I decided this year to combine my holidays with running the 14th Amari Watergate Midnight Race in Bangkok, which raises funds for: the Chalerm Prakiat School, which supports the education of children whose parents have died from HIV infection; Baan Gerda, a children’s village project in Lop Buri province that supports HIV-infected children; and the Baht for aBetter Life Project.
I had loads of annual leave left, so I took a month's lease on a condo in the seaside town of Jomtien. The resort is fairly laid back just next to all the attractions of Pattaya. About 10mins and 10Bhat on the extremely frequent Bhat Busses which peep their horn as they drive along seeking your custom. As well as the Bhat Buses there are numerous taxi ranks and motorbike taxis stationed every 200m or so along the road. I took a motorbike taxi one night when the rain was pouring down. For an agreed price of 100 Bhat he got me home in the rain in a few minutes. Although we must have been some sight, as I gripped the back of the bike with one hand and held my brolly above me with the other, the driver steered the bike with one hand and held the front of the brolly with the other. Public transport in Britain could learn a thing or two from their Thai counterpart! As far as running is concerned, I tried to acclimatise by running every day, either in the morning or evening, when the temperature was slightly cooler at about 28C. I gradually built up my distance, with the plan of doing a rehearsal at Midnight on Wednesday. There’s a choice of two races a 6k and a 12k, given that I had ran 10.5k in last year’s Bangkok Mini Marathon, I wanted to do further this year and was aiming to do the 12k. However the effort required for my training runs, along the local Beach Road, made me wonder if I was being over ambitious and if the 6k would be a more realistic option. At around 9pm on Wednesday, I checked the local weather forecast and discovered that, rather than getting cooler as the night went on, the temperature was set to climb!
A quick change into my training gear and I was heading out on the balmy night. One hour six minutes and 28 seconds and 12.71k, I was cooling down with a 250m swim in the pool. Although my pace was admittedly slow, I had run further than the 12k required for the race and my confidence had been boosted. A 5k ‘recovery run’ on Thursday and a rest day on Friday saw me prepared for my race. The only problem was the flooding, which had reportedly reached Bangkok, however an email to the race organisers confirmed that everything was OK and that the race would be held.
I thought that even the ‘special rate’ for runners at the Amari Watergate Hotel were a bit steep and decided to book somewhere through Agoda instead. As it happens, I ended up booking the race venue’s sister hotel, the Amari Boulevard instead. I took a taxi to Bangkok and imagine my surprise to discover that the hotel I had booked into was on the same small road, Soi 5, that I had stayed at last November. This meant that I could put my local knowledge to good use and I wouldn’t have to search the many eateries for somewhere suitable for my pre race meal.
Pre Race
Registration on the day was available from 7-11pm. At around 10pm, fed, watered and rested, I agreed a fee of 60Bhat with a motorbike taxi and arrived at the race venue in plenty of time. The atmosphere was great, as some 4,500 happy face mingled in eager anticipation of their race. I had chosen to wear my vest with ‘Scottish Veterans’ emblazoned on the front, rather than my Kilmarnock Harriers vest, which doesn’t have the club name on it. Of course it doesn’t make hat much difference, as although most Thais can speak some English, they can’t read it. Likewise I know a few Thai words but have no idea how to comprehend the hieroglyphics used in their writing.
There was still along wait until the start and whilst my adrenaline was high, I tried to conserve my energy by sitting on the hotel steps along with hundreds of others. There was a good mixture of club and fun runners, including a large contingent from the local 1144 club. With 30 minutes to go, I joined in with some of the club runners as they warmed up along the road to the hotel’s car park.
As the midnight hour approached, I found myself near the back of the massed runners. Rather than negotiate my way through their ranks, I returned to my warm up area and made my way along the road and directly under the official Start point. Some of the local runners were complaining about the heat (ron) and I was feeling it more than most. After drinking my water, I had replenished the bottle with tap water and, taking a page out of Mo Farah’s book, I dowsed my head, arms and legs with the water prior to the off.
Race Report
Although I was standing on the official Start line, there were still loads of runners in front of me and, as I found out as the gun fired, even more waiting in the wings. I wasn’t too upset at having to walk the first few metres but I was wary of getting sucked into ‘fun run mode’ so I weaved my way through the walkers before moving out to the right hand side and finding some space to run along Thanon Phetchaburi.
The route was on the road, which was still open but traffic policeman used their torches to cordon off a lane or two to allow us to make our way along the course. Even at this time of night the Bangkok roads were jammed with their usual nose to tail traffic. It was pitch dark and the lights from the many cars and motorbikes helped to lighten the route. I heard my Garmin beep to indicate my 1st k but it was too dark to see what my pace was. It wouldn’t have made much difference though, as my target was to have a ‘good race’. Of course, it would be great to finish in under an hour but my training runs had shown me how difficult that would be to achieve and I’d rather enjoy the occasion than blow up trying to get a specific time. I had also decided that I would stop and take some water at each of the five drink stations, even if I wasn’t thirsty. My first stop was about 2k and I could see a couple of runners, presumably participating in the 6k race, making their way back along the other side of the road. ‘Wimps’ I thought to myself, if they were real runners they’d be doing the 12k event!
Just before 3k the races split and I almost followed the 6k Route, as most of the runners around me took that option. However I noticed the sign, just in time, and switched to the RHS lane. There was a gap of at least 20m between me and the pack in front but, as the route took us up the bridge over the Expressway Chaloem Mahanokhon, I managed to catch them and overtook a few on the downhill part.
I found myself running along beside a Japanese runner for a while but overtook him at the turn point. We made our way back along Thanon Phetchaburi before turning left, past Strinakharinwirot University and down Road Ratchada Phisek. A right turn took us on to one of the busiest roads in Bankok, Sukhumvit. A right hand turn and we were on the narrow but bustling Soi 5 and right past my hotel. I was relieved that I had no thoughts at all about stopping. In fact, quite the opposite as the cheering crowds gave me a lift. We were directed left, through a connecting road, and on to Sukhumvit Soi 7, where we passed a night market. The enthusiastic support from the crowd was welcomed and needed, as, although I felt that I was doing OK, I was tiring badly. Garmin continued to bleep every so often but I didn’t kt now how far I had run and more importantly how far there was to go.
A left turn took us back onto Thanon Phetchaburi, where the bridge over the Expressway greeted us. As we reached it, I noticed that there were a number of local club runners walking. I decided then that my target would be to complete the course without resorting to walking.
Once over the bridge, we remerged with the 6k Route and I found myself surrounded by walkers. I thought for a moment that I might have taken a wrong turn but I then noticed another runner, wearing a green vest, and decided to hang on to his tail as he weaved his way through the 6k walkers and slowing 12k runners. ‘Green vest’ was running a bit slower than my pace but it was worth the sacrifice of a few seconds for me to let him do all the thinking and navigating. A woman runner overtook me and I sat behind her and ‘green vest’ as we made our way along the latter stages of the race.
We turned around at the junction with Road Phayathai and Garmin bleeped, I thought about throwing caution to the wind and going for ‘it’ for the last kilometre but the road was packed with walkers and as it happened ‘green vest’ increased his pace.
The woman runner dropped of the pace a bit and I overtook her as we approached the noise coming from the Race HQ. We also caught some of the club runners that I had seen warming up before the race. We turned left at the hotel and, as the marshals ushered us into the 12k Finish lane, I was absolutely delighted to look up and see that the clock was reading 57:33. I had achieved all of my targets of: helping to support some good causes; running a ‘good race’; not resorting to walking and, the one that I thought I wouldn’t achieve, running a sub 60min race.
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