The clouds were threatening some rain, but it held off for the morning, as we left the famous Galych behind.

Everyone took turns ran a few kilometres, except Mikael who had caught a cold from the two previous days in the mountains and under the rain. Mark was not feeling so well either, but he managed to run his share.

We were welcomed in Rogatyn by a youth football team. The young boys all happily ran a few kilometres with us until we reached the main square. There the statue of Roxalina, a famous ancient Ukrainian woman hero who married the Turkish king and preserved peace between the two countries for 40 years, greeted us.

We had a short ceremony, took some pictures before the statue and went for lunch in a small cafe. Here we had the opportunity to enjoy a few local sweets: chocolate or cream-filled biscuits and apricot jam croissants. Tasty!

Resuming our running, we met with some nice people in the countryside.

One of them reminds us of our friend Kailash from Switzerland.

Ondrej has become best of friends with young Dima from Kiev, who is a member of Ukrainian team. We hope he can be a part of the international team next year.

At the border of the region, we had a farewell ceremony with the officials who had kindly arranged all the details of our journey.

This was soon followed by a warm welcome a few hundred metres away by the representatives of the new region. We enjoyed folk singing and happy running for 1 km with enthusiastic children - some girls even ran on high heels!

We passed by many nice churches on the way.

The rain came back in middle afternoon and never left us until we ended our day.

We arrived in the big city of L’viv around 5pm. It took us more than an hour to reach the city centre. Our group grew larger as runners of all ages joined us at the outskirts of the town, and young children did the same about 1 km before the finish point.

All in all, about 70 people ran into the square where a ceremony was to take place.

The mayor already knew the World Harmony Run organisers and he made a warm welcome speech. There followed folk dancing, traditional flute music, Spanish dancing and Kung-Fu exhibition. Unfortunately the ceremony was cut short due to heavy rain and everyone ran for much needed shelter.

But we were happy with our day, and especially glad to meet another Dima. This Dima is the best Ukrainian runner in the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team , the ultra-running team that helps to organise the World Harmony Run. Dima had just won a 5000 metres competition earlier in the day, setting a personal best of 15.33 min.

Distance: 106km

Team Members:
Ivana Bauernoplova (Czech Republic), Mark Collinson (England), Mikael Vilpoux (France), Ondrej Vesely (Czech Republic), Stepanka Sarvaicova (Czech Republic), Valentine Bebik (Ukraine).

Harmonemail:
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