 Ian
and his colleagues at Born Free are fighting for Great Apes in a number
of African countries. Uganda, Cameroon and DRC. Ian is also a leading
light within the Orang-utan Foundation so no great apes species on earth
is left out.
In recognition of his achievement Born Free is keeping open Ian's Just
Giving website to receive donations and gifts to help the apes so if you
would like to reward Ian for completing the London Marathon 2004 (he was
on his back unable to move with a spinal injury just two weeks before!)
then please go to http://www.justgiving.com/redmond
and if you are UK tax payer, simply hit 'Gift Aid' and we can recover
more from the Government at no cost to you.
To find out about Born Free's work, please go to www.bornfree.org.uk
Tel 00 (0)1403 240170
Fax 00 (0)1403 327833
Keep Wildlife in The Wild
Web: www.bornfree.org.uk
Join Born Free's fantastic trek through Sri Lanka this September to visit
the baby elephants at the orphanage in Udawalewe. Enjoy the experience
of a lifetime AND raise funds for the orphans' daily food and care.
To find out more, call Sam on 00 44 (0)1403 240170, email sam@bornfree.org.uk
or visit our website at http://www.bornfree.org.uk/srilanka.shtml
Diary of a Marathon Ape Man
1st February - OK, today's the day. No more procrastinating - now is
the time to begin serious preparations. I spent the day at the Flora London
Marathon Golden Bond Training Day in London, but found that it was a day
of talking about training rather than doing it. This fitted well with
my current track record of thinking about training rather than doing it!!
The lectures did include some useful tips, however, and brought home the
sobering realisation that it is a mere 11 weeks today from 'M-day'.
They say that even a long journey begins with a single step. Today's
small step was the purchase of my first pair of fancy cushioned running
shoes, (last year's Adidas model at a knock-down price) - my how I bounced
across the sales hall… shame they look so flashy though - like something
my teenage sons would wear (I asked if they came in black or brown, but
the sales chap just looked bemused). This was after running over a computerised
pressure pad that informed me my feet were 'neutral' and that I can run
in a straight line.
Also on the positive side, I thought I'd scarcely begun my marathon training
(having just jogged to and from the office a couple of times), but it
turns out I've been 'Cross-training' without knowing it. This doesn't
involve training in a skirt and frilly top, or being very irate - it just
means that the few laps around the hotel swimming pool at midnight last
week can be counted (I was in Jakarta, Indonesia for a conference on orangutans
- see press release - but didn't fancy jogging through the choked-up streets
dodging traffic). Cross-training, I now know, is using other sports to
increase your fitness, so my running up escalators or cycling between
meetings is legit. Nevertheless, I also now know that my target is no
longer just to run 26.2 miles on 18th April… I must be able to run
18-20 miles by the end of March!! The experts reckon that if I can do
that, I should take it lightly for the final three weeks.
The other tip was that I should find out for how long I can comfortably
run (without worrying so much about the distance run). Still, its early
days yet - I've still got 11 weeks to go…
Next
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Born Free is increasingly receiving donations from supporters who have
run in other national races including the Great North Run, the Great South
Run and the Flora Light Marathon for Women - all raising money for wildlife
projects.
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Ian is recognised by conservationists and animal lovers around the world
as one of our leading Great Ape experts having introduced Sir David Attenborough
to gorillas for his famous sequence in Life on Earth. Ian is also the
United Nations Environment Programmes Great Ape Survival Partnership Technical
Team Director and has spent the last two years criss-crossing the globe
promoting the conservation of our nearest non-human relatives. 