Hatyai Marathon 2011

Not long ago I found out Uncle Tai's group had planned to run this event, so I decided to join and make this run as a very long LSD training before SCKLM. I hadn't been to Hatyai before and hadn't race in Thailand yet, this trip had opened my eyes!

I am surprised that Thai organizer allows full marathon registration the day before the race. Shorter distances can even register on the event date! The registration process was simple and efficient, I especially appreciated the cold water provided by organizer under the hot sun! There were also a few stalls selling running gears.

For 500 bhat, the full marathon registration fee, we could choose either a running vest or T, which is good for me because I do not wear vest. Full marathoner also would get finisher T. Both shirts are in good quality except the color and design are a bit "outstanding" LOL. The event was small but still offerred many categories to cater different age groups. I heard my category (female 30 - 39) only had 15 people, and there were 7 trophies for each female category!

As I didn't get much info about how this race was organized in previous years, I ran with a bottle of water for the safe side. Soon I found myself over worried, water station was consistently and accurately placed every 2km which served COLD drinks and fruits/jelly. Big part of the route was like the kampung road at Bidor Run, except it was so flat all the way, but both have the natural scent and this even had "land mines" LOL!

Without my buddy, David, running with me, my first 10k pace was slighly slower compared to BIM. My target was to achieve below 5 hours. Now I believe and I am confident that as long as I keep running without stopping much, achieving sub 5 is always possible.

After the half way point, I started to slow down tremendously. I began to look for the water station at every 2k to keep going. After 30k, I took the sweet time drinking and cooling myself with the ice at each water station, and walked a few ten meters before running again. I was so looking forward this "rest" time every quarter hour. I was confused, did the water stations have helped me to keep going to complete the race, or it actually zapped my will power and became dependent on it?

Anyhow, I had underestimated this race. Although it was flat, but it was not easy at all. At one point, I even wanted to make a promise to myself no more 'cincai' signing up full marathon LOL. The race started at 3.30am while the sun showed up at 6.30. There were still many shades in the kampung roads, but the last 6k at the highway was really a mental game to test the will power to the max. Some runners talked to me in Thai language, probably encouraging me, but I couldn't understand except the thumb up sign LOL.

After many mind games, including imagining myself drinking 1.5 liter of very sweet cold sugar cane at the coffee shop near finishing line after the race, finally I completed the race in 4:44:11 (gun time), the distance was slightly shorter, about 42km according to my GPS watch. I was no.7 in my category, just nice to get the trophy! A big bonus!

The organizer served porridge, fried scramble egg with steamed rice (the egg was good!), tong sui, and the best thing was, Coke! Besides, the full marathoners get certificate printed on the same day with finisher photo free of charge. The medal is heavy and nice, the size is distinctly different from the shorter distance categories (13k and 4k) hahaha. This is the cheapest marathon distance race I have joined so far with top notch quality!

Reviewing back my performance, this time I began to show sluggishness at very early stage, about 24th km onwards. My pace had got down so much after 34k, and wasted some time to gain some rests by walking a bit after every water station. Peter and Uncle Tai said I looked terrible upon finishing the race, probably I had overpushed myself. Did I push too much too soon?

After the ENR-Bidor-BIM races in 3 consecutive weekends, I felt the tiredness. I realize I am not superman. There is still much more to improve, I need to put in more efforts but have to do it SLOWLY, should not repeat the same old mistake. I hope I could run until the day I rest in peace... so let's enjoy the run everytime, and keep my motto of "running in as many places as possible"!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/88989143