Today my team was on the afternoon running shift, so we spent the morning making the lunches for our team-mates, and then we drove on to Windom to meet them.

On the way we stopped our RV in the local park's camp ground to dump the old water and fill up the fresh, taking the opportunity of the long hosepipe to rinse some of the Badlands dust off the RV at the same time.

We then called one of the other teams to arrange a rendezvous point - they had already run their morning miles, and because of the cooler weather today had arrived a bit early and were waiting in a local cafe. The owner's daughter was very helpful and very excited about the run.

Today we were also rejoined by our long-lost team-mate Yuyudhan who ran with us from New York to the Southern states, and our good friend and team doctor, Megabhuti.

We all went to our meeting point at Windom town hall where Brigette from the Mayor's office was waiting for us and very graciously welcomed us to the town. A reporter from The Citizen newspaper was also there taking photos. We had a nice discussion about some of the logistics of the Run and introduced the team and our respective countries.

Just as we were finishing our introductions our runners arrived with the torch and a police escort which the town had kindly provided.

Dhima hosted his first ceremony, and did a fine job especially as English is his second language.

Of course we sang our World Harmony Run theme song, and Brigette said she was now adding another country to our international team as she was originally from Germany. Thank you for welcoming us and for so readily joining our team!

As we ran out of town we were joined by a young local runner, Ryan. He runs for the cross country team and did six miles with us on our way out of Windom.

Thanks Ryan we really enjoyed running with you! Keep it up and look for us in 2012.

My team now went on to run our afternoon's miles, through the pretty and historic town of St James and out into the peaceful countryside.

We were very lucky today because once again the cloud cover shielded us from the heat of the sun for most of our shift, and although it was quite humid there was a good breeze to offset it and we had nice comfortable running conditions.

We finally arrived into Mankato City in the early evening to the good news that the Olive Garden Restaurant had once again invited our team for dinner.

Manager Rise was extremely kind and hospitable and also very enthusiastic and supportive of our Run. A big thank-you to her and her staff for looking after us so well.

A special thank you to the City Center Hotel in Mankato for offering the team supremely comfortable rooms to read our tired heads.

– Kokila and Atulya

Distance: 95 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), Yuyudhan Hoppe (Minneapolis), Megabhuti Roth (Minneapolis)

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