I'd like to giver readers who are not familiar with a day in the life of a harmony runner a run down of an average day. Friday, June 24th - it is windy and cool with an ominously cloudy sky.

7:30 Get ready for the day; breakfast

8:35 Leave hotel

9:10 First ceremony takes place

The first school was conveniently located within running distance from our accommodation.

Liverpool skyline.

 

 

 

Inspiring Words: "Serving with Love - Striving for Excellence" with the International Year of Youth and the International Year of Forests logo below.

 

Bright eyes and happy smiles - a great way to start the day.

Enthuiastic participation

St Vincent De Paul Primary school

These are the youngest children I have seen at a ceremony. We had preschoolers of 3 years all the way up to grade 5.

Outside for the running portion of the event, as the children make a 2nd pass by the continent flags, we stamp them with a continent stamp. Each stamp is of an animal that lives on that continent.

The photographer makes it look calm but in reality we are surrounded and inundated with cries of, "can I get one on me head? can I get one on me cheek? stamp me hand please!" It is complete pandemonium - a crazy stamping mania!

I wonder what the parents think when their kids come home covered in ink blotches as I'm sure the animals will decompose a bit by that point.

10:45 Second ceremony immediately following the first

We've been visiting Our Lady Immaculate Catholic Primary School for more than 15 years now.

The school cooks got into the action.

The school offered us a beautiful song about gathering around the circle.

The teachers get into the actions for our song.

World's greatest kangaroo impersonator (That's what we tell him anyway :-)

Cute

Before we left the school, they asked us to run a lap around the school grounds so as to include the school in the route. The children lined the inside of the fences and gave us a most impressive send off of deafening chears.

20 minute break for lunch - guerrilla style lunch prep with make your own hummus and salad wraps. We are crazy fast and efficient at this.

1:00 Off to the third ceremony immediately following lunch

Children from the Faith School. They run with us to their In Harmony Orchestral practice where the ceremony takes place.

They performed several times with the first song being "all for one and one for all". I got a little teary. It was so sweet.

Their orchestra logo. Shraddha keenly commented that they are a harmony music team and we are a harmony running team. It makes for a wonderful connection.

2:15 Photo shoot at Liverpool Docks. Apaguha is an insatiable photographer and we are his muses. I could never have been a model. I find posing a chore, honestly, and am not doing a very good job of it here. (seventh from the front)

More posing - sometimes I just have to buck up for the team.

2:45 Drive to start running

3:45-6:00 Running, driving, meeting curious locals along the way.

6:00-6:45 Grocery shopping and refueling the van

6:55 Van breakdown (granted this is not usual, but it does happen occasionally. We waited on the side of the road for assistance for quite a while).

8:00 We make it to our final resting place, no not the cemetary, though I do feel quite dead.

8:30-9:30 Shower and dinner

9:30 In bed writing this all up from notes

10:22 Pen down, lights out. Good night all.

 

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The World Harmony Run proudly supports the International Year of Youth (IYY) and the International Year of Forests (IYF) proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly.

See the recent Youtube video on African experience which illustrates IYY slogan "Our Year Our Voice"  International Year of Youth - Zambia World Harmony. They surprisingly mention Presidents and UN Secretary-General in a unique way! 

See also the UNESCO World Heritage (WH) Centre support for IY of Forests.  ... Convention for conservation of forest biodiversity. (more)

 

– Teekhnata and Salil

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Distance: 35 miles

Team Members:
Salil Wilson (Australia), Apaguha Vesely (Czech Republic), Balavan Thomas (Great Britain), Shobhavati Davies (New Zealand), Amalendu Edelsten (Australia), Shraddha Kurzemniece (Latvia), Lenka Svecova (Czech Republic), Teekhnata Metzler (USA), Atulya Berube (USA), Ilvaka Nemcova (Czech Republic), Nandathu Saltzman (USA), Devashishu Torpy (England), Atul Arora (India)

Harmonemail:
You can send a message to the runners or read the messages.

Gallery: See more images!

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Ukraine 24 June