Team Phuket Today to take on LPIM

PHUKET: Avid viewers of the Phuket Today show will no doubt be aware that, for the past several weeks, the TV show’s presenters have been training for this year’s Laguna Phuket International Marathon (LPIM).

Isaac Stone Simonelli, who also has the challenging job of running the editorial news department of the Phuket Gazette you are currently reading; Tara Sudlow, lifestyle consultant and sports star groupie and Kiranee Narabal, educator and serious runner, are not – by any stretch of the imagination – a ‘Dream Team’.

As the only hard-core runner in the group, Kiranee has taken her training very seriously. This is despite struggling with the lackadaisical Tara, and Isaac missing most of the team-training sessions because of his heavy workload.

Kiranee has been the team inspiration. Isaac, right up until the final week, was planning on winging the 10km course at the LPIM with Tara. Now he’s going to be right up there with Kiranee on the 21km run.

So, no, Team Phuket Today isn’t a dream team, but they do in one way or another represent many of the 4,000 runners who will be hitting the tarmac around Laguna Phuket this Sunday. They represent the heart of what this marathon is about; average Phuket people with busy lives finding time to get fit and help some worthy charity projects in the process.

A portion of all the runners’ registration fees this weekend will be going towards funding a number of projects under the umbrella of the Laguna Phuket Foundation.

These include the FullyBooked mobile library project, Developing Sustainable Schools program and the Survival Swim project.

Team Phuket Today has taken the initiative to raise additional funds for FullyBooked through good-old fashioned per-kilometer sponsorship from their friends and fans.

Even with people sponsoring the team at an average of just 10 or 20 baht a kilometer, in just a few hours at Central Festival, Team Phuket Today received pledges totaling more than 6,000 baht – so that’s already quite a lot of books for the mobile library.

Even if you aren’t a runner, now there’s a way that you can be a part of the Laguna Phuket International Marathon. A small donation to Team Phuket Today – whether it’s just a few baht per kilometer or a few thousand baht for all three to cross the finish line – every bit will go directly towards helping poor local children get a better education.