After a wonderful night’s accommodations in the Red Lion Inn for some of the runners and the Holiday Inn Express for others, we all had an interesting event to attend. Actually, it was two events at the Veterans’ Park in Klamath Falls. The first event was a 10 km footrace held to raise money for the Kinetic Sculpture Race to follow. Amy Wood and her husband Jeff organized the footrace and kindly invited us to be present at the awards ceremony to talk about the World Harmony Run.

Amy and Jeff also gave us rooms at the Holiday Inn as they are the General Managers. Although Jeff could not make it to the events at the park due to his busy schedule, Amy was so kind and gracious as she introduced us with enthusiasm and joy. We are so grateful to people like Amy who immediately embrace our ideals and invite us to be part of their events.

Following the footrace, the 1st annual Klamath Falls Kinetic Sculpture Race offered us many surprises. Morris Klein, one of our American runners, offers this account:

“‘What is the air speed of an unlaiden swallow?’

“To the lay person, this might not be the first question we should expect from a vehicle safety inspector. But at the Kinetic Sculpture Race, style is undoubtedly king.

“The ‘officer’, an old man in a yellow jump suit and a luxurious blue wig, was peering up and down at something called ‘The Frog’— a huge contraption resembling a bicycle with sails and monster wheels. The owner of the vehicle, dressed in a green bib and green spandex tights with big flippers, had attached a sign to the back of the sculpture : ‘Frog parking only. All others will be toad!’

“A smaller, but no less mysterious vehicle, entitled ‘Tadpole’ was maneuvered by a little child with a mischievous smile.

“Many other vehicles vied for my attention by sheer virtue of their, um, specialness. One vehicle, entitled ‘Barbie Beach Party’ was decorated with dozens of Barbie dolls in various styles of beach attire, and was driven by two middle aged men and their children, all wearing daring pink vests, fluffy pink boas and matching sunglasses. I was blinded by the glamour.

“The judges, two women dressed as queens in black sequined dresses and sporting heavily fake British accents explained to me that this race has been held annually for thirty-six years (though not always in Kamath Falls). In a display of eccentric ingenuity, the participants must complete an eight mile course, over roads, hills and across a lake, on amphibious crafts of their own design. No motors are permitted; all the contraptions must be human powered—mostly with pedals, wheels and sails.

“To qualify for the race, competitors much have a working knowledge of Monty Python as well as a lot of stamina, creativity and gumption.

“‘Have your kids been drinking?’ The inspector asked one driver, dressed as a train engineer in an ingenious bicycle-locomotive complete with smokestack and horn.

‘Of course!’ The man joked (I hope) ‘How else did you think I could convince them to come aboard?’

“About twelve people competed in this year’s race. Before the start, the organizer, Denise, kindly introduced us, the World Harmony Runners, and all the participants and their families cheered for us. We cheered for them, too.

“The World Harmony Run is difficult. I am happy that we get to meet people with big hearts and big imaginations who in their own way, try to spread joy and good will to others. I don’t know who won; but I’m putting my money on the bicycle-boat that was in the form of a giant bumble bee.”

After this uniquely entertaining and at the same time enlightening experience, some of the runners had to head out on the road as other runners were already running towards us.

My team had to make or find lunch, and we ended up doing both. Damon found some very nice people managing one of the three local Subway sandwich shops. Mark Moore from the Subway kindly offered 12 huge subway sandwiches for us. We were able to cut them in half as part of the rest of our lunch bags for the runners and everyone had plenty of food to keep them going.

On a personal note, it was nice to have my younger brother and his family with us all day today. Joey, age 11, ran 5 miles. As a matter of fact, we could not hold him back or slow him down too much. His dad, my brother Giribar, also ran about 5 or 6 miles. Linda, his wife, carried the torch for about two miles walking briskly in the fresh and cool mountains of southern Oregon.

After the day’s running of about 97 miles for the whole team, we all got together for a special dinner cooked by some of the women. Following the delicious food and dessert, we had a small farewell ceremony for one of our intrepid women runners who has been with us since the beginning, over two months ago. Elke, from Austria, has to leave us now but will forever remain with us inwardly. Her selfless, tireless and cheerful presence will be sorely missed.

Arpan and Team Harmony

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