We awoke to a beautiful sunrise at Old Halls Creek Campground. And we had a nice surprise of delicious pancakes for breakfast!
Some of us went to see The China Wall, which is named for its similarity to The Great Wall of China. Made of white quartz, it stretches around 15km across the landscape.
Today the whole team was running 162km from Halls Creek to Warmun.
And again along the roadside we were greeted by boab tree families. Grandparents, children and grandchildren grow up together.
Rematch (by Teekhnata) : It’s Saturday once again and we're off to the races. I’m ready for my rematch with Stacey. The deal is that she will go first this week and tell me her time before I set out. She had this advantage last week. She’s first up and only running 3.5k which doesn’t give her much of a warm up being that 2 miles is equal to 3.2k. I advise her to go longer to allow a warm up. She declines. I think this will be a crucial mistake and inwardly smile (cue evil laugh).
Now, I’m standing at the back of the van, watching Stacey quickly approach. I can hear her labored breaths and am feeling a bit worried at her fast pace. She gets to the van and runs right on by. What’s happening? I guess she decided a short warm up was actually prudent. Emily takes off to pace her for her last 200 or so meters. I want to shout, “hey, no pacers”, but I hold back so that I will look nonchalant about the result (which I definitely am not). She runs so far past the van that we drive ahead to fetch her.
She’s red and breathing heavy so I have to wait patiently (at least I try to look patient as I anxiously chew on my nails) for her time as we drive up 5k for my start. Before I get out of the van, she proudly announces 16:47. Uh oh, that’s faster than she ran last week which was, as you may recall, much faster than I ran last week. Ok, I give myself a mental pep talk, try to pick the lightest torch with the least fuel and start my run.
I responsibly warm up for nearly a mile even though some of that was downhill, then I stop to reset my watch and off I go. I have to say, I’m feeling pretty good but then I see the hill ahead and realize I’m just finishing a subtle descent. The first mile goes somewhat smoothly but I am beginning to feel a real struggle. Now I’m on rolling hills, mostly rolling up, unfortunately. My breathing becomes heavily audible, my heart feels near bursting and I glance at my watch hoping with a vengeance that I have less than a quarter mile left. Bad news, I still have almost a half mile to go. I grit my teeth and plunge headlong into the wind and up the hill. Finally, I see the van. Thank you God! Only a tenth left. Yes! I’ve finished and can have short jog to cool down before reaching the team.
2 Mile results:
Emily 12:06
Abhinandan 12:51
Sarankhuu 12:51
Tamas 13:26
Dhavala 14:01
Atulya 15:38
Raquel 15:48
Teekhnata 16:20
Stacey 16:47
They kindly give me some time to recover before revealing the results. Final results: Stacey 16:47 Teekhnata 16:20. I think next week, neither of us will reveal our results until both of us have run, so stay tuned for the tiebreaker. Our rivalry is all fun and games, but the real news is Emily’s time. She flew through her 2 miles in an amazing 12:06. Take a look at the results for the whole team and you will see her at the very top. Good job Emily!!!
Upon arriving in Warmun, the team was warmly welcomed by Cecile, our gracious host at the Mirrilingki Retreat Centre. He spotted us coming in and kindly pulled over to guide us to the beautiful centre where we’d be setting up our tents for the night
During our visit, we were also pleased to meet Jack McHugh, CEO of Warmun, who stopped by to say hello and officially welcome the Peace Run to the community.
He was joined by two friendly staff members from the local health centre.
Once our final runner arrived, we had the opportunity to share the Peace Torch with the rest of the family and enjoy a short run together with some of them.
A special kind of ceremony took place today with a high school class from Japan that had been following the Peace Run virtually. We connected with them via Zoom, setting up the computer in our camp as the team gathered around to introduce ourselves. We kicked things off with the popular "guess the country" game, and they impressively guessed each one correctly.
The students had prepared thoughtful questions, and each group had a chance to ask us something. Afterward, we gave them a quick virtual tour of our camp for the evening and shared a joyful farewell with our new friends—reaching out across the ocean from Australia to Japan
"We are so far and so close at the same time": says Abhinandan to the Japanese schoolchildren.
At a gas station next to the Mirrilingki Retreat Centre, we take pictures of beautiful paintings on rocks.
After dinner and a team briefing, we found our peaceful little spots beneath the trees and settled in for a restful night at this serene retreat centre.
