It was an early start today, as we arose to a cold morning shrouded in the mist that we have now become accustomed to, to visit a school in Trencin. We arrived there at 8.00 to be given a warm rousing welcome that certainly woke us up and put a smile on all our faces.

The whole school gave us such a huge cheer and amazing applause when we finished singing the World Harmony Song.

We left the school to an even greater cheer as the runners headed towards Nove Mesto Nad Vaham.

One on the International Team vans had to refuel so they left the rest of the convoy and runners on route and this van made its way to the town not knowing if it had to attend a ceremony or visit a school. The van naturally headed towards the town centre searching for the town hall. By chance one of the team saw a World Harmony Run promotional poster advertising a street name and we assumed this must be a location of a school. We approached a woman to ask for directions and by chance again she spoke perfect English as she had lived over in England for three years. We found the school and in good time to be ahead of the runners and mingled with the children and teachers to applaud the runners entering the school grounds. To great delight of the children, the teachers and principal ran with the torch. We were then treated to a variety performance. First a class of young children danced and sang a sweet song. A girl then performed a solo with backing dancers, and finally some girls performed a dance routine.

All the children at the school were so joyous and exuberant to have the World Harmony Run team visit their school.

One boy and girl from the local athletic club then rang with the torch out of the school with the runners to head towards Povazany and to Piest’any to attend a ceremony.

We arrived at Piest’any, a spa town, to a fantastic applause and cheer where the people were amazingly friendly and so open. Once again there was regional television reporting the event.

The mayor made a heart felt and truly sincere speech emphasising the importance of what the World Harmony Run meant to the people of his town.

He then put on one of the World Harmony Run t-shirts and ran with the runners.

We left the town to a raucous farewell, to cheers of good wishes and smiles as we headed towards Hlohovec.

On the outskirts of Hlohovec we were met with a reporter and camera crew and a police escort. As we ran into the town we were filmed constantly as we headed to meet the mayor who warmly greeted us. Each of us received a goody bag which included to our surprise a pack of Vitamin C tablets, which was very considerate of them. As we headed out of the town on to a busy road the traffic built up behind us, but as the drivers passed they didn’t seem to mind as they waved and cheered us on.

As the runners were heading towards Nitra along a busy road only two runners ran at any one time for safety reasons. We passed through rolling quilted farmland of different colours, of browns and greens and roads lined with trees. All the runners ran from 2k outside Nitra, along the river and through the park, to the centre where there was a stand promoting the World Harmony Run.

The stand was also used for the local children to draw pictures of friendship and love to the orphans of the Indonesian Tsunami Disaster. The children had drawn some lovely and colourful pictures which inspired us to also draw some pictures.

Our standard of art work was not quite on the par with that of the children! To end another absorbing day we all visited an ice cream parlour to celebrate two of the girls’ birthdays. We all gorged ourselves on some delicious ice cream, knowing that we would easily run off the calories tomorrow.

Distance: 96km

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