My team started our day with a very nice send-off from Leslie, who just happened to be standing outside her shop at our start point. As soon as I told her what we were doing, she immediately said "You give me hope that we can have a better world." It's meetings like these that also reinforce our own belief in the innate goodness of humanity. So thank-you to Leslie for giving us such a happy start to our day.

The entire route today was so beautiful that I felt that I would have liked to run the whole of it myself. But we are a team so we have to share, (plus of course I couldn't actually run 110 miles in one day).

It was a very rolling road with wave after wave of ups and downs, and a distinct impression that there was overall more of the up. It seemed that we were climbing and climbing and then finally crossing a kind of plateau.

The Oklahoma wind was still blowing hard so running today was again a challenge, but again the gorgeous sunshine and scenery made it a really great experience.

We'd like to welcome our newest team member, Jeromy - accommodations coordinator extraordinaire! We'd rather he left his friend here at home.

There was just one point, at a bridge, where the shoulder was narrow and a thick blanket of sand was blowing across the road from some construction works nearby. As we drove across ahead of our runner we could barely see the cars coming towards us.

This didn't look very safe for a lone runner on the road, so we turned around to pick her up and drive her over the bridge just to be on the safe side.

For our overseas runners there was another classic American experience today - we saw our first cowboys. So now we really know that we are heading to the West!

The southwestern section of Oklahoma is quite spread out, scenic and sparse in terms of population. Most of the people we saw were in cars travelling to and from work, some of them honking or waving as they passed.

Although we did meet some very nice people who had stopped to talk with us by their fields of rye growing all around, the most memorable events of the day for me were the long, straight roads, the strong winds that challenged us from the south, and most of all Atulya finally receiving and wearing his new style of running shoes.

These new style of shoes demonstrate the concept of having all the toes free to offer more stability and balance plus very little cushioning so as to have close contact with the ground and more natural foot strike and stability. Salil has already been using a pair for most of his runs and seems to like them a lot. It is not to degrade the fancier, more ‘beefed up’ running shoes that everyone is used to, but just to offer a new experience of running ‘freedom’ that these shoes represent.

Running can be sometimes quite harmonious and at other times quite a struggle. Anything that can bring newness and excitement into our running experience is always welcome. These new shoes that are totally different than any other type of running shoes we have been used to for decades, offer an exciting and fresh way to experience putting our feet to the ground thousands of times in order to carry the torch and to try and spread harmony everywhere we run.

The two hotels that offered us complementary rooms tonight were the Super 8 in Elk City and...

... the Ramada Inn, also in Elk City. We are grateful as always, for such nice accommodations.

– Arpan and Kokila

Distance: 110 miles

Team Members:
Arpan DeAngelo (New York), Atulya Lee Berube (San Diego), Mark Collinson (England), Kshetragna Ulanova (Russia), Surya Smolennikova (Russia), Vladimir Salnicov (Moldova), Kokila Chamberlin (England), Vajra Henderson (New York), Drsalu Gruenstaeudl (Austria), Becky Xerri (Wales), Maria Manecke (Germany), Jeromy Cheatham (San Diego)

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