Red Panda Marathon in Ilam on December 16

Ilam, Dec 12: The Red Panda Marathon is going to be organised in Ilam on December 16 with an objective of tourism promotion.

The marathon is to be organised from Ilam district headquarters to Sandakpurdanda, the Nepal-India bordering area, said Programme Coordinator of Deepjyoti Youth Club, Ram Rimal. 

Deepjyoti Youth Club is organising the marathon with collaboration of Red Panda Network and Sandakpur rural municipality. 

The runners under men and women categories would run 44.2-kilometre distance from Chok Bazaar (1,120 meters height) to Sandakpurdanda (3,610 meters height).  More than 100 runners including those from the Nepal Army, Armed Police Force Nepal, Nepal Police would participate in the marathon. 

The winner, first runner-up, second-runner and third runner-up under men and women categories would separately get Rs 150,000, Rs 100,000, Rs 50,000 and Rs 30,000 respectively, added the Club.  

Similarly separate marathon would be organised for runner of Ilam, Panchthar and Taplejung under local category. 

Winner, first runner-up, second runner-up and third runner-up towards men and women category under local category would separately bag Rs 25,000, Rs 20,000, Rs 10,000 and Rs 5,000 respectively.  

Rimal mentioned, "We are organising the marathon for tourism promotion along with infrastructure development of the district.  We have believed that this programme will further help tourism promotion of the district."

Sandakpurdanda lies at 3,636 meters above the sea level in Ilam and one can see the mountains of Nepal, India, Bhutan and China from Sandakpurdanda. 

Earlier, the marathon was scheduled on August 21 on the occasion of Red Panda Day, it was postponed in the last hour due to rain. (RSS)