Vietnam run to help nations kids
NOOSA-based lover of all things Australian Huy Mai cannot wait to get back to his homeland of Vietnam, even though the locals there will think he's crazy.
Not that this Saigon-raised larrikin 25-year-old, who has a crush on the Aussie sporting way of life, can blame them.
With a grin that never knows when to quit, Huy answers a question no other Vietnamese person has ever been asked before: 'What will your country-folk think of your plan to run 2800km from end to end of Vietnam?'
"The first thing my people would say is I'm nuts. People have walked it before, but no one has ever run it," Huy told the Noosa News.
But he doesn't mind what they think - just so long as he finishes this ultra-marathon trip which he embarks on with Australia's greatest long-distance marathon runner, Pat Farmer. Farmer's latest feat was to go the distance from North Pole to South Pole - a gruelling 22,000km in 10 months.
But it was not Farmer but a Kiwi who first inspired Huy's thoughts of this feat.
Last year Huy had just finished fours years of study in Sydney when he read an article about Lisa Tamati, who was running the length of New Zealand for charity. He had no long distance running experience at the time.
"I said to myself, 'I can do that,'" Huy said.
Huy was fit from kickboxing, cycling and years of playing table tennis back in Vietnam, but had no idea what he was getting himself into.
"I started talking to people and 10 out of 10 people, even my parents, said I wouldn't do it. So I started training and people saw me getting serious and then they said, 'You're going to do it'. And I said, 'Yes, I am got to do it'."
His newly won-over supporters told Huy if he was going to put himself through all that pain, he should do it for a worthy cause and Huy has selected the Blue Dragon Children's Foundation, run by Aussie Michael Brosowski in Hanoi, whose aim is break the poverty cycle by offering education, training, and job opportunities to Vietnam's needy children.
"I was looking around for someone to support - I looked back into my life pretty much. I left my family when I was four. I was away the whole time at boarding school.
"It was good that it made me so independent ... if I decide I'm going to do something, I'll do it.
"But emotionally I was really deprived. So I decided I wanted to do something for children."
A friend suggested Huy contact Pat Farmer for advice on how to go about his dream run across his country.
"This Australian guy was running from pole to pole - I thought I was nuts, but he was crazier."
Huy said he met with Pat before his first test of character - the North Face 100 Australia 2012 - a 100km torture test through the Blue Mountains.
"Pat just said, 'What about you finish the race and then we'll talk about it'. I said 'okay, cool'."
"So I went and did the race - it was hard, like 3500m climb or halfway up Mount Everest.
"The only thing that kept me going was the Vietnam run; it was constantly in my mind. Every time my body told me to stop, I said, 'Just shut up, shut up' - so I kept on going."
Huy finished the race in a very credible 16 hours.
Recently Pat suggested he wanted to go along for the run with Huy, and they are working out the logistics with the Red Cross.
Huy will need sponsors and donations and is working on having a website set up by July with 100% of donations going towards the foundation.
The industrial rope technician, who goes out on a limb up high to lop trees, clean windows or paint buildings, is doing daily two-hour training runs mostly in the dark before starting work. He'll be scaling back his job commitments to work on his epic sporting journey, on which his brother will also accompany him on bicycle. "It's going to be tough but in ultra- marathon, 90% is mental and 10% is physical," Huy said.
"The 90% comes from inside the individual, how they grow up and cope with life - the internal motivation of why I want to do it.
"I will make it. Even if I have to crawl, I will make it."
Anyone who wishes to support Huy can contact him via his email: dinhhuymai@gmail.com.
