Khon Kaen International Marathon!

I am a very goal and future oriented person. Some of my favorite things to do are planning for events/adventures (ex. Vegas and now Asia travels) and checking items off my life bucket list. I love having something to look forward to (I love anticipation!) and if I can merge this with accomplishing a goal, I love it even more. About two months ago, I googled “marathons in Thailand” and a few different events popped up. One near the top of the search was “8th Khon Kaen International Marathon”.. that’s right, an INTERNATIONAL marathon in my very own city! I took this as it was meant to be and instantly decided that I was doing this! At first I was aiming for the half marathon, I mean heck, I had two months to train! After going to the gym for two weeks I realized the “mini marathon” which was 11.55 km (just a tad over 7 miles) was much more realistic. After my Christmas/New Years travels (in which I didn’t move faster than a steady speed walk for two and a half weeks), I had firmly decided on the fun run/walk which was 5km. The website claimed that the first 20,000 finishers of the run race would be awarded medals.. yes oh yes decision made, 5K it is!

It was a week before the race and conveniently, I went to the gym the same day I was planning to sign up online and they had forms for the marathon out and ready for participants to sign up. I had seen a entry fee online for both Thai and non Thai residents, but the gym staff assured me that “Farangs free” (free for foreigners? Yes please!) I talked Jess into doing the race also even though she wasn’t entirely thrilled. Three days before the race, the gym handed us our large size singlets (Thai sizes, sesh) and racing number. We were able to get details on where to go and what time the race started. I was getting pretty excited. I had been running all week and had done some thinking.. I am much taller than most Thai people, therefore my legs are longer meaning I could take one stride for every two of theirs.. Easy peasy!

Before the race!

RACE DAY: I woke up at 6am for the 8am race. Very excitedly, I threw on my neon yellow racing shirt, pinned on my number, and armed with my new playlist on my ipod including BSpears’ newest, Jess and I hunted down an 8 blue songtell to take us to the university. On our walk to the songtell, we saw numerous other people with the same yellow shirt, about to participate in the race too! However, most of these people were bundled up, wearing jeans, and in sandals or just normal tennis shoes, they did not look ready to run. When Jess and I got to the university gate which was where our race was to start, we realized we were surrounded by Thai people.. one reason I gave Jess that helped in my convincing her to do this with me was this.. an international marathon, maybe we can meet other westerners!! Soon, we realized any white person would not travel to Khon Kaen to do the “fun run”, they would be busy running the marathon! We got lots of looks, hollers, and many smiles from everyone around us and I was still very excited. (Note: we did see two older western men later running our same race). I was feeling good this morning and very happy/excited for the race.

By 8am, we were at the start ready to go. To “warm up”, a Jazzerciser-like woman was up on stage getting the crowd moving and bumping loud beats including some Korean pop songs and others like Shakira’s “Waka Waka”. I was having a blast and dancing along with the crowd instead of doing the stretches like the lady.. we were closely packed into the starting area and there was not much space to do these moves of hers. A few minutes after 8, we started! Here is the thing I was a little confused about.. in general, Thai people aren’t too big on exercising. Running is generally not an activity they enjoy and when Jess and I tell people that we walk everywhere, they are stunned. I don’t exactly understand it but exercise isn’t in the average Thai persons daily activities (maybe because its HOT here and they are already so small and thin that they don’t need to exercise). This was apparent in the race. Most of the people walked and wore jeans and many children were barefoot, but it seemed like the majority sprinted for the first three minutes then stopped. There were no markers of distance or time and I really had no idea what the course was until we ran it, all instructions were in Thai so Jess and I were a bit lost (not too international there!) It ended up that the route was a there and u-turn back straight shot and I found myself running with different groups of children who were some of the few people running the race. I was using these barefoot kids as someone to stick with and I think they just enjoyed running with one of the two non Thai girls at the event. On the run back after the u-turn, I could see all the people that were running the other direction (to the halfway marker, the only marker of the course), and also witnessed dozens of people cutting the race! I understand that this was a “fun run” but as greedy as it may be, I was in it for a medal. I needed evidence of my accomplished goal. I used this frustration as motivation to run faster, and finished the race without even knowing I went through the finish line. I grabbed my medal at the booths down the hill and even though technically I was probably within the first 1000 people who actually ran the whole course, metals were running out! I’m sure the other races of the longer distances were more on top of the timing, marking the course, and recording finishers as well as more international flavor, but I had a GREAT time participating in a huge event in my city. For weeks, the streets have been lined with billboards and flags promoting the big “international marathon” and it was fun being a supportive community member and temporary Khon Kaen resident. 

Finish line with my medal!

After the race, I felt so accomplished and proud of myself for completing another goal, I ran in a race in Thailand! Turns out this goal maybe just another small step for completing a bigger goal.. when I got home from the race, I googled more marathons in Thailand.. Half marathon in Pattaya in July!! Okay, maybe the  11.55 K.