Our running day started early in the morning: 150 km to go, a few meetings to attend and one less runner, who urgently had to go to the dentist. Fortunately Mark was back being able to run again after a bad chill and stomach upset the previous day, and we were supposed to welcome two new members in our Polish team later in the day.

During the first meeting of the morning we met two local runners and the mayor’s secretary who ran a few steps with us.

Then we had to run 22 km in one hour for our next meeting: tight schedule! But as they say, “Where there is a will there is a way”, so we split the team and made it in time to Kazimierz. There, 30 children and their schoolteacher ran with us to the city hall where the mayor welcomed us.

In the old building we enjoyed nice refreshments and some “fuel” for the run. We then ran some more distance with the children before saying our happy goodbyes.

In Pulawi we met with the mayor, a few other local officials and an interviewer from a radio station.

The mayor ran with us from the city hall to the buffet where very nice sandwiches, fruits, sweets and still water (good to have it not sparkling for once!) were waiting for us.

A few kilometres ahead, two sympathetic ladies were waiting for us at the outskirts of the city with another buffet. But we were late in our planning, so we just waved at them but did not stop. 5 minutes later, we saw them coming to us and we were offered coffee, herbal tea, liquid yoghurt, and even more sweets and water. Really nice…

In Gotab, 12 unexpected teenagers were waiting for us on the side of the road with a Polish banner.

On the other side, the river Wisla was high on its banks from the previous rainy days.

In Deblin, a city famous for its air force military academy (known as the “school of eagles”), the young mayor, an accomplished sportsman who is practising at high-level tennis, biking and football, held a welcome ceremony in his office filled with trophies. This was very inspiring to see. He really promotes sport in his city. On behalf of his city he offered us some information on the town, a t-shirt and a cap for each runner among many presents.

Present in his office was also a former national windsurfing champion and a promising woman athlete running 800 metres, 1000 metres but mainly hurdles competitions. Then we ran with football players and continued our way to Warsaw.

In Maciezowice we ran again with football players, while a fire truck was escorting us.

We were then greeted by the mayor and sport officials in the museum of Tadelus Kosciuszko, a famous 18th century Polish soldier.

After the ceremony we were accompanied on the road by a whole bus of enthusiastic children from different schools. They ran with us in small groups for 10 km, changing the team every 400m. Unfortunately we had to stop the kids after 10 km, so that we could be on time for our next meeting.

Running alongside a national park whose name means “beautiful park” we could enjoy the view of many orchards and meadows.

In the last city of our busy schedule, we ran to a stadium where we were welcomed by the vice-mayor and young athletes.

After a short ceremony we ran with few of them for about 2 km and hastily finished our day.

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Distance: 150km

Team Members:
Ivana Bauernoplova (Czech Republic),Jarek Werner (Poland), Mark Collinson (England), Mikael Vilpoux (France), Ondrej Vesely (Czech Republic), Pawel Szymanski (Poland), Stepanka Sarvaicova (Czech Republic).

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