We started our day with a little help from our friends. Yesterday we met Shadia Habeych during our meeting at Bela-Artes and she was so keen to run with us for a while that we arranged to meet her at 8.30am today on the corner of Grand and Chouteau for the start of our day's running.

It was a nice surprise to see our St Louis co-ordinator, Nayana, waiting there - she doesn't have a car but her B&B landlady, Vicky Armor, got interested enough in the Run to drive her to our start on a cloudy Sunday morning.

Our friends from Chicago - Sukantika, Prakhara and Mary - also came along to help us with our miles, so we were a big team.

After covering a few miles between them our guest team members had to leave to start the long drive back to Chicago, but we'll see them there again on our way back east in late July.

Shadia was also inspired to come to Chicago and run with us again, so we hope to see you all again on the road!

After Rock Hill we had to drive forward on the route to Union to cover the rest of our delegated miles. In the middle of the afternoon it started to rain very heavily, and this section of the route was very hilly.

Nevertheless, I had a good experience running- the air was nice and clear and easy to breathe and the rain was cooling. Good conditions for a hill workout. I'm hoping my shoes will be dry in time for tomorrow's running though....

We also had a new team member joining us today - Maria, who is from Germany, will run with us until Seattle. Here are some of her impressions of her first day:

The moment when I held the torch and did my first steps on the road was an overwhelming feeling. I felt it such an honour to be on this wonderful run. I was thinking more and more that I could do this the whole time. I just felt so delighted to run with the torch to carry peace and harmony. And I waved to the people in the passing cars as they sent me such big smiles and waves. Happy faces, open hearts, is this not what all of us want?

A woman saw me running and she was so excited and delighted. She couldn't wait to hold the torch and run with me a little. Her name is Jane Hardy. So I am really grateful to her for our meeting and sharing a wish of world oneness.

Please enjoy an inspiring video from Memphis, TN, on May 12th. Thank you for your enthusiasm Frank!

The boys took the torch further down the road.

Like us, they had many miles in the rain.

The lighting was perfect for photographs.

Salil was pleased as pinch to run a personal best on this year's run so far.

We stayed at the wonderful Capitol Plaza Hotel in Jefferson City. Thank you so much for your kind offering of four rooms. We rested well!

– Kokila

Distance: 104 miles

Team Members:
Arpan DeAngelo (New York), Atulya Lee Berube (San Diego), Mark Collinson (England), Kshetragna Ulanova (Russia), Surya Smolennikova (Russia), Vladimir Salnicov (Moldova), Kokila Chamberlin (England), Salil Wilson (Australia), Vajra Henderson (New York), Drsalu Gruenstaeudl (Austria), Becky Xerri (Wales), Maria Manecke (Germany)

Harmonemail:
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Gallery: See more images!