The first team out made their way to Spearfish, SD to meet up with our very enthusiastic friend and reporter Heather (see July 12).

She very nicely covered our story both today on the road and last night at the campsite. With all her energy we hope to get some miles out of her on our next visit! Thank you Heather!

One of the boys’ teams started where the women’s team ended yesterday, in the Black Hills Forest of South Dakota. There are certainly a lot of hills – I think the women’s team got most of the uphill while the men’s team got the downhill.

The area is very beautiful with forest-covered hills and rivers running through which we criss-crossed numerous times.

The water looked very inviting but we had scheduled appointments with the local media in Rapid City.

We were fortunate enought to meet Martin and Brad Stover, from Rapid City. We had stopped over to wait for the runner in their driveway. They came out to see what we were up to, and were delighted to hold the torch. Good luck in your mountain bike racing Brad!

In Rapid City we met up with Christina Parker from the Rapid City Journal. Outside the city the local television station KEVN caught up with us. The cameraman had a job keeping up with Dima.

On the way out of Rapid City we noticed a local running store called The Runner’s Shop (www.sdrunnershop.com). We popped in to get a few essential running accessories and Dima needed a new pair of shoes.

We met one of the owners, Patricia Lunsford and three members of her staff, Krista, Marshall and Gerard. Patricia was so generous that she donated the running accessories to us and let Dima have the shoes for half price. We are so eternally grateful for her kindness and it was a pleasure to share some time chatting to them all. Many, many thanks and we hope to see you all again in the near future.

This morning two of our teams started out early. As today's route passed within a few miles of Mt Rushmore we wanted to have enough time to take a diversion to see it. It definitely proved worth the early start.

But first things first - we had to start by running our miles. My team had the climb up into the Black Hills. It was a pretty steep section, but the scenery was really stunning and the air smelt of pine trees and flowers. Although the day started off warm, once we had gained some altitude there was a nice cooling breeze.

Once at Mt Rushmore we decided to take the torch with us to the monument, intending to take a group photo there.

On the way in people were already stopping us to ask what it was and what we were doing, so we lit it and offered it to them to hold. This continued all the way from the car park to the monument, so it took us quite a while to make our way there, but all the people that we met were very enthusiastic to hear about our Run and very sincere in their wishes to hold the torch and participate in this global harmony event.

This couple and their son had an accent that I immediately recognised - they are my fellow countrymen, from England.

Many people approached us and said that they had seen us running on the road that morning or the day before. They would wish us well on our journey, and many of them thanked us for what we are doing.

In fact it's actually the people that we meet on our way and their support that keeps us going and makes the World Harmony Run the special experience that it is.

Finally we made it to the monument viewpoint for our group photo - but who would take the shot for us? This nice family from Buffalo took our picture, and then we took theirs in return.

And finally this family also stopped us on our way out wanted to add their wishes for global harmony. Of course!

Thank you so much to Rapid City for arranging for us to stay at the St Thomas Moore High School.

Thank you Moni for your smiles, miles and amazing coordination job for Montana. We loved having you on the team.

Jwalanta, it was great to have on the team for the first time. We hope it won't be the last. We'll miss that great German sense of humour!!!

– Mark, Atulya and Kokila

Distance: 108 miles

Team Members:
Atulya Berube (San Diego), Jagadhata Amrhien (Chicago), Drsalu Gruenstaeudel (Austria), Vladimir Salnacov (Moldova), Mark Collinson (England), Kokila Chamberlain (England), Surya Smolennikova (Russia), Kshetragna Ulanova (Russia), Dima Grygorievski (Ukraine), Sukhada Korshunova (Russia), Michaela Pokorna (Czech Republic), Moni Neradilek (Seattle), Jwalanta Voelckner (Germany)

Harmonemail:
You can send a message to the runners or read the messages.

Gallery: See more images!