Running in Sukhothai (and two 10k races)

I journey back to Southeast Asia, the one place where I have enjoyed sports glory in recent years.

This year I enter two running races on consecutive Sunday mornings - the first -Bangkok’s Rama VIII Bridge 10k and the second event the Chiang Mai Mini-Marathon.

Between the events I travel the 700 kilometers between Bangkok and Chiang Mai  by train and bus, spending several days in Thailand’s original capital- Sukhothai.

Sukhothai was the center of a vast empire in the 13th century, but now it is a sleepy rural town, way too far off the track to attract hordes of tourists. This makes it an absolutely superb training destination. The historic park area is a sprawling collection of ancient temple ruins surrounded by well-groomed lawns – perfect for bounding and strides.  

The ancient city walls make for nice long contemplative runs on soft surface – especially in the hours around sunrise and sunset.





I just wish I was not so tired -- tired from my paranoid finishing kick over the final kilometer of the Rama Bridge 10k..

The Rama Bridge race, along an expressway in the hours before dawn, is flat, fast and relatively cool for this region. With so little to distract me up on this expressway, I find myself locked in an internal struggle to stay positive. I hit the turnaround in 18:44 and am told that I am currently 3rd in my division. Knowing that only the top three receive awards, I obsess with fear of being overtaken.  I am so paranoid, that despite my mounting fatigue  I somehow summon energy for a desperate surge with well over a kilometer to go, accelerating my pace to under 3:30 per k for over 800 meters.  The final 500 meters is an agonizing slog.

I manage 9^th overall and 2nd place in my division, which means

big prize money— 4,000 baht (well, big money for me anyway given my impoverished financial situation and low costs in Thailand). With my race times slowing down and always one other guy seeming to show up and blow me away every race, I look for triumph wherever I can.

My official chip time for the 10-kilometer? distance is a respectable 37:16. But upon seeing the results afterwards I wonder if maybe I should have been more tactical -- and saved energy for running in Sukhothai and for Chiang Mai. 

So then during the weeklong journey north I sleep 10 hours per night to fight off a cold and to ready myself to defend my age group title at Chiang Mai. 

This is my 4^th time running the Chiang Mai 10k, but this year the kilometer marks are short which makes me believe that I am running much faster than I am – this helps give me a confidence boost early and makes the race more enjoyable than the stressful, mental challenge of the previous week. I am only slightly disappointed as I note the rather slow time of 40:45 for 10.5-kilometers? when I cross the finish line. Most any disappointment is dispelled when finish line volunteers put the division 1^st place tag around my neck. 

At Chiang Mai I win 3,000 baht of prize money

and, even better -- this funky elephant tower trophy:

At the awards ceremony we discover that we are not the only athletes traveling and working the Thai running circuit.  We meet Kindu Swemehon who had also competed in both the Rama Bridge and Chiang Mai races.  However Kindu competes in the half-marathon and full marathon and is the overall winner of both of them.  So as rugged as we might claim that our week of travel and racing was, it is relaxing compared with Kindu.  For now I will hold off on leaving my day job and joining the Southeast Asia Running Tour full-time.  

2019 training summary - Long, slow running makes me feel slow

I struggled to return to running form after all my races last May.  My summer "off-season" was dismal - I can't seem to fully shake a series of aches and pains, and never truly feel strong and smooth and comfortable -- especially on longer, steadier runs (which I did more of as you can see below).  I consistently feel worse after long runs than after much harder shorter interval sessions. 

Moreover, I fall back into the slower group at Wednesday night intervals and lose hope of ever rejoining the fastest group as I age farther into my twilight years and decrepitude takes a cruel and bitter toll.  I find myself envying all the less injury-prone runners who can handle greater volume.  

Here is a summary of the massive (for me) increase in volume over the July-October period:

My one consolation is my improvement in chin-ups -- I receive endless kudos whenever I record 5x20 chin-ups on Strava.  I am tempted to set up a chin-up a bar next to the track and challenge people to chin-up contests in order to counter the dispiriting impact of my desultory running. 

Finally in November I scale back on the volume as you can see above.  I also decide to start "racing" the Wednesday night intervals again - hanging on at the back of the fastest group in sub-3:30 pace and enjoying the fact of being back up with my younger teammates. More importantly, the visceral pleasure of the sport returns - I sense more endorphins, especially on my intervals and my weekly session at park alternating between running and calisthenics.   

Autumn 2019 Races

I have have generally entered some sort-of race almost every month of the year.  But this year I go almost 6 months without entering any real events (as much as I like to consider my Murph Test a major milestone event). 

I enjoy treating the training sessions as ends in themselves. But, alas, I need to be able to answer the question "what is your next race?" which is the most common query at my clubs.  So I sign up for the Tsukuba 10k, a reportedly flat and fast event. With all the time leading up to the event my expectations naturally build.

But then after all the build-up I have a inexplicably poor run.  I go out in a reasonable 3:45 pace, but proceed to fade dramatically from there, finishing in about 40:30.  

Like my first race coming off long break at Nagareyama, I feel weak and I feel that I surrendered under duress.  But at Nagareyama I had the sensible excuse of self preservation in the unseasonable heat.  At Tsukuba, (like any event), there were plenty of little challenges: wet shoes, limited warm-up, sleep issues leading up to event, niggling injuries prior to the event, 180-degree turnarounds, etc., but none that justify such a pathetic showing. 

Fortunately last week there is a 5k time trial at the track and I manage to crank out a respectable 18:16 restoring some semblance of confidence and a willingness to enter races in the future.