The Pain!
Every inch of my body hurts.
This morning, at 6am, my friend and I began the 10.5 kilometer race in Hua Hin. The worst legs of the course were the beginning and the end which both happened to be at the top of a mountain with a 45 degree incline. That’s why they called it a heavy marathon. The terrain didn’t discourage hundreds of people turning out though. A good portion did the 22km race while the rest joined us at 10.5km and the remaining for the 3km. Not too many teens or kids though. Most runners looked to be much older including many seniors! Hope I’m in that good shape when I get older…
The race would have been more enjoyable if the blisters on my feet hadn’t formed early on. I had new sneakers and the socks I wore weren’t right. Lessoned learned. I could barely walk by the end. My upper body is also sore. Weird. It feels like I’ve been lifting weights. I must really be out of shape. After the race was over the organizers had prepared food booths and refreshments free of charge. All I wanted to do was lie down and take my sneakers off!
One funny note, the Chiva Som’s CEO’s assistant really was really worried about us. Between last night and today I think he has called about 20 times to check on our accommodations, clothing, registration, pick up, etc. Hehe. Talk about VIP treatment… Oye.
Driving back to the hotel was painful but sitting down felt a hundred times better than standing… let alone walking. Back at the hotel, around 9am when most people were waking up, we arrived and headed straight to bed for a little rest. We eventually checked out a little before noon. I had wanted to have ribs for lunch but the restaurant was open only for dinner. Whatever. We ended up having some Italian around the corner. Good timing too because the skies opened up for the next hour or so. The rain was welcome though. Cool and refreshing.
We didn’t have the energy to do anything more in Hua Hin so it was back to Bangkok. On the way we stopped in Petchburi to buy some kanom for my mom and stopped again along Rama 2 to pick up some clothing at my friend’s cousin’s house. I took a little nap there as well. I am fatigued on every level.
It’s an early night. I have about 12 hours of sleep to catch up on and my body is too sore to do anything much beyond breathing. I took a couple Advil to take the edge off but when the pain is this systemic I doubt anything beyond codeine will work.
Hyatt Regency Hua Hin
The first half of my day was spent doing small tasks at work. I interviewed a few prospective students to determine their English language skills. Most were ok. Shortly after lunch though I left school and headed down to Hua Hin with a friend. Last week I had pledged my support and participation for the Hua Hin Heavy Half Marathon which begins tomorrow. So we left today with enough of the day left to enjoy a little relaxing before the big race.
Plainly speaking, the drive down sucked. At least half of the route to Hua Hin is under construction. I had hoped that because of the long weekend most people would leave on Friday. No such luck. It took over three hours to arrive at our hotel, the Hyatt Regency. The best part of checking in, besides using the bathroom, was that the accommodations were 100% free. Just one of the perks working on TV. Hehe. We relaxed a little before heading downtown for some dinner at the night bazaar. We also picked up some power foods for the morning. We have to wake up at 4:30am tomorrow since the race starts at 6am. I’m not terribly enthusiastic about that but I figure by the time the race is over we’ll have the entire day left! Ugh.
I was getting sleepy driving so I stopped at a gas station to pick up some ice coffee and candy. Nothing like waking yourself up than with caffeine and sugar! I bought a couple Mars bars as well. So back in the car, when I took out the candy, my friend, who had been sleeping up till this point, says “Oh! A Mars bar!” Lucky I bought two of them. Hehe…
Oh, one small complaint besides the traffic… there are no good radio stations between Bangkok and Hua Hin! I must have spent two hours flipping through trying to find one that had decent music and/or had a decent signal. I guess by the time good radio technology comes to those areas people in the urban centers will have fiber to the home.
