We commenced our day with a meeting with the vice mayor, Mr Michal Mlady in the town hall.

Prievidza is the district capital and administrative unit of Trencin County. It is surrounded by the mountain ranges of Vtacnik, Ziar, Kremnica hills, the little Fatra - Lucanska with the dominant Klak peak and in the west it is surrounded by the mountains of the Little Magura. The vice mayor was very interested in our run and when it was mentioned that Mark would be running for six months, he joked about Forrest Gump. Mark still has two more months to go, so he isn't going to stop just yet. With the mayor we had morning coffee and tea.

The meeting was filmed by local television, and we all signed the visitors' book, whilst Ondrej gave an interview. Outside the vice-mayor tied a peace ribbon onto the torch, and once he had put his World Harmony Run t-shirt on he ran with us around the square.

A few kilometres up the road we had a quick breakfast at a children's summer camp. We were then ready to meet the children. We ran into a small clearing in the forest where the children enthusiastically welcomed us.

They were so full of life. They enjoyed running with the torch so much.

As we left the children's summer camp we saw some young storks in their nest with Bojnice castle in the background.

Ten kilometers from Prievidza we met the mayor, Dusan Simka at Novaky. Inside the town hall was an impressive tile collage of the town's emblem.

He briefly ran with us and we headed to our next meeting in Partizanske. So early in the morning the sun was intense and it certainly felt it was going to be one of the hottest days for us. A group of ten runners got into a good rhythm to run 10 km even next to a big factory.

As each car passed we all waved and every motorist and passer-by smiled and waved back enthusiastically. We asked people to run with us but people commented, "I'm too tired" (one elderly gentleman), and "How can you run in such hot weather!" The lovely reaction inspired us to run and we didn't really take much notice of the heat. As we ran in the valley we had a great view of the surrounding mountain ranges through the summer haze.

Partizanske is situated on the confluence of the rivers Nitra and Nitrica. The growth of the town was associated with the building of the factory for producing footwear by the famous firm named Bata at the turn of the 1930s and 1940s, but the shoe industry has declined since. We joined up with some local runners to meet the mayor, Jan Podmanicky on the steps of the town hall.

After the meeting and refreshments we had a group photograph beside the huge floral shoe outside the pedestrian precinct, a reminder to visitors of the shoe-making tradition of the town.

Afterwards the Team was invited to the nearby outdoor swimming pool. We gladly accepted; just what we needed on a hot summer's day to cool down.

Mark said, "Let's go for ice cream!"

It was great to have a swim, despite only for 20 minutes. We all felt much refreshed to continue running in the heat of the afternoon. We continued to Banovce n. Bebr to meet the mayor. We noticed on the supermarket's temperature gauge that it was 39.7 Celsius!

After our food stop at the supermarket, we all helped to prepare sandwiches on the side of the road and ate them quickly.

We continued running to Trenc. Teplice where over 100 children from a summer camp had come to meet us and where we were warmly greeted by the mayor, Stefan Bartek.

The children were such good fun and very vibrant as they ran with the torch.

As we approached Trencin the picturesque castle above the city came into full view.

In the city square on a stage the Japaka Orchestra played and as we arrived we were filmed by local television.

We met two famous sportspeople, Mrs Maria Opacita (handball, and now representative of department for city sport) and Mr Holly (football).

After the ceremony our Slovakian hosts treated us to superb lasagne at an Italian restaurant.

---

Distance: 90km

Team Members:
Anete Klavina (Latvia), Daniel Schenke (Germany), Jadranka Grbic (Serbia), Jarek Werner (Poland), Mark Collinson (England), Marlen Bernhard (Germany), Ondrej Vesely (Czech Republic), Petar Mihaylov (Bulgaria), Svetlana Gorshkova (Russia), Valentine Bebik (Ukraine), Zoltan Theobald (Hungary).

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

< Slovakia 22 July < Iceland 22 July < Ísland 22. júlí

Slovakia 24 June > Iceland 24 July > Ísland 24. júlí >

Iceland 23 July