Saturday, May 19 dawned bright and beautiful at historic Fort Henry high on a hilltop overlooking the City of Kingston.

Runners arrived from Kingston, Ottawa and Toronto, ready to relay the World Harmony Torch eastward towards Gananoque and then on to Smiths Falls.
The fort was originally built during the War of 1812 between Canada (then a British colony) and the United States. It is situated at a very strategic location at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River.

When threat of war with the Americans was rekindled in the 1840s, Fort Henry was enlarged and four smaller, circular, "cannon-proof" redoubts were also built along the shore of Lake Ontario.

From Victoria Day weekend through to Thanksgiving weekend, uniformed soldiers daily recreate 19th century military life within the fortified walls of Fort Henry, offering the public a firsthand view of the Changing of the Guard and the Garrison Parade, as well as three artillery firings.

Now, two centuries later, WHR runners were given a ceremonial and colourful send-off by the Fort Henry guards, who braved the sunshine in their heavy woolen uniforms to fire off shots from their period rifles.

Carole Gagne was the first to tackle the many hills of Hwy 2, she ran 8.7 kilometres with Gautami, WHR team member from Slovakia.  Jhanabi Lebrun joined the two for a few fast kilometers of running.

Next to run were two teams from Kingston's Goodlife Fitness. In two teams of two, they went as far as Larry's Landing, a total distance of 10.1 kilometres. 

They passed the Torch to Kingston's next set runners from Lululemon Athletica, the Canadian sports clothing store of choice for growing numbers of people. Congratulations and thank you for carrying the Torch 8.7km on its global journey.

Great red!  Sanchita loves her World Harmony Run support vehicle!

Police escort through Gananoque - really nice!

The next runners on route were Ron Hackett and Tim Scapillato.  Ron is a vision-impaired long-distance runner, . Incidentally, Ron and Tim, members of the Won with One organization for vision-impaired runners, had already completed a training run of more than 40 kilometres before taking the torch! 

These two are serious athletes who kept an amazing pace even in the scorching sun.

Who is that napping on the job? 

Seeleys Bay Athletics

Heading north to Morton, ON we passed the Torch off to the enthusiastic group from Seeleys Bay Athletics. Thanks to Tanya Abrams who coordinated their participation and arranged to have custom T-shirts printed "Seeley's Bay Athletics Supports the World Harmony Run". Nice job!

The team from Seeley's Bay Athletics spanned every age group and even brought their own lead cyclist, pictured here on her pretty pink pace bike.

They carried the Torch nearly 10km along the winding and climbing Fortune Line and Summers Roads.

The running was touch on these back roads, but nature's beauty made up for the steady climbing, dust and high heat. Thanks to Seeley's Bay Athletics for your enthusiastic participation!

Next it was onto the beautiful Cataraqui Trail.

Just as beautiful was the 35km relay up the scenic Cataraqui Trail, a rail line turned to trail line spanning 104 km from Napanee to Smith Falls.

On route Mary Stewart received the Torch, she is an inspired runner who kept a great pace along a 7 km section - although we are both certain it was considerably longer (real distance TBA). 

Along with being owner operator of The Running Goat - a one of kind Skate Board, Running and Apparel shop in the heart of Perth, ON - Mary also coordinates the Annual Perth Kilt Run - 5 Miler. Sounds like a fun event where every runners wears an authentic Scottish style kilt - inspired by their sister city in Perth, Scotland.

We ended the day in Smiths Falls as the sun was setting.

Video Mesage from Davidson Hepburn, President (2009 - 2011) of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for 25th Anniversary of the World Harmony Run and a vision for the decade: "Toward a Oneness-World". With FRENCH subtitles.

Full Text of the 25th annversary message and link to 25 language informal Translations: http://www.worldharmonyrun.org/25

• Youtube video on African experience which illustrates IYY slogan "Our Year Our Voice" International Year of Youth - Zambia World Harmony. They surprisingly mention Presidents and UN Secretary-General in a unique way!

• Listen to the World-Harmony-Run song: 2 min version // 6 min

– Prapti Jensen

Team Members:
Kautuhalam Gill (Canada), Medur Wilson (Canada), Sanchita Fleming (Canada), Sarvagata Ukrainskyi (Ukraine), Dimitriy Dudko (Ukraine), Prapti Jensen (Canada), Paramita Jarvis (Canada), Hladini Wilson (Canada), Manoshri Sykorova (Slovakia), Menaka Ait-Ouyahia (Algeria), Anavi Devies (Canada), Karnayati Morison (Canada)

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