▲ Oxfam Trailwalker

Inje-gun announced that the global donation project "2024 Oxfam Trailwalker" will be held on May 25 in Inje-gun.

Oxfam Trailwalker is a challenging donation event in which four people form a team to complete 100km within 38 hours, and a total of 195 teams and 780 people, including the 25km and 50km course challenge teams, will participate this year.

The number of foreign participants who visited Korea to participate in the competition, including New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Hong Kong, also reached an all-time high of 105. The ages range from the youngest participant, who is 13 years old in his first year of middle school, to the oldest participant, who is 77 years old.

Participants of the competition will depart from the Jeong-Jungang Rest Area in Inje-gun at 6 a.m. on the 25th and pass through major attractions such as Gaetgol Natural Recreation Forest, Daeamsan Yongneup Natural Ecology School, and Seorakmajubo-gil, where you can see the ridges of Seorak at a glance.

Runners will be given the UTMB Index to participate in the Ultra Trail Mont-Blanc (UTMB), the dream stage of trail runners. UTMB is the world's largest trail running competition, which starts in Chamonix, France, and passes through 19 cities in Switzerland and Italy, with more than 10,000 people participating every year.

On the other hand, the stories of people who challenge the journey for others also give a calm impression.

The "Unstoppable Challenge" team will continue its seventh challenge this year, with Kim Mi-soon, who is blind due to first-degree acquired visual impairment, and her husband Kim Hyo-geun, who has been her guide. Kim Mi-soon's team has been participating in competitions every year since the first year of Oxfam Trailwalker's introduction in Korea, except for the year when offline competitions were not held due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The GFF_31 team consisting of 31 graduates of Gangwon-do Fire School, the GWNUDH Solareum team consisting of employees of Gangneung Wonju Dental Hospital, and the White Crow Brewing team consisting of multinational foreigners rooted in Korea also joined Oxfam's donation funding.

The entire donation raised through participation fees and pre-donation funding for each team will be used to support bottled water and sanitation, livelihood, and education programs to people suffering from poverty around the world. A total of 2,960 people participated in six competitions from 2017 to last year, raising 1.14 billion won in donations.

Choi Sang-ki, governor of Inje-gun, said, "This year is already the fourth competition with Inje-gun," adding, "We will provide support so that everyone who participated can finish the competition in a healthy and safe manner."