Our second day in Iceland looked promising at dawn, with a ray of hope of sunshine and no rain! Alas, Iceland showed us that you can never predict this beautiful country.

The sports team that ran with us into Hvolsvöllur was so inspired by the run yesterday, that all the runners wanted to join us for part of our 77 kilometre run into Vík today.

The kids started out at quite a fast pace, but after we learned the Icelandic word for "slower", our weary legs got a few kilometres to warm up. By this time, our excited runners had run off their energy and were settling into a "long run" pace.

Today's route took us through some very historic parts of Iceland, making this run not only stunningly beautiful, but also a most interesting look into Iceland's history.

The first historic site we stumbled upon was Hlíðrendi. In the 10th century, this was the home of the viking / farmer Gunnar á Hlíðrenda. The organizers of the sports team told us the story of Gunnar, of how he had been exiled from Iceland but couldn't bear to leave his home, although it would mean almost certain death. And ultimately he was killed, but only after he had performed the heroic deeds chronicled in Njáls saga, a manuscript from the 13th century.

Today there is a beautiful little church there.

From there we went off the beaten track, with some Icelandic horses greeting us on our way to a famous hill called Dímon.

The sports club is actually named after this hill. The locals told us that the name Dímon can mean either a female troll or two mountains - in the latter case, the word comes from Gaelic, meaning two mountains. And actually there are two mountains, Little Dímon - and Big Dímon, the one we ran to.

Once we arrived at Dímon we took a break - which ended up being a 20 minute walk / climb up to the top (just the thing to rest legs that have already had a 10 kilometre run this morning).

After hearing so much history of Iceland retold to us today, none of us were too surprised to see our mild-mannered Icelandic team member Suren hoist one of our World Harmony Run flags and set off running at full speed down Dímon, singing what seemed to be a traditional Icelandic song claiming the land as he ran.

A little bit more history, as the kids ran over a nice-looking disused bridge.

Off on our journey again, only to be slowed down by some stunning waterfalls, along the main highway.

After warming up from our run, it was very refreshing to have the spray of the waterfall cool us down.

We didn't have time to visit all the nice waterfalls along the route - some we had to admire from a distance. Maybe next year?

Back on the road again, with the wind and rain greeting us, our local runners, seemed to be increasing in number - no weather was stopping them coming out.

There weren't any age or size restrictions either.

I have a sneaking suspicion word got out that there was ice cream for all of the runners in Vík!

As we reached our final destination of the day, the sun was shining and there was ice cream all round.

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Distance: 77km

Team Members:
Ondrej Vesely (Czech Republic), Klaus Schulz and Mathias Eckerle (Germany), Maria Horvath and Erika Pongracz (Hungary), Martin Prettenhofer (Austria), Stacey Marsh (New Zealand), Suren Leósson and Viktoría Áskelsdóttir (Iceland).

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

Gallery: See more images!

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WHR Austria 2007