We awoke from our slumber to the sound of Sunday morning church bells with the clouds hanging in the valley. There had been a thunderstorm during the night and the air felt nice, cool and fresh.

Today began with a few false starts - this sometimes happens. Firstly, the silver van's battery was flat (this is not the first time this has happened) and after unsuccessful attempts at pushing it we had to revert to attaching cables to the van from the white van. We did eventually get away, and were 9 km from our hotel only to discover that one of the girls had left the laptop adaptor in the hotel room, so we had to go all the way back to retrieve it.

The majority of the towns and cities we were to visit today are in the region known as Koroska and is amongst the most mountainous Slovenian regions. Ninety percent of the land is covered by gradients, mostly pre-Alpine hills. So we were to be treated to some spectacular scenery.

When we eventually hit the road again we met up with a group of young footballers from Dravograd. We ran a few kilometers to the town's impressive football stadium of NK Koroska Dravograd where we met Jani Pecnik, President of the Sport Association. He commented how important sport was in bringing people together and the power it has to foster friendship and goodwill. His son, Andrej Pecnik is a professional footballer for Sigma Olomuc, one of the first division clubs in Czech Republic. They provided some pizza for us, but we had only just finished breakfast a few hours earlier so it was a bit too early for some of us.

After a group photograph on the football pitch we headed to Ravne na Koroskem where the mayor, Mr Maksimiljan Vecko greeted us at the town's outdoor swimming pool. We also met a sportsman who competed in the 1952 Winter Olympics in 50 km and 30 km skiing, who ran with us.

As it was beginning to warm up it was a joy to be invited by the mayor to go for a swim in the pool with two wonderful slides - we are all children at heart and love going down the water slides as fast as possible.

The road to Slovenj Gradec steadily got steeper and hillier and our final 5 km approach to the town was filmed by local television on a motorbike. Just outside the town we were joined by local boys and ran to meet the vice mayor, Sumecnik Juris. He hoped that with the town's wishes for harmony the flame would burn brighter.

At Mislinja we had many treats in store. Outside the town we met the mayor, Viktor Robnik and some local young ski jumpers.

As we approached the town covered in plastic, as well as with a new chairlift. Mr Robnik stated we transcend ourselves by running long distances, but what we were about to watch shortly would be the ski jumpers transcending height and distance.

As the ski jumpers were getting ready all of us took advantage to ride on the ski lift and take in the fabulous views.

Once we had come back down we took our places to watch the young ski jumpers jump - they were very impressive.

With delight we applauded them. One young ski jumper then jumped with the torch, which was a fabulous sight.

The mayor provided us with delicious pizzas, and so many, at least one per runner!

Not to be outdone our Peter Pan took up the challenge to jump from the smallest of the ski jumps, the 13-metre jump. Once kitted out with all the gear he took the skis and headed to the jump. Once up there we waited in anticipation. He came down the slide, jumped a few feet in the air (for a Peter Pan we hoped he would fly further!), landed and fell on his side sliding all the way down to the grass. We all cheered and applauded his courage and enthusiasm. He was still smiling as he lay on the grass saying, "Can someone help me get these skis off". The ski jump coach warmly congratulated him, but he said, "You did everything wrong, and a little bit more".

Ondrej then decided to have a go himself. He took a while to get all his kit on and asked the coach many questions about the technique. Whilst he was talking the mayor jokingly brought out the First Aid kit and the stretcher. We all laughed. Ondrej eventually jumped 8.5 meters and landed well but when he came to the end of the jump area the grass stopped his skis and he fell forward sliding on his front.

It was a very hilarious moment. Full up with pizza and laughter we carried on our journey to the next city, Velenje.

The vice mayor of Velenje, Ana Rosa Hribar stated how the city fully supports sporting initiatives as sport enables people to develop their capacities and the World Harmony Run strives for more kind and harmonious cooperation between people and nations. She presented us with a beautiful book about the city with some stunning photographs.

After running a further 15 km we came to Mozirje where we visited the Garden Park next to the River Savinja. It is a most tranquil and colorful place.

There are many fragrant and beautiful flowers with traditional Slovenian houses from the 18th and 19th centuries in the park.

At Gornji Grad we met the President of the Sports Association, Raiter Vid.

From Gornji Grad we ran 5 km of undulating hills, and then 7 km of steep 500 m elevation to the summit of 902 m of the Menina Mountain range. The view running up the mountain was breathtaking.

Our Slovenian country coordinator, Marjan Jauk was 11 times national mountain biking champion (he has now retired from the professional circuit) and on the route he met many cyclists who wished to greet and speak to him, and then hold the torch with him. For Marjan running up the steep elevation was easy, but for other runners it was lung bursting and energy sapping, but we all got to the summit in one piece. He is truly amazing sportsman. We hope that his bike will not look like this in few years:

It was great to run the final distance of the day downhill to the spectacular mountain town of Kamnik.

As we ran down the twisting and turning roads we could see Kamnik in the valley with the steep mountain slopes rising straight upwards and the summits covered with wispy clouds. A few hundred metres to the meeting point young children from the running club joined us. As we entered the focal point of the town we received a rousing welcome by the large crowd. The mayor, Anton Tone Smolnikar warmly received us and said some kind words.

There had been a 10 km mountain race during the day and most of the runners were present. The winner of the men's race, Jonathan Wyatt from New Zealand won the 2000 m elevation race in an awesome 1 hour 15 minute. Jonathan Wyatt is presently one of the best mountain runners in the world, and with a marathon time of 2.15. We briefly spoke to him and he told us he had run in New Zealand with the Peace Run 10 years ago. He signed Pratul's World Harmony Run t-shirt, which made Pratul very happy. We also met the winner of the women's race, Pichrtova and Iva Milesova also from the Czech Republic. Ondrej spoke to them and invite them to run with us next year. The torch got passed around to all the local people and the competitors. We had a group photograph with the winners of the race and the mayor.

Kamnik town very kindly and generously provided us superb accommodation at the spa resort Terme Snovik. Although 20.30 by the time we reached the complex we just had enough time to swim in the waters and relax in the Jacuzzi before it closed at 21.00. We were then treated by a great evening meal at the resort.

From start to finish it had been an unbelievable day of surprises, meeting friendly and ever so kind people, and running in dramatic mountains. With all the fresh mountain air and some challenging running we were all glad for our heads to hit the pillows.

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Distance: 132km

Team Members:
Anete Klavina (Latvia), Anna Lesmann (Germany), Anne Schulze (Germany), Dipavajan Renner (Austria), Edmund Blab (Austria), Janusz Wiewior (Poland), Mark Collinson (England), Martin Prettenhofer (Austria), Ondrej Vesely (Czech Republic), Petar Mihaylov (Bulgaria), Petr Machacek (Czech Republic), Pratul Halper (Austria), Sandro Zincarini (Italy), Terezia Hammel (Hungary), Veronika Kuliskova (Slovakia), Zoltan Theobald (Hungary).

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