A few photos taken during the last six weeks in Thailand

Bonjour,

Here is a selection of the photos I have taken during the last six weeks, because there are not only running tracks in Thailand!... :-)

Time for a nap!

Trail running and barefoot running, what do you think?

Bonjour,

This morning I saw this and found it very interesting. Have you tried barefoot running and especially barefoot trail running? I have not yet had a chance to try barefoot running shoes and therefore I can tell that I have not yet made my mind! At the moment I run with the Nike Air Pegasus+ 28 so with a lot of cushioning! I would be interested to know what your opinion is.

Take care and enjoy your runs!

Vincent

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Bangkok Marathon on the 18th November 2012 and being a runner

Bonjour,

A few days ago I made the decision to enter Bangkok marathon in November. After Paris in April, I was not planning to run another marathon this year but... I had a chat with someone who is planning to run it and I thought that I would give it a go!

Link to the Standard Chartered Bangkok Marathon website

According to the count down on the marathon website, at the time I am writing this post, I have 64 days, 15 hours and 12 minutes to get ready! That's about 8 weeks so that should be enough. I have clearly not in mind to PB during this marathon but just to try to enjoy it. For Paris marathon my training plan was over about 12 weeks and I was hoping to do less than 3 hours 30 minutes. I did 3 hours 26 minutes ish even if the last 6 miles - most of the marathon runners will know what I mean - were quite painful!

My main goal before race day in November will be to get used to the heat. We have now been in Thailand for about a month but I am still struggling with the hot weather. My longest run so far has been of about 8.5 miles and I do not think that I could have done a lot more.

The start of the marathon is at 3:00 am, the night between Saturday, 17th November and Sunday, 18th November. I reckon the start is so early so that people can run most of the marathon during the coolest hours of the day. I have also seen that the race will close after 6 hours. If I am not mistaken, in Paris it was possible to run for longer that this. I guess this is to avoid to have runners still on the roads when the temperature gets too high.

For the moment I think that I will start on a 4 hours pace, 9 minutes 10 seconds per mile. I may adjust this goal in a few weeks once I know more about how I can cope with the training.

As I mentioned earlier, the start is at 3:00 am. I have never had a "chance" to run at this time of the day. I just don't know how my body is going to react. I plan to do some searches on the Internet about running during the night. Do I have to try it before? Is it advisable to sleep a bit before or just to take a long nap the afternoon of the Saturday? Any piece of advice would be welcome!

I also do not know whether runners will have do carry a headlamp. Having seen a few photos on the marathon website, it does not seem that I will need one. I also think that in a place like Bangkok, there will be lights everywhere. 

Another point I plan to study carefully is the question of how to hydrate during the race. In April in Paris, it was not really a problem. Naturally the water stations were pretty busy and it was not easy to get a bottle without splitting too much water or without slowing down to much but it was not hot at all so I knew what kind of water intake I needed. In November it will be very different, once again because of the weather. Therefore I am also planning to read a lot about how to hydrate properly in hot weather.

The day I decided to enter the marathon, I had a conversation about running with someone I met at the end of a run. Not a very long conversation as sweat was dripping from all over my body! Not the best situation to talk for too long! One of the questions I was asked was: Are you a marathon runner? The answer was yes and I could see that my interlocutor was impressed. That made me think. Please do not misunderstand me. I am not being pretentious here. I just think that sometimes runners who are lucky enough to be able to do long or very long runs may tend to forget how hard it was when they started or how hard it may be for other people. I remember that once I went running with one of my running buddies in the UK. We were planning to do about 8 miles. We eventually got lost and we did nearly 13 miles. On the way back we were talking about how far we had run and we realised that we had done almost a half-marathon without struggling too much.... My opinion is that one is a runner from the day they get the green light from their doctor, get a suitable pair of trainers and get started with their walk-run routine but with all the articles about ultra-running it's easy to forget it. It's not all about the pace and/or the distance. Running a 5km, a 10 km, a half-marathon, a marathon and so on is still someone's greatest achievement! The main point of running is for one to realise their own dreams. 

Well that's all for today.

Take care and enjoy your runs!

Vincent

First runs in Thailand - Dogs, snakes and spiders...

Bonjour,

After 4 years in the UK, I have just moved with my family to Thailand. We live close to Pattaya between Pong and Chonburi: 

Link to Google maps

We live on the campus of the international school where my wife works as a teacher. As I do not work at the moment, I have a lot of time to do what I like the most: running in the countryside. We arrived about two weeks ago and I have now been able to do a few runs around where we live. My first experience of the Thai tracks was on a mountain-bike and it may in fact be the best way to exercise here, in part because of the wild dogs - see below!...

It is now the rainy season in Thailand and the weather is how one would expect it to be: hot and stuffy. 

Time to get back home!

After 4 years in the UK, it will take a while to get used to such a heat. So far my longest run has been of 8.6 miles and I was just shattered at the end! I had 2 litres of water in my camelback and I drank it all. I have not yet had a chance to find energy drink so I use something like Squash drink I have found in one of the local Big Cs. The next time I go for a long run, I will try to take fresh fruits with me. I have read somewhere that some people take frozen fruits with them for long runs when the temperature is high, maybe something to try!

This first long run is around what I think is an artificial lake close to where we live. I have been told that it is used as water reserves for the Pattaya area. Although I have seen people fishing there, it does not look like drinking water. The advice we have received anyway is to drink only water from bottles. 

Most of this run is off road, except the part on the dam but there are not too many cars. So far I have tried to use mostly tracks/footpaths as roads are rather busy, with a lot of different vehicles and I am not yet confident enough to run on the side of the road.

The scenery here is rather different from the one I was used to in the UK. There are a lot of palm trees and it is amazing to look at them while running. 

Now about animals... It is one of the first questions I have asked to one of the people I have been running with so far: What about spiders and snakes? Well, the answer is that there aren't any... until you see them!... That works for me! So far I have not seen any of them but I just keep in mind that they are around. Dogs however are everywhere. When you read blogs about running in Thailand, almost all of them mention wild dogs and indeed, anywhere you go, you will see them. They do bark at you but they do not seem too nasty. It is a bit worrying though when suddenly you see a pack of 5 or 6 of them. I try to run on the other side of the road and to avoid any sudden movements. Nothing to do anyway if you want to run in the countryside.

Tapioca

Well that's all for today.

Take care and enjoy your runs!

Vincent