I left Dave and Catherine in Dhaka and traveled with baby Caroline, now 4.5 months old and still nursing, to Thailand for this race. I had a babysitter through the hotel to watch her during the actual race. We took the Friday Thai flight, spent a quick overnight in Bangkok and then took an early flight to Khon Kaen. We were delayed in Bangkok and sat on the tarmac for over 2 hours, but baby Caroline was a little sweetie, not bothered at all by the delay. We arrived in Khon Kaen, checked into the hotel and ventured out to find the expo and pick up my race bag. I decided against taking her in the sling and opted for the stroller, trying to save my lower back and legs for the next day’s race. I ran into Lauren and her good friends, Ismail (#1 spectator) and his daughter Nadia (also running the half marathon) on my way out of the expo. We made a plan to eat an early dinner at the hotel that evening.
Khon Kaen marathon super supporters, Ismail and baby Caroline
Night before the KK marathon
This was going to be my 3rd night in a row of VERY little sleep, so I planned to get to bed early! I got to talk to Dave and our friend JR, who had planned on running but had to drop out when he got injured on his last 20-miler on New Year’s Day. I finally got baby Caroline to sleep and then set out all my gear. The last thing I HAD to do before I could go to bed, was pump, so Caroline had milk while I was at the race. I had a problem with my breast pump and after trying to problem solve it for a long time including paying a bell boy to run out and buy batteries, I finally ended up giving up (after NOT pumping!) and hitting the sack at nearly midnight! My wake-up call was for 2:45AM. Good times. I TRIED not to stress. Yeah right, I was beside myself. I fell asleep with visions of a beautiful baby screaming of starvation while I tried to run 26 miles with engorged breasts, rising fever and impending staph infection. I thought of not doing it. I slept fitfully.
Lauren & Nadia enjoying a pre-race carb loading meal of Pad Thai!
RACE DAY: early morning
I woke Caroline up at 2:30AM to feed her. Thankfully, she did. I then HAND expressed for about 20 minutes and got ONE ounce. The babysitter arrived at 3:15AM. I wished her luck with the one ounce and headed downstairs to catch the 3:30AM shuttle from our hotel to the race start. I snapped a pre-race photo of 1st time marathoner; Jonathan and we hopped on the bus. The shuttle was full but quiet. We met an older Thai (?) man that was going to run the full marathon with NO shoes! (We saw him afterwards…he ran a 4:05…faster than both of us!)
We arrived at the start with plenty of time. There was not ONE portapotty as they relied on the public restrooms at the convention center (about 10 stalls in the ladies!). The race was only a few hundred for the full, more for the half and even more for the 10K I think. Under a thousand runners in total, I was told. We ran into Lauren, Nadia and her dad. They had just arrived from their hotel for the half marathon which began at 5:45AM. We wished them luck and headed for the start. Jonathan and I entered the starting corral (after seeing Spider-Man stretching), started our Garmin watches and waited for the gun. It was pitch dark but there was a buzz in the air.
Marathon begins!
The gun went off at precisely 4:30AM. We started off slow (the plan, of course) and ran into a couple of American women-one from Boston, just graduated from BU who was traveling around the world and running a marathon on every continent. This was her 3rd marathon, I think, in a few months. The other woman was from San Fran area and had completed a 50-miler recently.
Start to Mile 10
Jonathan and I ran together for the first 10 miles (about a 10:30 pace) and then I realized that we were much slower than our hoped for 4-hour marathon pace. I hadn’t looked at my Garmin because it was so dark and I didn’t think it had a light (thanks Jonathan for pointing out that feature!).
First time marathoner, Jonathan, before the race
Mile 10
I decided to pick up the pace at mile 10 and so I wished Jonathan luck and tried to speed up. I dropped to a 9:30 pace and still didn’t arrive at the half way point until almost 2:13. Clearly this was NOT going to be a sub 4-hour marathon day. I spoke to a few people along the course, mostly Thais. One man asked where I was from and when I said “America” (the most understood response in this part of the world, I have found), he raised his fist and yelled “O-ba-ma!” over and over again. The sun came up when I was about mile 14. I was hoping it wasn’t going to get too hot. Running in the dark pre-dawn is the only way I have run in Asia and it is AWESOME! I’m convinced that I would be happy running an entire marathon in the dark.
At one point along the course, there was a row of elliptical trainers and other workout equipment sitting in a long row right on the banks of a nice lake. I ran with a Thai English teacher who was a gentleman with a huge head of dark black hair and a great spring to his step. When he told me he was 57, my mouth visibly fell open. He was in great shape. Even better was when he said his brother (60 years old) was up AHEAD of us somewhere! He carried a traditional Thai flute and played it often, mostly for the volunteers, police and other spectators. There was music (traditional Thai with drums) and spectators sporadically along the course. There WERE plenty of water stops, which I was thankful for. All I ate was one pack of shot blocks and that was before I hit the half-way mark!
Mile 20
I continued to check my overall time and pace and realized I went from a projected 4:36 finish time to a 4:20, then 4:14. I hit the 20-mile mark and still felt good enough to try and make up even more time. I had run from mile 10 to mile 20 at a 9:30 pace and then at mile 20, I picked it up to an 8:30 pace. Well, you can imagine, the people were either moving really slowly at that point or were walking, so it felt good to really cruise pass people that last 10K. There was a large bridge to run over (our first real hill of the day) and then we climbed up a large hill to the entrance to the University of Khon Kaen, where the finish was located. The University was made up of rolling hills which made the last 10K for many very difficult. I just barely met my goal of reaching the 40km mark by 4 hours. I think the last 2-3 miles were nearer to an 8 minute pace (currently my tempo pace!)
The finish
I passed a couple of people the last 100m and finished strong in 4:09 and change. I was disappointed not to have broken 4 hours, but I felt good about how well I ran the 2nd half. I ran the 1st half in 2:12 and the second half in 1:57. I collected my medal, turned in my chip and went in search of some liquids. The sun was really up now and it was getting warm!
Cool-down
I walked and got some fizzy orange drink and pounded 3 cups. I grabbed some water and started walking towards the finish line. I re-traced my steps until I saw Jonathan approaching (about 200m to go). I cheered and cheered for him! He looked really good for mile 26, he smiled and kept running. He finished and got his medal and THEN looked at his watch to see a time of 4:32. It was probably more like 4:30 and change. He looked as stiff and sore as I felt. We decided to get a tuk-tuk back to the hotel ASAP, get showered and hit the breakfast buffet before it closed! Plus, after no pumping, I REALLY needed to get back to the hotel and to feed baby Caroline!
Post race
“We finished” was all we could say to people that asked how we did! I found Caroline awake and cooing in the babysitter’s arms when I arrived back to my room (guilty mother’s *sigh* of relief!). The one ounce was long gone and she was hungry, but no worse for wear. We met Jonathan for breakfast and shared some marathon stories over a sumptuous breakfast buffet. Remember we had only run 10 miles together, so there was 16 miles of fun-filled excitement to catch each other up on! After breakfast I proceeded to have THREE massages which took most of the rest of the day! Caroline slept through 2 of them right in the corner of the room and the 3rd was a foot massage, so she sat on my lap and played and nursed. I did feel like that might have been the closest thing there is to heaven on earth…someone expertly massaging my sore feet after a marathon while I nurse my baby!
Robin's Splits (roughly)
5K in 32:00
10 miles in 1:42
13.1 miles in 2:12:40
20 miles in 3:20
40K in 4:00
Marathon in 4:09:11 (I think my chip time will show 4:08 and change as I started my watch about 20 seconds early)
CONGRATULATIONS TO LAUREN, NADIA AND JONATHAN FOR RUNNING GREAT RACES AND ESPECIALLY TO NADIA, RUNNING HER FIRST EVER HALF MARATHON AND JONATHAN FOR RUNNING HIS FIRST EVER FULL MARATHON. EXCELLENT JOB!!!
***Stay tuned for Jonathan’s race report coming soon!
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