She runs so others can
Meet Liz Koh: Human resource professional by day, running guide for the blind by night.
A kind gesture, no matter how small, can bring about an impact we least expect. In this ongoing series, we comb through the office in search of colleagues who are making a difference to the lives of others — through the way they live theirs.
It is 6 am on a Saturday morning.
The sky is still dark and while most are still sleeping off a hangover or recovering from the work week, Liz Koh is already slipping on her running shoes and heading out the door.
For the past three years, the human resource director with Temasek’s Organisation and People team has been giving up sleep for something, she believes, to be far more meaningful.
Liz is part of Runninghour — a group of running enthusiasts who volunteer as running guides for the visually, intellectually and physically-challenged.
The group had humble beginnings in 2009, when it was started by two special needs teachers who doubled up as running buddies with the mildly intellectually-challenged. The group’s demographics expanded when some blind runners joined them three years later.
Today, the group has about 400 registered members from at least 10 different nationalities including Japanese, Swiss, Dutch, Indians and French. About 80 members — both volunteers and beneficiaries — turn up for weekly runs.
Liz, like the other volunteers, is driven by the opportunity to empower a community of sightless runners.
“I saw a blind person running with a volunteer guide in a really trusting manner the first time I went. I felt then if I can do this too, I can have an impact on someone’s life too,” says the 47-year-old.
“Besides, I get to exercise, keep fit; I help others and I feel good. It’s everything to gain and nothing to lose,” she adds.
It was Liz’s husband, an avid runner himself, who first attended the sessions after learning about them on social media. The businessman tried to convince her of the cause — but plain inertia got in her way.
“He tried to ask me along but I was so tired from work and told him not to bother me,” says Liz with a woeful chuckle.
“But each time he came back, he’d tell me how he was running with the blind and the intellectually-challenged kids and how meaningful it was. So I joined him once, got hooked, and the rest, like they say, is history.”
Liz has now moved on from dragging her feet as a reluctant volunteer, to sinking deep into the cause. She serves on the club’s committee as their communications officer and manages their Facebook page.
For the last two years, Liz also managed to raise $20,000 for the club’s running events, Runninghour2015 and Runninghour2016, through T- Touch — a staff-led, ground-up volunteer initiative supporting various charities and welfare groups in the community.
The annual race, where runners can run alongside others with special needs, will have its third edition held at Bedok Reservoir Park this May.
Being a running guide may sound like a walk in the park, but Liz readily challenges such an assumption.
“You’ll have to constantly give directions and also tell others to give way. I’ll be talking, shouting, looking out for their safety and motivating my buddy to press on. There needs to be a lot of communication,” she says.
To that end, the gregarious lady conducts induction courses for new volunteers, where they learn common etiquette and methods of guiding blind runners. The latter is usually done with a towel or shoelace that act as a tether between the runners.
To give prospective volunteers an acute understanding of what it is like to be blind, they are brought on for a walk around the neighbourhood — blindfold fully on.
“You have to experience it to know what it’s like to be without sight, because you will not feel the full impact just by talking about it,” Liz explains.
While the club exists to empower everyone with an opportunity to run, the close ties built up by the volunteers has gone beyond just about keeping fit.
Just last year, one of the beneficiaries, an intellectually-challenged and partially-sighted young man went missing from home.
When the community got wind of it, they wasted no time mobilizing volunteers through their Whatsapp chat group, fanning out across the island to locate the missing person. He was eventually found and brought home safely.
Last year, Liz completed a half-marathon as one of the running guides for Kelvin Tan Wei Lian — a blind Mandopop singer of 2005 Project Superstar fame. It was a highlight of her time with Runninghour and the satisfaction she gets keeps her going.
“I get inspired by the people we are helping all the time. They are leading such active lives despite their circumstances. It makes me question what excuses do I have for myself.”
She adds: “The passion keeps me going. If I don’t turn up, they wouldn’t have a guide and they can’t run. Do I want to disappoint them? No. I want to be there to run — so that they can too.”
