Our day started in two different old Irish towns, Dublin and Drogheda, as we had meetings at schools arranged at both places at the same time!

We had an early morning start at our first Dublin school, John Scottus Junior School on Northumberland Road. The Team ran into the courtyard at 8.15am, to be met by lots of smiling faces expectantly awaiting our arrival. We started off by asking the children could they guess which countries the runners all came from - this proved to be no problem for the children, as there were representatives of many different countries attending the school!

We then heard some wonderful singing from the children, including a very nice song sung in a two-part round. We were very impressed that the children could give such an accomplished performance at such a young age.

We then passed the torch around for everyone to hold; whilst holding it everyone made a silent heartfelt wish for harmony and understanding. We then went for a run around the courtyard with the Torch; we were slightly hampered by space constraints, but that didn’t curb the enthusiasm of the children!

After saying goodbye we went the short distance down the road to the next school, Catherine McAuley National School in Baggot Street. The school had made some wonderful decorations on the theme of harmony between all the different continents of the world, including a Chinese dragon with all the flags of Asia attached to it!

Again we made a presentation on harmony, including some very funny skits giving examples of what is and isn’t harmony: we had an injured Ondrej being helped by two runners, and again we had the very same Ondrej being kicked in the backside by Ambarish as he grabbed the Torch and ran off with it! We’ll let the readers decide for themselves….

The whole school then went out for a run around the block with the Torch and all the flags and decorations, giving all the office-workers outside on their breaks something to smile about. We also had some national media there; Ailbhe from DenTV News came out to cover the event.

Ondrej gave a very nice interview and Ailbhe really got into the spirit of things, running with the Torch for a short distance. She was really enthusiastic and friendly.

Our next stop was Mansion House to visit the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Vincent Jackson. After a photograph on the front steps, he invited us inside where we talked about the Run, and the Mayor told us about other initiatives that he was currently helping promote.

The Lord Mayor told us how happy he was to welcome us here, as he felt his job was to affirm and support all the good things that people are doing for the benefit of the world. His concern for those less fortunate in society truly shone out, as did his single-minded focus on making things better.

On the World Harmony Run, inspiration is not a one-track channel; we are also inspired so much by many of the people we meet, and this meeting was no different.

Then we had police on motorbikes to escort ourselves and the van through the streets of Dublin as we made our way south towards the mountains.

We were fortunate enough to be out during lunch hour, and the public gave us a very nice welcome, with much clapping and honking of car horns.

As we ran out of Dublin we passed by Sportsworld in Terenure, where we were welcomed by the owner Mick Dowling, a bronze medal-winner in boxing at the 1968 Olympics.

We stopped at Rathfarnam Castle for a very nice lunch, with fresh organic salad generously provided by Blazing Salads and scrumptious sushi donated by Sushi King on Baggot Street.

Meantime in Drogheda, the Mayor accompanied the team to St. Mary’s Boys School, where a nice assembly of children welcomed us. Each student held a letter, to form the sentence 'World Harmony Run…brings people together'.

With students from many different backgrounds, this school was very multicultural. After holding the torch, the children asked many bright questions. The senior class was very enthusiastic whilst running with the torch; they raced around the school!

We departed from Drogheda with the sun shining brightly upon the runners. Once again the the road ahead of us meandered up and around steep hills, only to dip back down. This made for entertaining and invigorating running. The effort of running uphill was rewarded by the brief thrill of effortless downhill running with a refreshing wind blowing in the runner's face. After running through some beautiful countryside and villages we arrived at edge of Dublin.

We sent Natalya to run into towards Dublin city centre, but she quickly disappeared off our radar. Luckily, after almost an hour of searching for her, she found her way back on to the right road. We ran the last five kilometres into the city centre as a group. From there, we jumped straight into the van and drove to catch the other team.

The two teams finally reunited as we faced the Wicklow Mountains. There was some hard uphill running again, but it was all worth it as we encountered the stillness and desolation of the mountains on such a glorious day for running.

We decided not to be greedy, to leave some of the mountains for the next day, so tomorrow we will start again from the famous Sally Gap.

Back in Dublin we gathered for a meal at the Lotus Yoga Centre, where Paula, one of the Irish coordinators of the Harmony Run, is a teacher. We kindly thank the restaurants, namely, Yamamori, Fresh and Cornucopia for providing the team with exquisite and nourishing eastern dishes. There is nothing like a satisfying meal after a day of running.

To entertain the team as they ate Shane, Colm and Jwalanta preformed a hilarious play of past experiences on the Harmony Run. One could easily write a book about all the funny experiences over the years!

Distance: 84km

Team Members:
Andrea Fidrmuc (Austria), Erika Pongracz (Hungary), Colm Magee (Ireland), Shane Magee (Ireland), Miroslav Pospisek (Czech Republic), Nataliya Lehonkova (Ukraine), Ondrej Vesely (Czech Republic), Hanka Uchytilova (Czech Republic), Robert Senovsky (Czech Republic), Edward Brodtrager (Austria), Katka Prusova (Czech Republic), Bakul Keaney (Ireland), Marc Schrader (Germany), Vytautas Reinikis (Lithuania), Abichal Watkins (Wales), Gary Foran (Ireland), Jwalanta Voelckner (Germany), Mangala Keenan (Russia), Paula Flood (Ireland), Ambarish Keenan (Ireland).

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