The annual Taipei Freeway Marathon is to return on March 13 and be themed “Face Equality” to raise awareness of the hardships people with physical disfigurements such as visible burns face in society, said the Chinese Taipei Road Running Association and the Sunshine Social Welfare Foundation, which are organizing the event.
The marathon, which was canceled due to COVID-19 last year, is to be held on the on the Sun Yat-sen Freeway (Freeway No. 1) between New Taipei City’s Wugu (五股) and Sijhih (汐止) districts, the organizers said.
The event includes a 42.195km marathon, a 21.0975km half marathon, and 10km and 3km races, they added.
Photo: CNA
The theme was chosen to raise awareness that people with physical disfigurements, who often face bullying and harassment, deserve the same respect and acceptance as other people, the foundation said.
The group was established in 1981 to help people facial disfigurements, as well as raise social awareness about the issues they are facing.
Foundation chief executive officer Shu Ching-hsien (舒靜嫻) said the event seeks to support burn victims.
“The treatment of burns is just like a marathon; it is drawn out and painful, but it is something they must continue with. They must push on and not give up in order to achieve their goal,” she said.
Shu said that she welcomes the about 120 burn victims who have registered to run in the event.
One of them is Chang Hsin-i (張欣怡), a weightlifting coach who was bullied when she was in junior high school.
“I used to go to school wearing pressure garments and wrapped in bandages, and my classmates used to think I was different,” said Chang, who suffered burns to her face and hands in an accident when she was seven years old.
“Some classmates would push people into me and say I had a skin disease. Since I was young I found the movement for equality for burn victims very important,” Chiang said, adding that she would run the half marathon.
Association secretary general Sunny Chen (陳華恆) said that the event, first held in 1995, started working with the Sunshine Social Welfare Foundation in 2018.
The annual event has only been canceled twice, in 1999 after a massive earthquake devastated central Taiwan on Sept. 21, and last year, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chen said.
Registration for this year’s Taipei Freeway Marathon closes on Jan. 26.
More information on the marathon can be found on its official Web site www.taipeifreewaymarathon.com.
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