Running for charity

After only a couple of hours of sleep, I woke up before dawn and headed to Hong Kong Disneyland.  My friend heads up the corporate fundraising at UNICEF Hong Kong, and I was on hand to lend some moral support to the UNICEF Charity Run 2009.

There was a record turnout this year, with more than 8,000 participants raising over HKD 6.7 million.  In addition to the half marathon and the 10k runs, a 3k "fun run" was added to encourage participation from young runners as well as families.

I was surprised at the level of participation from corporates, on top of the local running clubs and schools.  ING fielded more than 100 runners this year.  Van Cleef & Arpels participated for the first time, and sported T-shirts with their fairy logo printed on them.  The Mandarin Oriental fielded a pretty large team, with the crew from Pierre - chef de cuisine Olivier, maître d' Hervé, sommelier Pierre and chef pâtissier Nicolas all coming out for the 10k.  Olivier carried the Mandarin Oriental standard like a warrior charging into battle...

I came as a spectator this year.  Perhaps I should do a bit of training and return next year as a runner for the 10k.