Bangkok Fun Run

It's 10:00 AM on Sunday Morning, and I've already been up for six hours.

Today was the Bangkok Rainbow Run, a charity fun run raising awareness for people with special needs in Thailand. Cherry, a Thai teacher in the Mathayom English office invited us to participate in the run a few weeks ago. I've been pretty excited, this is one of those things that makes you feel like you really live somewhere; you don't do a fun run on vacation. Cherry took our t-shirt sizes and color requests to her friend who was involved with planning the run last week.

Lumpini Park at 5:30 in the morning

The three of us from Mathayom plus Gennie from Prathom signed up to run. The run started at 6, but we met in the lobby of our apartment at 4:30 this morning. After catching a taxi for the fifteen minute ride to Lumpini Park, it was about 5 o'clock. We found the starting line and waited for the race to begin while the sun began to rise. It was super early, but there were lots of people out to run, including lots of farangs!

getting ready to run!

It hasn't been hot lately, and it felt especially good so early in the morning. I clocked in at 31:11 for my 5K. I was thirty seconds behind Ryan, and thirty ahead of Rachel. Not bad! The cool thing about Lumpini is how much is always going on, even early in the morning. As we ran we saw groups of older people practicing Tai Chi with swords and fans, and we ran past a few zumba and aerobics classes too.

Team Mathayom (and Ginny) at 5:45; purely by coincidence all three of us from Mathayom ordered blue shirts

As I crossed the finish line someone handed me a medal, a cup of water, and a kiwi with a little plastic kiwi spoon. It took me a little while to figure out how to use it...

The run had lots of sponsors, and they had all set up booths and were giving out free snacks after the run. I got a yogurt and a small chicken pie for breakfast. They also had ice cream, but it was so early, and after running three miles that didn't sound good to me.

A little after 7:30 we got another taxi to take us home. It is much quicker, and splitting it four ways is actually cheaper than taking the MRT. Plus it's more comfortable. We wanted to leave Lumpini pretty soon after the run. There was a political rally going on there today, and we didn't want to be involved with that at all. I don't think I've mentioned the red shirts, yellow shirts, white masks, and red masks yet, but maybe one day I'll put my international relations degree to good use and try to explain the political situation here. It's complicated.

So now it's 10:30, and it feels like late afternoon to me. I'll probably take a nap soon.