After breakfast we started our running from the sports stadium in the direction of Dzerzhinsk. A deputy from the city council donned his running shoes and joined us for about 10 km until the city-border.

At the gasoline station we had a chance encounter with a girl who spoke English very well and was very eager to learn more about us and the run. She told us that she is studying English and wants to go to Great Britain. We spoke to her for a while about us and the run and said that we would be happy to see her in London on October 10th.

Very often along the road we have such spontaneous meetings with people and very often they offer us water, fruits or just an enthusiastic smile; this really gives us a spirit of oneness with the country and the people.

In Gorlovka, which houses one of the main steel- and coal-industry centers in Ukraine, we had a short meeting with officials from the city sports department plus a TV interview. We then headed towards Kostiantynivka, where children and teachers from the local school welcomed us.

In the meantime the sun was directly above us and the temperatures had climbed up to 35º C. We were happy to arrive at Kostiantynivka and rest awhile! The schoolchildren and their teacher ran with the torch on the lawn in front of the school, after which we went into the much cooler school canteen for lunch.

Now we had 32 hot kilometers till Sloviansk. To cover the distance, we had three runners running simultaneously: when one runner would finish his allotted stint, we would drive him ahead of the other two, a technique we call 'leapfrogging'…however, on the way there one of the three teams took a wrong turn at a junction, but somehow we met together again.

In Sloviansk about 70 kids and a city representative came out to cheer us on. Later we drank some “Kvas”, which is a really healthy and refreshing non-alcoholic bread drink that tastes like mix of beer and coke.

We had no showers at our sleeping place in Slovianohirsk - to make the best out of it we went to the river. It was already dark and the water was black and warm. The bright moon and the stars capped off a really nice experience at the end of a long hot day.

---

Distance: 177km

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

< Ukraine 3 June (Team 2) < Ukraine 3 June (Team 1)

Ukraine 6 June > Poland 6 June > Polska 6 czerwca >

Ukraine 4 June (Team 2)