Here is a video of what happened this morning in Memphis.

This morning Vladimir ran 10 miles through Memphis, from Elvis' Graceland to the Maria Montessori School, a beautiful and peaceful riverside location. Along the way he was joined by a very enthusiastic athlete named Frank Eudy. The video below tells the story.

The World Harmony Run has visited Maria Montessori School before, and some of the older children remembered the last visit of two years ago.

The children were very good at guessing our countries - even Moldova hardly checked their pace. They also asked lots of good questions, with a special interest in the lighting of the first world Harmony Run torch of 2010 at a volcano in Guatamala in January.

The school had set out a running course on the block around the school buildings, so we had a great run all together, with different children taking it in turns to hold the torch. It was quite a big group and they did get quite excited, so to keep them on the sidewalk and off the road the teachers and Harmony Runners ended up feeling a bit like sheepdogs.

It, really feels as if we are good friends with this school now. Many thanks to school director Maria Cole and her staff for welcoming us, and for their most enthusiastic participation in this year's World Harmony Run.

Team B then had a long drive (64miles) to our start point where we would run from Gates to Dyersburg Intermediate School. All went well until we came to a point where the road forked, and our fork was closed to traffic. We rang the school to try to get alternative directions, but in the meantime the traffic warden on the barrier said we could drive through.

The school had sent out some of its pupils to run 2 miles with us into the school. Unfortunately the rendezvous location was not where we had thought it would be and we had some trouble finding it until Phys. Ed teacher Mike McCullogh called to see where we were and talked us through the last section over the phone.

Once we were at the right place we found a group of eager young runners waiting to join us. They had organised a very good relay system. we had a police escort for safety, and then the junior runners started off in a lead van whilst the first two children ran with the Harmony Runners and took turns to carry the torch. Each quarter of a mile the runners would switch - the ones who had just run would go in a van behind us and two new recruits would jump out of the lead van and sprint off up the road.

It was great fun to meet all the kids - some of them had never met a genuine English person before, let alone Russians. We did try to teach them to say "privyet!" (= hello), but it's pretty hard to learn to speak Russian while you're out running at the same time. Some of the kids are keen athletes and are looking forward to running track next year when they move up schools. After running with us today some of them are also eager to run more with us when they are old enough - we'll be waiting for you!

Two miles later we arrived at the school driveway. All the kids now jumped out of the van again, and we ran together en mass into the school where the corridors were lined with more excited kids. Nice and noisy!

We had a great presentation in the school gym, telling them all about our Run and its aims.

Here too they were too good for us at guessing our countries and once again we had the forfeit of singing our World Harmony Run theme song (although actually we do like to do this).

Afterwards more of the children asked if they could come on the Harmony Run with us when they're older - they really took to the spirit of the Run. Many, many thanks to school principal Lou Newbill, for having us visit, and to Mike McCullogh for guiding us, and for the really excellent and seamless organisation which perfectly demonstrated the principles of working together as a team. Harmony in action.

My team still had quite a few of its allotted miles still to run, so after some much needed and refreshing water melon we took off into the heat of the afternoon, heading for Trimble.

Kokila

We were met by two local runners, Amy Payne and Kathy Forrester, as we entered the town of Covington. Two police officers, Dan Fuller and Jack Hall, kindly escorted the four of us as we ran through town to the Covington Fitness-Wellness Center. Amy is the director of Parks and Recreation, working at the Center with kids and adults alike. She has hosted us a few other times in past years and as always makes us feel very welcome in her town. After a nice little ceremony in the beautiful air conditioned complex, we were given a very sweet gift basket of fruit, chocolates and trail-nut mix along with ear warmers for our colder days ahead in the mountains.

Amy and Kathy ran with us one more time out to the other end of the city with the police escort giving us visibility and protection once more.

It was a hot and humid day but these two dauntless women who have run mainly on indoor treadmills over the winter were able to run about five miles with us today. Their enthusiasm and determination truly inspired us as we said our goodbyes and made our way to one more town for the day.

I was preparing to run into Ripley, a small town on our last leg of our section of the route today. Just before starting to run with the torch I spotted three local runners running towards me. I thought that they might have heard about our Run and wanted to join in. They were just out for a daily jog but they were happy to join me for the last two and a half miles into town. By the time we reached the town square Chip, Leslie and Martha were quite enthused about the experience and very supportive of our running endeavors. We have not had too many local runners joining us in the past, but today was a pleasant exception for which we are truly grateful.

Reaching City Hall in the town square, Mayor Jon Pavletic and Perry Williams of the Ripley Downtown Development Corporation were there to greet us warmly and cheerfully. I had been in Ripley many years ago and I was pleasantly surprised to see how new and cheery it looked now. These two gentlemen along with help from others and some state funding have done an amazing job transforming the face of their downtown area.

After our short ceremony we were led by the Mayor carrying the torch around the whole square, about ¼ mile. He spoke of many positive things about his wonderful town and of his connection to it over the many years he has lived there. He was a teacher, a school Principal and an athletic coach, working with children of all ages. He had a keen awareness and understanding of education and how important positive influences on children affect harmony and peace in the community. One piece of advice which stuck with me was something his mother told him when he was young, “Don’t let your title change who you are.” Humility and harmony always seem to go together.

That night we layed our tired bodies down to rest in the Comfort Inn in Dyersburg. They very kindly changed our smoking rooms to non-smoking, even though it is much easier to fill non-smoking rooms. We are extremely grateful for this icing on the cake!

Mark and Arpan

– Arpan, Mark and Kokila

Distance: 99 miles

Team Members:
Arpan DeAngelo (New York), Atulya Lee Berube (San Diego), Mark Collison (England), Kshetragna Ulanova (Russia), Surya Smolennikova (Russia), Vladimir Salnicov (Moldova), Kokila Chamberlin (England), Salil Wilson (Australia), Vajra Henderson (New York), Drsalu Gruenstaeudl (Austria), Becky Xerri (Wales)

Harmonemail:
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Gallery: See more images!