1. Race Intro
Runner’s Aid started in 1994, Japan, to organize fund raising activities for production of artificial limbs in developing countries using a part of the marathon entry fee. In developing countries, 2 million children suffered from polio, which was brought under control in developed countries. 10% of 12 million of Hansen’s disease sufferers all over the world needs shoe shaped limbs. In Cambodia, many people lost their limbs by the anti-personnel land mines through years of internal fighting. In fact, Cambodia has been strewn with more landmines than any other country, and every month hundreds are killed or maimed. Now the 3.5 million maimed people out of 5 million from all over the world lived in Asia, and need to exchange their prosthetic limbs every 3 to 4 years. However they have to produce by their own since Japanese products are expensive. The director of Rehabilitation Center of Hyogo, Dr. Sawamura’s idea of “Asia prosthetic limbs Center” is a plan to develop factories, machinery, and human recourse. In April 1996, 3 personnels visited Cambodia to research the situation. A pledge from the authorities concerned was made and the very first Angkor Wat International Half Marathon was held. This continues until today, despite of various disturbances such as an outbreak of conflict.

2. Registration & Race Packet Pick-up
Registration cost USD$40 for the half-marathon and USD$30 for all other distance. However, Cambodian need to pay only USD$2.

Collection was at City Angkor Hotel, 14th-16th Dec 06, which was just a short drive from Siem Reap airport. Unfortunately, when we dropped by at the hotel at 9am, we were told that the champion chip has not arrived yet. So we had to make another trip in the late morning.

There wasn’t much fun-fare or any race expo exhibition but just 2 separate registration tables: 1 for the Saturday Cycling Race and 1 for the Sunday Run. This was the first year that the 40km/85km bike race was added to the event.

The race pack collection was a pretty dull and uneventful process, though we did get to test our chip at the registration counter. Just flashed the chip across the device and your bib number and name would be displayed on the notebook, which must have been the most exciting thing during the race pack collection.

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Running to the finishing line in the 2006 Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon, towing a 10kg tyre with a styrofoam box on top that her friend found in the bins outside a hawker centre, 3 tin cans tied onto the tyre, a plastic bottle (coincidentally “New Water”) and a message that read “How much of your rubbish is trashed?”, Lady Ice (aka Rima) was snapped and placed on the front page of the Straits Times. Her newspaper image has inspired and filled us with awe. “Kudos to the Lady” has been repeated in various threads in the forum.

It was time to find out who “Lady Ice” is and see what she really is like in flesh. She agreed if I’d do an activity with her… I agreed to go up Bukit Timah Hill with her and she offered (threatened) to give me her tyre to pull at the same time. Unfortunately the “Lady’s” mother would not allow her out with her tyre, so I did not get a chance to pull the tyre up Bukit Timah Hill (thank God).

The “Lady” was raised in Singapore and now resides in England. When she is not trying to “save the planet”, she provides consultancy in IT and presents/lectures on IT and management.

Running is not really her type of activity as she prefers team sports like touch rubgy and hockey, which she still plays today. She is also an avid rock-climber and ridge walker (likes walking along knife edge ridges on mountains). To her, running requires a lot of self-motivation which she finds it hard to make the time for it especially when there is no one to compete against except herself.

She is now attempting to educate people about making the world a greener place to live in – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. She has also created a website, (http://www.gfiexpeditions.com) where she plans to document going green and how we can go green without compromising the things we like!

As I panted up the steep hill (her one step is equivalent to 2-3 of my steps!), it was time to tie in the 10 minute interview questions. Read on to find out more about this environmentally-conscious SGRunner.

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