One thing about the trail running community: they (you) are a pretty spirited and, usually, community minded bunch. There’s appreciation of fellow trailites, pointy end or back of pack, mutual respect, and while competition and the will to win comes into play for some (but not all) of us, at the end of the day the A-types and the But I just love to run trail types have something in common: a love of running wild.

Yet some of us – and no matter where in the world you are, you will find ‘us’ running trails, locals and travellers alike – are less equipped to reach for our dreams beyond our backyard bush.

Like Ram & Ram. They need a little hand. This weekend. Now.

And here I turn over to Trail Running Nepal’s missive put out today. Lend that hand if you can.

From desk of Trail Running Nepal:

“Namaste,

(The photograph below) looks like a holiday photo, but it is just a normal day in Kathmandu with two extraordinarily talented runners hanging out at a backstreet stupa.

They’re running at the Vibram Hong Kong 100km race this Saturday. We want to help them with their travel costs. For these Nepali runners, travelling to Hong Kong is damned expensive and there is no prize money in this event to gamble on covering it.

Please read on …
CAMPAIGN: TWO RAMS GO TO HONG KONG

Last week I (Richard Bull) met up with two Rams, two of four Nepali runners heading to Hong Kong this weekend for the fourth Vibram 100km race.

Ram Kumar Khatri, 27, and Ram Bhandari, 30, are both from the Nepal Army Club and hope to fill two of the top spots on the podium.

We went to a local Buddhist / Hindu concoction of temples to sit out of the way of traffic and general city noise and talk about their upcoming trip.

Both seem confident, speculating that one of them will be second and the other in first place, though both are aware that it will be excruciatingly hard work to win. “We will only know when we’re over there who is the danger,” says Khatri. He was captain of the team that set a new Trailwalker record last November, so perhaps has right to be a little bit confident.

The first issue they have is cash, an all too common problem in Nepal, specifically for the flights. Dragon Air in Kathmandu is in its third year of helping out with flights for runners to travel to Hong Kong. Without their help the small band of Nepali runners would probably not have taken Hong Kong’s big races by storm. But the tax needs to be paid on the tickets and that’s approximately US$800 they have to pay. (Heads up readers, we’re going to ask for a donation in a moment!)

In Nepal where professional salary starts around $150 per month, and with inflation somewhere around 12%, it’d be a year of saving to afford the tax on the ticket. Both attended Kathmandu Ultra Trail’s short 11km event last Saturday for a taper run (1,1oom climb!), which won Khatri two well-used 1000 Rupee notes, about US$20 which was a not great deal of help.

It’s a pretty crappy situation that two hot contenders for the podium have to beg for money just to get there, but so it goes.  See Trail Run Mag Asia Editor Rachel Jacqueline‘s article on pre-race contenders HERE.

OK, that’s enough for the email. Please read on and find out why they don’t eat GU and how they fly through pigeons here:

http://trailrunningnepal.org/campaign-two-rams-go-hong-kong/

Or jump in a make a donation HERE

If we have 80 people donate $10 then the cost of flights a few GUs will be covered. The generous race organizers and Nepali residents in Hong Kong will cover the accommodation and dal bhat.

And if you donate, you’ll have an interest in the race on Saturday! Exciting!

With sincere thanks on behalf of the Two Rams.”