Sweden 26 June: Uppsala - Arboga
Today's run took us out of Uppsala where we bade farewell to Peter, the ultra-runner from the Netherlands, who had run with the team from Moscow. Initially we ran on a busy main road, but soon we left it for much quieter roads, sweeping through areas of vast scenic beauty. We ran through large plains of lush crops dotted with red houses and clumps of trees.
On the way we met with passers-by. First with a merry family intrigued by the run; the father of the family is a nutritionist and told us that he studies the physique of athletes. He wondered if we take nutrition tests as we run.
He was a little embarrassed to be eating ice-cream while having this conversation. Never mind; on the Harmony Run, ice cream is a runner's best friend!
Then we met with some locals. At the sight of the torch their faces lit up with joy.
We stopped for lunch at an old Viking settlement called Anundshog. With a team of sixteen runners, at lunchtime the food doesn't last long!
Anundshog is actually the name for the large mound that rose ten meters into air.
This is the biggest tumulus (tomb) in Sweden dating back to 800AD. Of course we couldn't miss the opportunity to have some fun running up and down this mound!
The mound overlooked ship settings (stones the forming the outline of a ship).
On a plague it read "Folkvid raised all these stones for his son". He must have been a strong man!
The day was going smoothly until we lost Petr. For almost a half an hour we drove around the town of Vasteras looking him. Meanwhile the other Petar was selling harmony in the local store.
It turned out that there was actually two route-ways called E18 and unfortunately Petr took the wrong one! He ran down a big highway full of traffic until intuition got the better of him. Eventually we found him with a big smile on his face. These things happen!
We arrived to our destination of Arboga that evening and ran through the town as a group.
Later in the evening we met with a friendly journalist called Yiva Lindstrom who was intrigued by the run and will publish an article in a newspaper called "Bargslagsbladet". She asked Ondrej many nice questions.
As we settled down for the night we could hear rainfall outside. Hopefully it would not last until the morning.
Distance: 164km
Team Members:
Alexey Egorov (Russia), Colm Magee (Ireland), Franz Hintereger (Austria),Gints Peleckis (Latvia), Jadranka Grbic (Serbia & Montenegro), Janos Derekas (Hungary), Jirka Albrecht (Czech Republic), Mark Collinson (England), Olesya Ilyasova (Russia), Ondrej Vesely (Czech Republic), Petar Mihaylov (Bulgaria), Petr Machacek (Czech Republic), Roger Rogge (Germany), Sylka Schmicker (Germany), Svetlana Gorshkova (Russia), Valentine Bebik (Ukraine).
Harmonemail:
You can send a message to the runners or read the messages.
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