Bonjour,
On the 18th November I ran Bangkok marathon, my second this year after Paris in April. I was not planning to run another marathon in 2012 but since we moved to Thailand in August I decided that I could not miss to run in the capital of the country. I talked about my training in a previous post. I had the feeling that I would have been better prepared with two or three extra long runs. Well, I was right...
The start of the marathon was at 3.00 am, on the night between Saturday and Sunday, at the Grand Palace. I arrived there at about 1.30 am and it was lovely at that time of the day. There were a lot of small lights everywhere on Sanamlunang, the park close to the Grand Palace. Bangkok is a very busy city but then it was really calm. When I got to the starting line not too many runners had already arrived.
The weather was nice at the start. It was not too hot for Thailand - probably between 22 ºC to 25 ºC - and it was not raining.
I think about 1,200 runners had signed up, so the atmosphere was slightly different from the one in Paris with about 40,000 people at the start. Anyway it was very lively at the start with a band playing and the speaker in top form!
My understanding was that Bangkok marathon was rather flat but in fact, although it cannot be said that it is hilly, there are a few hills especially where there are bridges. I remember very well a few "bumps", just a few metres long but painful enough in the condition I was towards the end.
Although this was not really an issue, I found a bit disturbing - but this is probably due to the fact that I was really struggling towards the end of the race - that runners running the half-marathon joined us after a while. They started later than those running the full marathon but part of the route was the same. Most of them were naturally faster than us and it was a bit strange to be overtaken by so many people especially as it took me a while to realise that most of them were running the half-marathon and that it was not only because I was slowing down!
I cannot say that I really enjoyed the route. With the exception of the start/finish and the last 4 to 5 miles, most of the race is on main roads and not in the centre of Bangkok. As shows on Garmin Connect about 16 miles were on a motorway, half on one side and half on the other side for the way back to Bangkok. It was however a special thing to be able to run on such roads where there are usually thousands of vehicles. Because of the u-turn on the motorway we also got the chance to see the top runners and it was great to see them running so fast!
Probably because of the time of the start and the fact that most of the route there was not a lot of people on the side of the roads to cheer the runners up. It got a bit better close to the finish line.
I completed the marathon in 3h57min13sec according to the results on http://championchip-thailand.com/raceresults.html and finished 143rd out of 1.107 runners who completed the race. My average pace was just over 9min per mile, rather lower than my pace of 7:50min per mile in Paris. This is clearly due to my rather slow pace during the last 6 miles. With my Paris pace I would have finished this marathon around the 50th position. I was on about the same pace for about 16 to 17 miles but the last 6 miles were very painful and I hit the famous marathon wall pretty badly. I had to slow down and my legs were hurting a lot. I even had to walk. I just had no energy left. I explain that by the fact that my training did not include enough long runs. It was just too hot here in Thailand to do long runs during the day and I find hard to go running very early in the morning. By very early I mean running at about 4.30am. It is also not very easy to do long runs on roads as there are wild dogs everywhere and they are not all very friendly. Another reason for this lack of energy was clearly due to the fact that I failed to feed myself properly before the race. We spent the Saturday in Bangkok and I had to walk a lot more than I wanted to get to the place where I got my bib and the chip for the timing, so once I got to the hotel I did not want to walk any more. There was no big shopping mall close to the hotel and therefore I did not find any Italian restaurant where to eat my usual big pre-race pasta meal. I had rice noodles at lunchtime and a soup with noodles for diner. It was not enough. Furthermore I could not find any energy bars or gels here in Thailand, even in Bangkok. I am sure there are shops selling them but I do not know where they are yet. I was planning to cook energy bars myself, I have found a nice recipe on a blog recently but I failed to do so. I therefore bought Snickers thinking that they would do the trick for once but I forgot them at the hotel!... Well, I realised at miles 17 - too late - that I was not organised enough and I paid it during the following 6 miles. The few glasses of energy drink and the few pieces of banana I got from the water stations were not enough to give me what I failed to take before the race. One learns from their mistakes as people say. Well, I've certainly learned from this race.
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Just a few metres before the finish line
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Overall, I found the marathon very well organised:
- Nice atmosphere at the start/finish.
- Place where runners could drop a bag.
- Water stations every 1.2 miles. Energy drink and fruits were available after halfway.
- Well signed race.
- No problem with traffic, there were people in charge of stopping cars at the few places where we had to cross roads that were not closed.
- Nice goody bag received at the registration the day before the race with the race t-shirt - although I understand not all the runners received it as they ran out - and also a nice medal.
- Finisher t-shirt with long sleeves, even if the medium size is rather small.
What I found could be improved:
- The toilets at the start. They were located in three trucks and without giving too many details they were not too appealing and there was no toilet paper. There are things that people do not really talk about or pieces of advice that are not always given. Well, for my readers who are new runners I can tell you that it was worth having in your bag tissues and hand sanitizer.
- The fact that the glasses of water at the water stations were full of small ice cubes. I appreciate that it is hot in Thailand but I do not think that the ice was necessary. Furthermore it was really difficult to drink with all this ice.
A very good memory of that day was to meet with two very nice guys from Kenya before the race. They were looking for the starting line when I got there and we had a chat about their country and how they train. A lot! They had no fancy shoes or fancy watches but were awesome runners. They were there for the win. One was hoping to do 2h16 and the other 2h19!... They invited me to train with them, they said they've got good coffee. Not sure I'll go, they train every day and on Sundays they do long runs, about 23 miles!... :-) All the best to you guys, it was really nice to meet with you.
Another one was to see my 8-year son nearby the finish line and to have him running on the side of the road for the last metres of the race.
That’s all for now.
Take care and enjoy your runs.
Vincent
