The way I see it you can say, "Wow, it only took you three posts to blog about running in Thailand!" or you can say, "I can't believe it took you three posts to blog about running in Thailand!" Perspective matters, folks. Regardless of how you choose to interpret it, I'm blogging about running in Thailand.
One of the only things that made me leery of coming to Thailand was the fact that Bangkok and its surrounding environs are decidedly urban, and over the last several years I have found solace and peace to my soul by getting out into the woods for trail runs, sometimes for hours at a time (and sometimes for long races, see here and here). In a technical sense, I was concerned that the attention to footwork, the proprioception (yes, proprioception is a word, I didn't make it up), and foot/ankle motility required for navigating trails would suffer from running almost exclusively on sidewalks and roads.
In that sense, I was worrying needlessly. Courtesy of the poor condition of many of Bangkok's sidewalks--yeah, I know that my previous post said many of the sidewalks have improved, but the more I've explored running away from the main tourist areas the more I realize that's in specific zones--I feel like I'm doing just as much footwork to avoid uneven pavers, tree roots, the occasional fecal matter, curbs, and myriad other obstacles as any technical trail run in Virginia. By the way, I find it interesting that in trail running (and mountain biking), a trail described as "technical" is one that has tricky footing because of the natural obstacles placed there, not anything man-made.
I've come to accept that Bangkok's paved surfaces are not as forgiving to my joints as the dirt on my beloved trails. And I've basically given up on elevation gain while in Bangkok. This city is F-L-A-T. The only place to get any vert in is what are called "flyover bridges" (สะพานลอย) and I stink at running up and down those.
For those who know me well and have had the misfortune of seeing me after a run, I can tell you that I sweat just as much here as I do in Virginia. Oh, who am I kidding? I sweat significantly MORE. At some point I hope to acclimate at least a little, but thanks to a very informative podcast, I have low expectations. Until the rainy season starts in a few weeks and the temperatures drop a bit, I'll just have to settle for the regular 2-3 kilos of sweat loss with every excursion.
Also similar to running in the woods is the need to watch out for hanging and dangling obstacles. Just like being on a trail run there are plenty tree branches to dodge. Then there's the dangling wires. I can't tell which ones might be fiber optic and which might be electric, and because this is Thailand, I'm concerned some of them might be live. So I avoid them and so far, so good.
The last, but certainly not least, similarity between running in the woods and running in Bangkok is the need to correct the distance my Garmin Fenix (shameless plug there) shows I covered. The many, many tall buildings here in downtown Bangkok interfere with the GPS signal accuracy, just like the hills and trees do when I'm in the woods and mountains. Is that a First World type of complaint or what?
All comparisons and complaints aside, I'm just gonna keep on running.
