Race Crashers

Just 3 weeks till the half-marathon in Chiang Mai! Today was a 9-mile run. We had a special meeting today (which I will write about later) so I couldn't run in the evening with K. So I had to run in the morning. C (who just got back from Malayisa on Thursday) was willing to wake up at 6 to run the 9 miles with me. Since our run was going to be a long one I thought it would be neat to run all the way to Lumpini Park, go around the park a few times and then head back. As we got to our first major intersection we noticed some runners with numbers pinned to their shirts...it's a race! There were traffic police along the street to make way for the runners. Well, since the sidewalks in Bkk are as dangerous as running in a mine field, I thought we should take advantage of this "street running" opportunity.

Then we realized this meant joining the race...cool! However, EVERYONE was passing us. Well, not just passing us, leaving us in the dust. We had thought our pace was good, but not compared to theirs. They were really cool about it. A lot of them would give us a thumbs up as they passed us. One intersection we passed there were people cheering us on. That's when we decided to stick to the race. We also enjoyed the water station and traffic control. We passed the turn we had originally planned on taking without a second thought.

The funniest part of that whole thing was how people, including the traffic police, responded to seeing us. Even if they didn't give us a thumbs-up or cheer us on, there was always some kind of acknowlegement- a grin, a nod. One group of 4 runners waved for us to join them (we tried to keep up but they ran on ahead). There were a few other foreigners in the race but somehow we must have stood out. Maybe because we didn't have a number pinned on our shirt. haha

The race ended at Lumpini Park. But we were only half finished. So we did a lap at Lumpini Run (where ANOTHER shorter race was going on) before making our way back. Lumpini is a great place on a Sunday morning. There was so much going on. Lots of tai chi and similar group exercises on the grass. Families with kids riding bikes, groups eating together and setting up for karaoke (really!)

So todays 9 miles was fantastic! It was so much fun crashing the race, made the time go by fast. I'm going to check local race calendars more often.