The girls team left early to reach our first destination in Nambour for a meeting with the Sunshine Coast Regional Council. Councilor Jenny McKay greeted us most enthusiastically, accompanied by Katherine Morgan and Colin Potter.
Everyone present was very excited to hear about the Peace Run and provided us with an array of fresh fruit, coffee, tea and yoghurt.
Channel 7 news was on hand to catalogue the event ...
We departed the event earlier than we would have liked and received a fond farewell from our new friends at the Sunshine Coast Regional Council, more akin to leaving a family gathering than a meeting ...
... they waved goodbye to us from the street corner and left a lasting impression of goodwill and friendship.
Our entry into Brisbane meant arriving at the Brisbane Airport to retrieve our new teammates arriving from Mongolia. Their flight was delayed but while we waited, Tahereh made a new friend and advocate for the Peace Run in Helen, who was directing traffic in the arrivals pick up area. We had a wonderful talk with her, she shared her hopes for a more peaceful world along with some stories about her Greek heritage and son David.
Once we had gathered our new teammates, Uugantsetseg and Avanayaha, the girl’s team drove to our running start-location ...
By now our first boys team had started running from yesterday's finishing point at Australia Zoo ...
... Ion took the first shift, running 5km. Next ran Kaspars, also with 5km, but he didn't believe it really was five. He must have run too fast ...
... Amalendu and Samalya ran the final stretch together. While we were waiting for them, a very excited lady pulled up and called out: “What are you doing?”
“The Peace Run!” I replied. We were parked on a side road, but she got out of her car and crossed two lanes of traffic to come and talk to us.
“I didn't know what you were doing! I called it in to the local radio station, that there were two guys running down the road with a flaming torch!” I showed her the brochure and she became even more thrilled. Her name was Noela, and she wished us all the very best.
Our second boys team started a little further along the road towards Caboolture: again an easy mileage day on the Peace Run, with only about 30km to cover by our team of seven.
Today was the last day on the Peace Run for our intrepid Mongolian runner Bayarkhuu. He wanted to bow out in style, so he decided to run almost the entire distance, alternately accompanied by one or other of the other team members ...
... though Sukhajata ran one of the beautiful forested sections solo ...
Bayarkhuu was intrigued by Abhinabha's plyometrics exercises, so decided to give them a go himself today ...
Today was also Aion's final day of running. He has been a wonderful addition to our team since Townsville, ever willing and cheerful.
Arriving in Caboolture slightly ahead of schedule, against the backdrop of the magnificent Glasshouse Mountains ...
... we could catch up on a little bit of shopping ...
... and stretching ...
In Caboolture we were officially greeted on behalf of the council by one of the Councillors, who happens to be legendary Australian ultrarunner Gary Parsons, who next to having held world records in various distances – such as 700 miles and 1000 miles – is perhaps best known for his solo run around Australia in 1999 ...
... in fact Gary ran almost exactly the same route we are now covering with the Peace Run, the difference being that we have a big team of runners whereas he ran it all by himself! He accomplished his Herculean run of 15,000 kilometres in 205 days, running an average of about 75km a day the whole way without missing a day. We can only dream of such running prowess.
For the past twelve years, Gary has occupied a seat in the Moreton Bay Regional Coucil in Caboolture, the third largest regional council in Australia.
The reporter/photographer from the local paper was there, capturing the meoment in pictures ...
... and securing the story in words.
Besides being a great runner, Gary is also the nicest, friendliest and most enthusiastic guy you’d ever want to meet, with a heart of the purest gold. He has a wonderful sense of humour and he had us in stitches throughout much of our very informal meeting.
Gary took us into his office where he had prepared us a royal welcome ...
... with his personal assistant Sharon plying us with delicious sandwiches and juice.
Gary met with the founder of the Peace Run, Sri Chinmoy, in 1997, during a 1000 mile race organised by the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team in New York, in which he competed. Sri Chinmoy encouraged him in his running exploits and spoke to him about transcending his limits and going beyond. “His words have stayed with me throughout my life,” Gary told us. In the same year Gary also joined the Peace Run, running almost all the miles from Brisbane to the Gold Coast, accompanied by Australia’s other star ultrarunner, Yiannis Kouros.
Gary marveled at our new ultralight Peace Torch and remarked that the old one from ’97 was definitely much heavier, jokingly calling it a “kerosene can falling off a stick”.
As we presented him with our certificate of appreciation and our letter from Katy Gallagher, Gary gave us a sheet where he had written some of his own reflections on the significance of the Peace Run. Although he kept saying he was “no good at word-smithing” we’d like to share some of his wonderful remarks here:
“The relay and the torch give us all a chance to make the dream of a one world family a reality ... The Peace Runs around the world are like the ripples from a pebble tossed into a pond, the consequences spreading out into space and time and literally changing the future. Invisible and immeasurable to us, the effects spread out in an endless multiplication, touching numberless lives in ways both small and large, and all of it unknown to us.”
Thank you Gary for being the person who you are. You are definitely a shining and cherished member of our worldwide Peace Run family!
Gary also showered us with gifts, from himself and from the Moreton Bay Regional Council. He gave each of us a copy of the book written by his wife Sharon, chronicling the story of his amazing journey running solo around Australia ...
... most of our team were making good headway through this fascinating book by day's end.
Right after meeting with Councillor Parsons, at 11 a.m. we arrived at the Caboolture Montessori School ...
... where the children waited for us in the library. Before we went in, the Principal Yvonne Rinaldi told us how excited they all were to meet us, since they also organise Peace Days in their school, where they focus on ways to cultivate a culture of peace.
We definitely felt a very peaceful and harmonious atmosphere amongst the children.
They asked us very poignant questions and had very clear and inspired ideas of how to make peace happen in their own lives, such as being kind to others, listening to their teachers and always trying to make friends.
We then went outside to their beautiful school grounds where we passed around the Peace Torch ...
... and ended with a cheerful run around the grounds.
Time just flew by and before we knew it was time to leave again. With enthusiastic high fives the kids said their goodbyes.
Then we were back on the road for the final run into Brisbane ...
Our final stretch should have been simple: Run to Gympie Road, then follow it to the girls' team starting point. Simple it was not. Running half a km down the wrong road was just a harbinger of things to come. It looked straightforward once we started down Gympie Road, but the road changed its name then merged into a motorway. We sat and scratched our heads for a while. We moved a bit, then puzzled some more. Amalendu disappeared into a sports centre to get some local advice. He emerged brandishing a hand-drawn map. We made Samalya take a U-turn and eventually got back on track. Ion did the last run, claiming he was delayed by “two ceremonies” along the way, ceremonies that presumably consisted of Ion chatting to passers-by.
It had been a light day for the girls afetr collecting the Mongolians from the airport, with only 15km on the slate. It was the first day of metropolitan running for quite some time, which meant plenty of side walk running, high fives from passing by runners and a handy lighter from a local when my Torch blew out. The kms went very fast, it seemed like the bustling energy of Brisbane helped us along the way ...
Stacey finished up our kms ending at the Botanic Gardens in downtown Brisbane ...
After finishing our run to the Brisbane Botanic Gardens, we made a visit to the Epicurious Mall for hot drinks and dessert ...
... here we were approached by Dr Linda Hanson, who had been associated with the Sri Chinmoy Centre 32 years ago ...
... Linda was so pleased to see the name Sri Chinmoy on the side of our van, and told us of the profound impact he had had on her life to this day. She told us many stories of her experiences at that time, and encouraged us all to 'stay with it'. We were pleased to rekindle the old friendship with Linda.
Our whole team rounded out the evening with a wonderful meal at "My Heart-Garden", a cafe in St Lucia run by students of Sri Chinmoy ...
... mmmmmmm.
