reflects its source.
More information at www.radiosrichinmoy.org

SRI CHINMOY’S WRITING

Sri Chinmoy employed many forms of the written and spoken word, including poetry, essays, lectures, aphorisms, questions and answers, stories and plays. This variety of forms is matched by his range of subjects, from humorous tales of village life and plays on the lives of spiritual figures, to lectures on the philosophy of yoga and poetry of mystic rapture.

Poetry was always Sri Chinmoy’s first choice, as a natural medium for expressing mystical experience. His poems express a broad range of spiritual emotion, from the doubts and fears of the wavering pilgrim to the blissful realisations of the illumined master.

Sri Chinmoy lectured on spiritual topics at hundreds of universities around the world, including Oxford, Cambridge, the Sorbonne, Harvard and Yale.
More information at www.srichinmoylibrary.com

SRI CHINMOY’S ART

Sri Chinmoy called his artwork “Jharna-Kala”, which is Bengali for “fountain-art.” The name reflects the spontaneous fountain of creativity he experiences through meditation, expressed and revealed through an extraordinary output of paintings in a wide array of media and forms.

In December 1991, Sri Chinmoy began drawing birds, representing the soul’s freedom. From then on he drew millions in a series entitled “Dream-Freedom Peace-Birds.”

Sri Chinmoy painted and drew rapidly and spontaneously in a meditative way. His mystical, often abstract works of art, varying from miniatures to murals, include a multiplicity of styles and techniques. He completed many thousands of paintings and millions of drawings, exhibited in galleries around the world.
More information at www.srichinmoyart.com

THE WORLD HARMONY RUN

Sri Chinmoy’s life was an expression of boundless creativity in the areas of music, writing, art and athletics. He dedicated to his life to the goal of world harmony, expressed through soulful concerts, the international Sri Chinmoy races, his prolific painting and the meditations he offered.

Sri Chinmoy was also the founder of the World Harmony Run, an event first held in 1987. After coming to the West in 1964 Sri Chinmoy has became internationally renowned for his numerous initiatives, uniting people from many cultures and walks of life to work for a more harmonious world.

The World Harmony Run was created to offer a practical and meaningful opportunity for promoting the cause of greater world harmony and friendship. The simple universal message of the World Harmony Run has drawn people of all nationalities, faiths and traditions to participate. It has since become a dynamic manifestation of the timeless ideal of bringing people together; looking for things which unite rather than separate.

As a symbol of harmony, runners carry a flaming Olympic-style torch, passing it from hand to hand between members of thousands of local communities, traveling through over 70 nations around the globe. More information at www.worldharmonyrun.org

FRIENDS’ TRIBUTES TO SRI CHINMOY

President Mikhail Gorbachev
“Through many years of his selfless work for the sake of peace, Sri Chinmoy has gained recognition and love in the farthest corners of our planet…In our hearts he will forever remain a man who dedicated his whole life to peace… We shall remember Sri Chinmoy forever!”

“There are not many people in the world who are so sincerely dedicated to the ideals of love of fellow human beings, peace and understanding and who are so self-giving in their actions...Your deeds are invaluable, for they cannot be measured by any economic or political parameters; they are noble and cure the human soul.”

Mother Teresa
“I am so pleased with all the good work you are doing for world peace and for people in so many countries. May we continue to work together and to share together all for the glory of God and for the good of man.”

President Nelson Mandela
“Your work has inspired spiritual growth, resilience and well-being, especially in view of the present and unprecedented onslaughts against humankind…Yours is a voice of reason that we all must heed.”

“Today, the world is a lesser place as I recall his lifetime of service to humanity in the great cause of world peace. I will remember always the time we spent together and treasure his support and encouragement over the years.”

President Bill Clinton
“Throughout his many years, he enriched the lives of countless others and served as a model of generosity and discipline to those he met, fostering an atmosphere of compassion, harmony, and unity. Sri Chinmoy was a leader, humanitarian, artist, athlete, and public servant who will be sorely missed. His legacy of kindness, reflection, and resolve will endure for many years to come.”

Hon. Al Gore
“Sri Chinmoy was a once in a lifetime spiritual leader who touched the lives of millions of people through his teachings, art, athletics, and music. He was a student of peace and he embodied peace. Sri Chinmoy was a great man and his life’s work significantly helped to build world harmony and will continue to do so.”

Archbishop Desmond Tutu
“Sri Chinmoy was a great man. God is smiling to know the immense good he has accomplished and encouraged in others. In a world of suspicion, hostility and conflict, he worked tirelessly to bring the different faiths together and inspired many to emulate.”

Philip Glass
“The passing of Sri Chinmoy represents the loss of one of the last of the great spiritual teachers who brought the tradition of Indian spirituality to the West. He had a very special connection to music. In his performances, with clarity, simplicity and directness, he was able to move his listeners in a very immediate and deeply emotional way. In his lifetime he brought tremendous joy to the people who were with him. For me, his life was a special and personal inspiration.”

Tegla Loroupe
“Sri Chinmoy was man of peace and man of harmony among all the people of this world. We have really lost a great man...But remember, we all have to carry on Sri Chinmoy’s work for the betterment of the world.”

Sudhahota Carl Lewis
“Sri Chinmoy always inspired me. He used to call me his outer coach in running but say he was my inner coach. I may have lost my student, but, though he has passed on physically, I know I have not lost my coach spiritually...His life was all about challenging yourself and being the best you can be. He told his disciples to go out and meet a challenge you don’t think you can do. He’s the reason I plan on running the New York marathon when I’m 50.”

Diana Princess of Wales
“I know that you too strive to ease unnecessary suffering and indeed, have helped many, many people…I thank you for your generosity of spirit and send to you my heartfelt best wishes.”

“Your letters are so enormously encouraging. It is through this encouragement that I find the strength to continue with the fight against landmines, which is so vitally important to me...”