2 people running from Angkor Wat to Preah Vihear Temples on Jan 28, 10 .. yes running

Runners will keep a blog while running:
http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/One-Filter-One-Family/

Tuesday, 26 January 2010

One Canadian and one American will run from Angkor Wat to Preah Vihear Temple on Jan 28th, 10 over 6 days.

On Thursday Jan 28, 10, Canadian, Natalie Samson and American Jeff Dean , mid 40s, will start their run to the famed temple of Preah Vihear, located some from the famous temple of Angkor on the morning of Jan at 8am.

Experienced trail runners, they will run is a total of 250 kms, along wide dirt roads from Siem Reap to Beng Melea temple to Koh Ker temple, once the capital of the Khmer empire to Kulen district to the stunning temple of Preah Vihear, now an UNESCO Heritage site and located near the Cambodia Thai border in north Cambodian.. Preah Vihear sits on a ledge on the sandstone Dangrek Mountains and ends dramatically on a cliff overhanging the Cambodian plains. The mountain is 547 meter high and translated from Khmer means ‘Mountain of the Sacred Monastery’; know too many as the ‘Temple in the Sky’.

Running through the very heart of Cambodian and ending this is such a special Cambodian temple has been in their plans for some time. Jeff visited in Cambodia in 2008 and was struck by the people and the history of the country. Both are every day people, living in Kempville, south of Ottawa and not far from the US Canadian border. Natalie works for the Ottawa International airport and Jeff for IBM; they have three children and a big mountain dog. They are running to raise awareness for the need of water for Cambodian in Rural areas and will filter their own water each day from local wells, rivers and ponds etc as they run. They are open to donations which they plan to then invest in a program they have called ‘One Filter, One Family’, providing water filters and wells to families along this route.

They chose Hidden Cambodia Adventure Tours, www.hiddencambodia.com, located in the shadow
of Angkor Wat in Siem Reap and well established in remote areas and adventure travel, to provide all support and logistics for them during this grueling run. Paul Hay, director of Hidden Cambodia will travel with support staff (security, guide, cook and driver) to provide accommodations in tents each night where they stop, all food and all provisions and logistics. They will also stay at Hidden Cambodia’s own Eco lodge, located in Koh Ker village along the way, behind the massive Pyramid temple in Koh Ker. Jeffrey says "We wanted to work with Hidden Cambodia because they understand this part of the country, have established contacts and the humanitarian tours and efforts of past Hidden Cambodia guests has already been focused around building wells in this very area we will run through. We, like them and their past guests are very interested in access to water for Cambodian people.

Hidden Cambodia Adventure Tours provide sustainable cultural, adventure, eco and humanitarian tours and holiday packages countrywide and have given out over 180 water filers and built 9 deep wells in and around the remote village of Koh Ker, and have a number of ongoing humanitarian projects in the areas that their guest travel to. It is expected that with donations and support from Ottawa International Airport that this run will provide for more wells in this part of the country.

Each day they will run between 40 to 50 kms, stopping for water at leas every 5 kms. We have worked with Jeff and Natalie very closely over the past few months to plan this trip, says Sheila Connolly, Destination Manager of Hidden Cambodia. We found they had an immense hunger for understanding of the people and the villages they would go through, what they would see, the culture and what people may think of them. Their respect for the Cambodia people was so great that they hoped their running gear, shorts and light running shirts would not offend the local people in any
Way.

Back at home, Jeff and Natalie trailed in forest trails and mountain close by their home in Kempville and have trained right through the Canadian winder, fitting special spikes into their running shoes so take on the snow, running three hours a day. Each week they have covered over 100kms to prepare for their trip. Jeff has completed 125km, the Canadian Death Race in Grande Cache Alberta, in Aug of 2009. They have a mentor and trainer, Ray Zahab, another famous Ultra Runner, who has greatly helped them train over the past months.

Natalie and Jeff will start running to Preah Vihear temple from Angkor Wart at 8am on Jan 28th, 2010 and expected arrived at the mountain temple is February 2nd or latest February 3rd, 2010

For additional information Khmer and English - Paul 855 (0) 12 440 727, 855
(0)11 440 727, 855 (0)12 402 204, 855 (0) 97 8515 333
English Sheila 855 (0) 12 655 201, 855 (12) 934 412
Email: hiddencambodia@yahoo.com, www.hiddencambodia.com