Video of the first month in USA

We left Gold Beach in the cold and fresh morning air, running up the stunningly beautiful Oregon Coast. Our route took us up and down the coastal hills with the magnificent vistas of the Pacific and its rocky promontories.

Our first stop was Coos Bay where fifty children were eagerly awaiting our arrival at the Boys and Girls Club. Denise Gould and Robb Miles organized a great group of children and staff to join us in our presentation.

A special treat was Oruna Mamu, a story-teller unparalleled, who we met earlier as she and her friends were driving past us and stopped to meet us and to learn more about the Harmony Run.

Oruna captivated the audience of children and adults alike with her animated and amusing nursery rhyme-style of storytelling.

After singing the World Harmony Run song and getting the children and adults excited to run, they joined us in a run around the playground with the Torch.

The event was covered by the local Coos Bay newspaper which for us is always a great boon in order to share with many more people our efforts for World Harmony.

Some of us had a little time to visit the Steve Prefontaine Memorial Museum in the center of Coos Bay, the city that he was born and raised in. ‘Pre’, as he was affectionately called, was one of the best middle distance runners this country has ever seen. Unfortunately, in 1975 he passed away in a car accident at age 25. He had competed in the 1972 Olympics and placed 4th in the 5,000 meter race with very experienced competition. He was quite young and inexperienced on an internationally competitive level, yet he gave the likes of Lasse Viren and other world class runners a challenge they would never forget in that Olympic classic. Finishing in the time of 13:28.4 he was only 2 seconds off the winning time and Olympic record. Since then he broke almost all American records at various distances including 2 miles in 8:18, 5Km in 13:22 and 3 miles in 12:51.4. I am sure that his tenacity and tremendous dedication to his sport will live on in the hearts and minds of all serious young competitors, especially in the middle distance events.

Moving on to much slower, non-competitive running, we finished the daily team running in the beautiful coastal city of Florence. The whole coastal area around Florence is surrounded by sand dunes interspersed with forests and coastal Pacific beaches. It is a wonderland of ocean sports and trekking for those who wish to spend healthy outdoor activities here.

The boys make sweet harmony in the serenity of Giribar’s forest home.

We headed inland from there to stay at our accommodations for the night. We were hosted by my brother, Giribar and his family, at their country home deep in the fir tree forests of the Coastal Range west of Eugene. Linda, his wife, prepared an incredible meal for us as Giribar and his two sons, Nicky and Joey, kept us entertained with piano, guitar, ping pong and badminton activities.

Giribar’s and Linda’s son, Nicky, entertains the troops with impressive musicianship for his young age.

We also watched videos of our World Harmony Run in the first month of this year’s event as well as last year’s Run. It seemed like the distant past to see what we did only two months ago. Much has happened since then and many harmony lovers have met us and supported us in these two months for which we are extremely grateful.

A spirited game of round robin Ping-pong culminated in a feast prepared by our gracious hosts.

Our days of heading west are over and soon we will reach our northernmost point in Seattle. Then we will head east and back home to New York where our outer experiences will come to an end for this year, but the experiences that we have accumulated over these months will stay with us and with those whom we have met for a very long time.

Gratefully,

Arpan and Team Harmony

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