Setting off nice and early, the girls team ran the final 10 km into Adelong this morning.
The team made it in time for our scheduled visit with St Joseph’s Primary School.
The children had been preparing over the previous few weeks, most having learned the World Harmony Run song, so they eagerly joined our voices in the song.
Students had worked on Peace Pledges and they came up to announce their Peace Pledge, giving them to the Peace Runners to take with us on our journey.
Some Peace Pledges:
Be helpful
Be kind and share
Don’t hog the ball any ball games
Help people who need help
Speak nicely to other people
Jayden Kapoor and Lottie McMahon came to accept the Certificate of Appreciation on behalf of the school.
Leaving the warmth of the classroom we made our way outside to all hold the torch and make a wish for peace before the students led us around the grounds and a fun run!
Once all the Peace Pledges were handed out, the students all gave us peace doves they had made for the Peace Run.
We were fortunate today to be running along a nice country road with rolling hills to keep us honest.
We all got to do at least 10 km today, enjoying our time out on the road and our time sitting waiting for our runner drinking in the natural beauty of the countryside.
Today we ran in lovely weather with the torch!
There were countless sheep and cows along the road.
The runners enjoyed nature’s beauty and peace very much. What a blessing to have the sun shining all day!
Both teams came together as we approached North Wagga Public School.
We arrived at the school with a few minutes to spare, to be met by The Daily Advertiser, which very quickly had their story online.
Our team ran into a cheering 270 students all wearing a sea of yellow and green.
Nikolaus spoke to them about the Peace Run and why we are running in Australia and all over the world. They took a while to guess his country but got it in the end.
The school Captains, Isabell and Flynn, accepted the Certificate of Appreciation on behalf of the school.
We all went outside to hold the torch and a chant of “Peace Run” went up around the oval.
With three fast laps of the oval later the students all sat back down in their class lines and the chant went up again to farewell us.
With just a short 2.5km to go to our final meeting today, one runner took off to run through the city ...
... meeting the rest of the team at Victory Memorial Gardens ...
... to meet the Mayor of the City of Wagga Wagga, Greg Conkey.
Mayor Conkey welcomed us to the city and explained the heritage of Wagga Wagga. There is a large multicultural population here that the people of Wagga are very proud of.
We sang our Peace Run song to the Mayor – who is in an All-Male Choir! Learning this made a few of us a little nervous to be singing to a singer but he graciously invited the team to join his Choir.
Prime Channel 7 News also came to get some shots of the Peace Torch and find out about the Peace Run as it came into Wagga Wagga today.
As the day drew to a close our team made it to our accommodation at Lincoln Cottage Motor Inn where Tina welcomed us to their lovely Motor Inn. Our women’s team are very grateful for the lovely accommodation this evening.
The Peace Run Team holds the torch with Lachie at Carlyle Suites and Apartments, where some runners spent the night.
Thank you, John, for a comfortable stay at Burringa Motel!
