On 26 April in San Giovanni Rotondo in Italy starts the XIV Relay Run of mentally disabled people. This time the route goes through Italy, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, and Macedonia to the city of Kalamata in the south of the Peloponnese in Greece.
The course is organized by “Integrative Meetings of Friends” from Austria. He started the first time in Vienna on 22 April 1999.
Each year, within two weeks, the people made their way up to 2000 kilometers make it half as running. The total distance to this time is approximately 29.600 km and 12.375 km was run. The relay has visited 34 European countries and their stages end in 212 cities.
The previous XIII Relay Run in 2011 begins in Monaco and across Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Pompeii, ending in San Giovanni Rotondo.
The tradition is to begin the next relay run at the end of the previous. San Giovanni Rotondo, the town of Padre Pio, is thus the beginning of this year’s relay.
The relay run already visited Italy three times in the years 2003, 2004 and most recently last year, but never managed to organize only one stage in San Marino. The teams by driving to San Giovanni Rotondo, have the last chance to run one stage in this small Republic.
On 24 April, the participants will meet in San Marino to the “zero stage” run. Organize because of the lack of opportunities on the streets of San Marino, a stage; he is on 25 April in a beautiful park, “Arboretum” in Mount Olive Domagnano made. After the race, the teams travel to San Giovanni Rotondo.
On 26 May at 9 o´clock in front of Padre Pio Shrine starts the first stage to Bari. This will be our last run on Italian soil. From Bari, participants will drive through the night on the ferry to Dubrovnik. In this part of the season only three teams to participate from Odessa (Ukraine), Nidzica (Poland) and Tuchořice (Czech Republic). The official arrival of the relay race is on to Dubrovnik during the 28th stage three April planned.
This year’s relay run consists of 15 stages with a total length of 1.885 km. Run due to the mountainous terrain and security will be only 630 km.
On the ground Croatia come the next four teams, Kalisz (Poland), Kharkiv, Lviv (Ukraine) and Racaciuni (Romania). The stages allow the participants many interesting places to visit.
The stages of the XIV Relay Run:
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April 25 – stage 0, San Marino, mini-tour of the Republic
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April 26 – stage 01, San Giovanni Rotondo – Bari, Shrine of Padre Pio
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April 26/27 the night on the sea
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April 27 – stage 02, Dubrovnik – Metkocić – Medjogorje, pilgrimage place, – Mostar, a historic bridge
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April 28 – stage 03, Mostar – Dubrovnik, Old Town
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April 29 – stage 04, Dubrovnik – Kotor (Montenegro)
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April 30 – stage 05, Kotor – Bar
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May 01 – stage 06, Kotor – Lezhe (Albania), the grave of Skanderbeg
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May 02 – stage 07, Lezhe – Elbasan
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May 03 – stage 08, Elbasan – Ohrid (Macedonia), the historic city
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May 04 – stage 09, Ohrid – Ptolemaida (Greece)
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May 05 – stage 10, Ptolemaida – Litochoro,
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May 06 – stage 11, Litochoro, Olympos – Thermopylae, Spartacus, Delphi, Oracle
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May 07 – stage 12, Delphi – Kato Alissos
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May 08 – stage 13, Kato Alissos – Olympia Stadium
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May 09 – stage 14 Olympia – Agrill, the fairytale castle – Pylos
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May 10 – stage 15 Pylos – Kalamata the city of olives, the end of the XIV Relay Run.
On 10 May, after the last stage and the lunch, the teams go home back. Teams from Eastern Europe go directly into their countries. The teams Tuchořice and Nidzica go to Patras where in the evening take a ferry to Venice and later by cars to home.
Kalamata was deliberately chosen as a goal of the fourteenth relay run, because in the next year here will be the beginning of the next XV Relay Run on the route:
Kalamata – Crete – Rhodes – Turkey – Lesbos (Greece)
The other relays are planned towards the Black Sea and on to Odessa, Crimea and the Urals.
The originator and leader of all relays is Jerzy Chrabecki from Vienna, President of the “Integrative Meetings of Friends”.
