This is a UNESCO heritage race just like the Sukhothai one. The main highlight of the town is the historical monuments from the past. As a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Kamphaeng Phet Historical Park is an essential destination. Visitors can explore magnificent Sukhothai-period ruins, including Wat Phra Kaew, Wat Chang Rob, and Wat Phra Non, each showcasing rich cultural heritage and charm. It is also a must visit for this place.
Some how Kamphaeng phet marathon showed up in my FB many times and the fact that top 100 finishers get a Banana soft toy got me really excited. My only worry is the transportation as usual. Despite going to Thailand so many times and arranging the public transport to the various locations for marathons, I still get worried when I need to travel far out of town. But the stress is lesser than Indonesia which is much more unpredictable. This time round I also have my own woes for transportation also.
Logistics
Hotel bookings were not much of a problem, especially for the first stop in Bangkok. Literally , there were Singaporeans anywhere in Bangkok, this is especially so when it was the school holidays. As usual, I managed to get a rather cheap early ticket by Scoot to fly to Bangkok. The first stop I chose to stay at Vince Hotel again as it has many free food and also I wanted to do the free Thai costume photo shoot also. They have up their game by having free supper and head shoulder massage. This hotel is also very near the Airport rail at Phaya Thai making it my top choice always.
My main problem was going to Kamphaeng Phet and as usual I presume Mochit station will be my choice. I should be gone for the Mini bus right after my photo shoot and stuff, but instead made the wrong choice to go and meet up with my Nagoya University Thai seniors. Having prebooked the bus ticket online meant that I will need to locate the bus which might be a problem. And indeed I missed the bus due to a jam and rain. Moral of the story is to buy the tickets onsite making it easier, anyway the bus frequencies are higher than trains.
My hotel in The Leaf Mango Tree Kamphaeng Phet, it is also not very ideal because you need to cross the bridge to get to the heritage sites and all the markets. But the good thing is it is near to bus station and it is very tranquil there. The hotel however was under some renovations so it was still not complete, the swimming pool was not ready but the rooms are big and modern. Some of the rooms comes with balconies. Hot water shower was readily available. Good thing is the Thailand small towns are still pretty decent and livable, conditions are not that bad.
The Race
Cut the story short, race pack collection is like any other Thai road races, they have it in this big square in front of the famous clock tower. Plenty of shopping for sports wear, the collection comes with the event singlet or sleeved tee shirt ( depending on your choice), the bib. There are no other freebies but I must say the finishing is full of freebies. Not much of a queue, staff were also very friendly, but I realise there were not many full marathon runners and more popular one was the half marathon.
After race pack collection, I did some heritage walks at the ruins, its a quiet town. I got some more stuff from the 7-11 convenience store before heading back to rest as the FM starts 3 am. I could understand why because 6 am is already day break and anything later might hit into the heat hours of 8 -9am.
The rest of the night before the race was spent chilling out in my big room watching Thai drama and eating Mama noddles. I slept early, waking up around 1:30 am, I did a quick preparation and headed out to take my Grab motorcycle. I was glad that Grab motorcycles are readily available anytime of the day.
From there I put a finisher drop bag as I have been sweating a lot and guess I need to change up before heading back. There were no portable toilets but the head admin district office nearby provided the toilet facilities, no showers though.
Along the Way
I have not run a real road FM since the last one in 2024 , should be Singapore Marathon where I got a free bib. That year was a good year, I did many ultras and FM without injuries. But this year after the 100 K , I do not know why, the recovery is never coming and backed with the bad butt pain. In any case my expectation was at least a 4:30 hr marathon. I cannot expect to be in tip top. Start of the race, I went a bit too fast going at 5:15 min/km and soon the pain came in and the breathlessness to catch up. At 10km, I punctured and started to go slower and slower. Some points I was just shuffling from water point to water point and the 4hr pacers over took me. Luckily, there were still no crowd I was pretty much alone, just overtaking each other with a couple of familiar faces, one old guy in black tee, a very young guy in black singlet and another lady in short sleeves event tee. Beginning half of the race is nothing much to comment only a lot of high way roads and there was one point it was quite okay, just one straight road down all the way and back. By the time I hit the heritage part of the race is more of a day break and I could see the UNESCO park more clearly, the whole area was really quite big and there were more breath taking sceneries which I did not managed to cover by myself.
Overall, the waterpoints were good and well stocked, they do not have gels but there were thai traditional sweets to give you that energy boost. Running in the finish line was quite a feat, as the finishing arc was very busy with many runners and supporters.
Finisher Expo
Its like a big old school sports day event at the finisher arena. Basically, there are many food stores giving out many Thai delights and delicacies, seriously the price of the race is about $53 sgd ish and the amount of food I get is crazy. Participants will also get a banana soft toy if you come in top 100. So what you take away is
- Event tee finisher tee for HM and FM
- Medal ( which I opt out as this year the medals came late due to shipping matters)
- Tons of food to bring home
- Top 100 runners for each cat, a Banana soft toy ( see pic)
- Mama instant noodles / Mineral water
- E certificate
Although the bus ride here is long but I never regret with all these perks. Overall, I did okay only, with the new injury I think it is going to be sometime before I can be back in the days where sub 4 is kinda easy to achieve. But beggars cannot be choosers, I have started triathlon now, and time need to be divided to 3 disciplines. Though the town has nothing much beside the UNESCO site and the river and the night market, it is still a nice laid back and tranquil place which brings me back to Singapore in the 70s and 80s.
Photo credits: https://www.shutter.run/