The glorious weather from the previous day continued and it was forecast to be even hotter.

The sea in Mount’s Bay was still and calm and there was not a breeze in the air. The sky was blue with wispy high cloud.

The team started their run from Penzance harbour and ran by the outdoor Jubilee Swimming Pool and along the promenade. On Penzance promenade the previous weekend 8,734 people dressed as pirates gathered to break the previous world record of 6,166.

We ran into the home of Penzance & Newlyn RFC - the Cornish Pirates. As we arrived we were greeted by the club mascot Captain Benbow. (See the article on the home page.)

Phil Westren, Press Officer gave a wonderful and insightful speech about harmony and the community and the club:

“It is quite appropriate that WHR wanted to visit us, as rugby football has much to be proud of in relation to promoting good harmony between people. Consider the number of players from all over the world that we have played - with and against - and the lifelong friendships that have been made."

We had a brief interlude to chat to some players and the club officials and they very kindly provided refreshments for the team. The players don't officially gather more or less as a complete squad again until Monday for their pre-season training,...

...but we were delighted that a small number were able to come along to meet us.

The runners, players and mascot ran around the pitch. The ground has recently been reseeded and it was so green and lush.

Some had the chance to wear his hat. You just can’t stop some runners from dressing up!

t was so relaxing to chat to the players and we had some hilarious moments. Devashishu jokingly said to the players that Nandathu wanted to know what a rugby tackle felt like but this backfired and Nandathu replied that Devashishu should do the Haka. At which point the whole team cheered and he couldn’t really back down. With one of the Cornish Pirates players he performed the start of the New Zealand Haka much to the hilarity of all.

We made so many friends at the club and they made us so welcome it was hard for us to leave. Our eternal gratitude goes to Phil Westren for organising this event. With fondness we waved goodbye and headed onwards.

I was very grateful to have my family join us this morning and hold the torch!

Our final meeting of the GB run was at the spectacular world famous Minack Theatre.

The views from the top were breathtaking and you had to pinch yourself to remind yourself that this was reality. As soon as you enter this venue it is like a dream world and akin to a piece of heaven.

We were warmly greeted by Phil Jackson, Theatre Manager, who most generously let the whole team come in for free.

We did the ceremony on the stage and sang the World Harmony Run song to him and the many tourists mingling around.

Then we just spent time admiring the awesome views, the wonderful light and the different colours of the ocean. We had been truly blessed by some marvellous weather.

And afterwards we certainly made the most of it by going down the steep cliffs to the golden sands of Porthcurno beach where we had a reviving swim in the cold water. Well, you can’t have everything. It may look like the Caribbean but this is still Cornwall!

We waited for extra runners coming from London and we then gathered for our final 6 miles to be run on the coastal footpath to Land’s End.

I think this might have been one of the highlights of the entire GB run. Words cannot really describe it.

The scenery and landscape just takes your breath away and you are left standing in awe of nature.

Those final 6 miles took quite a while as around every corner there was another cove and we all had to stop to admire the views. We all just wanted to savour these most precious moments.

I'm bit biased as I’m originally from Cornwall, but even today left me speechless. I now long to come back to Cornwall to have more of these amazing experiences, but in part it was because this was the World Harmony Run and we were truly blessed by someone up above. We were all living in the moment, in the here and now and if felt wonderful. I’ll leave you to judge for yourselves at some of the amazing photos.

We did eventually arrive at our final destination – Land’s End. As we were running to our final point there was a large Indian family from London celebrating one of their family members 50th birthday.

As I ran up I just instinctively gave him the torch – it seemed the right thing to do and a fitting moment, seeing that Sri Chinmoy was originally from Bengal. Perhaps it was a way of linking back to India and reminding us all that we are all interconnected. We all felt so much gratitude to the founder of the World Harmony Run, Sri Chinmoy.

And so our journey for from John O’Groats ended, but we all know another journey will continue as Iceland take up the torch for three weeks to be run in their country. About 7 runners from this GB international team also continue onto Iceland. We wish them a safe journey.

All the regional coordinators have their utmost respect and eternal gratitude to the whole team. It was such a pleasure to run with you all and these experiences will remain in our hearts for eternity. When I think about all the glorious moments I am so full of joy and I know we fulfilled our goal and touched so many people’s hearts.

Here’s me signing off, but watch this space as we hope to do some local World Harmony Run events down in Cornwall.

Is this the end?

 

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The World Harmony Run proudly supports the International Year of Youth (IYY) and the International Year of Forests (IYF) proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly.

See the recent 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! 

See also the UNESCO World Heritage (WH) Centre support for IY of Forests.  ... Convention for conservation of forest biodiversity. (more)

 

– Rasmivan

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Distance: 21 miles

Team Members:
Apaguha Vesely (Czech Republic), Prabala Carvalho (France), Balavan Thomas (England), Amalendu Edelsten (Australia), Atulya Berube (USA), Nandathu Saltzman (USA), Atul Arora (India), Lenka Svecova (Czech Republic), Shobhavati Davies (New Zealand), Shradda Kurzemniece (Latvia), Teekhnata Metzler (USA) Becky Xerri (Wales), Rasmivan Collinson (England), Suswara Payne (England), Devashishu Torpy (England), Serena Kullich (England), Rebecca Kullich (England). Sanjaya Spettigue (England), Tarit Stott (Scotland), Dhavala Stott (Scotland), Shyamala Stott (Scotland)

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

Gallery: See more images!

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