Runners are traveling 10,000 miles around the United States and Canada spreading a message of peace.
Runners from the Sri Chinmoy Oneness Peace Run traveled through San Luis Obispo on Saturday.
The Peace Run is an international torch relay across the United States.
“We've discovered each person no matter what their religion culture or language has inside them this deep yearning of peace and love they might find expression through different ways but at the very core it's what unites us as a human family,” said Salil Wilson, executive director, Sri Chinmoy Oneness Peace Run.
Nine people are participating in the U.S. relay this year.
Runners on the men's team told KSBY News that two people run at all times and switch off every two miles, while two other people drive in a van.
There is also a women's team with five people running through San Luis Obispo.
As they switch off running, they pass a torch to each other.
“The flame is the yearning aspiration of peace, love, and happiness in our lives and the world,” Wilson said.
This team of runners left from New York in April for this four-month-long journey stopping in San Diego to pick up a runner for this relay.
Pujari Schaffer has participated in the relay since the first one started 37 years ago.
“Started doing the peace run when I was 37 and would run ten miles a day and now I'm 74 and I still want to do it, so I try to run as much as I can,” Schaffer said.
Dedicated teammates will travel up the west coast to Canada and then finish in New York.
“The message of the peace run is that peace begins in the heart of each person and you're never too small to make a difference,” Wilson said.
A European Peace Run is going on right now that started in March in Portugal and will end in Hungary in October.
