A charity mountain running race (TMRS), dubbed Inskanerku-2022, will take place in Tajikistan on May 21.
“The registration of the race participants has already been completed and the participation fees will be used to implement ongoing projects of NGO IRODA, which works to support children with autism,” Ahror Qosimi, founder and head of TJKRUNCLUB, which is one of organizers of this charity mountain running race.
Besides, a portion of these funds will be directed towards planting trees in Iskanderkul Lake area, Qosimi added.
It is to be noted that there will be several distances of this running race: 5-kilometer distance; 10-kilometer distance; semi-marathon; and marathon around Iskanderkul Lake.
Iskanderkul is a mountain lake of glacial origin in Tajikistan's Sughd province. It lies at an altitude of 2,195 meters on the northern slopes of the Hisor Range in the Fan Mountains. Triangular in shape, it has a surface area of 3.4 square kilometers and is up to 72 meters deep. Formed by a landslide that blocks the Saratogh River, the outflow of the lake is called the Iskander Darya, which joins the Yaghnob River to form the Fan Darya, a major left tributary of the Zarafshon River.
134 km from Dushanbe and 23 km from the Dushanbe—Khujand road, Iskanderkul is a popular tourist destination.
The lake takes its name from Alexander the Great's passage in Tajikistan: Iskander is the Persian pronunciation of Alexander, and kul means lake in many Turkic languages. There are two legends connecting the lake to Alexander. The first one states it used to be a location the inhabitants of which resisted Alexander's rule, and in fury, the king ordered to divert a river and annihilate them. The second legend states that Bucephalus had drowned in the lake.
