Early morning, 7am, our World Harmony Van leaves our peaceful lodgings at the Zen dojo, to drive to the starting point for today’s running. Here we meet our two remaining girls and set off. The weather is still grey with occasional light showers.

Our first meeting is at 8.30 in Legionowo. A small group of yellow-clad army boys joins us on the way to a playground, where we meet the Mayor of the city and a soccer team of bright-eyed boys. They join the army for a while to run with us out of the city.

Through beautiful fields lined with deciduous trees we run towards our next meeting in Nasielsk, where we are greeted by cheerful, brightly smiling city representatives who offer us a buffet table of fruit. Three of them also join us along the road for several hundreds of metres. This town has a very special clear and cheerful atmosphere.

The road now takes us to the picturesque old village of Nowe Miasto. How old you ask? Well, the name means “new city”, that old. A delightful smorgasbord waits for us in a little park where the Mayor greets us enthusiastically. After hearing us talk about the run he runs to our escorting police car and lets everyone around know about it through the police speaker. Many people are at their windows and listen with interest. A group of sprightly young kids then run out with us for a few kilometres, with the sporty Mayor joining us for quite a few hundred metres.

We have a surprise meeting in Ojrzen where 5 happy officials are waiting for us with a table of fruits, drinks, and chocolate.

A few radiant local runners run with us through Ciechanow.

A bunch of kids runs with us into Mlawa where a nice crowd is waiting by the Town Hall, smiling and clapping as we run in. A few reporters are also present to record the event. With the torch we light a lamp that we then place at a memorial for Pope John Paul II, who is a special honorary citizen of this town. We are then invited inside into shelter from the light drizzle. Here a fantastic snack buffet has been put up for us.

A troop of kids then runs with us to the border of the town, where a busload of kids from the next town, Ilowo-Osada, is waiting. At the centre of Ilowo-Osada we have an unplanned ceremony with city representatives together with a nice crowd, of which a big part continues running with us out of town. Among it are children athletes dressed in green. Even our organisers are getting a bit confused, because from Mlawa onwards groups of people are joining unexpectedly from left to right. At the border of Działdowo more runners join and we run together through the city, past grand architecture, to an impressive partly restored German Knight Order castle, which today functions as an official building. Here we meet the city officials.

The city provides us with nice lodgings for the night and our Polish friends invite us for a nice dinner.

Distance: 132km

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