SuperSports 10 Mile Run Bangkok 2019

The SuperSports 10 Mile International Run Series is a set of five races taking place in different parts of Thailand over the course of the year – Phuket, HatYai, Bangkok, Korat and ChiangMai.

Like with most of the race series that are being organised these days, runners can choose to participate in a single race or do all five of them. Usually for runners, it is cheaper if they sign up for the whole series as a package.

Skechers got in touch

For this year’s event, American sports brand Skechers are the presenter sponsors, and a few months prior to the Bangkok race, the Skechers Singapore team got in touch, offering to sponsor me, for my participation, and I took up the invitation to run in the Bangkok event.

About a week prior to the race, I had a fitting at the Skechers store in Takashimaya, to pick out an outfit and a pair of shoes to wear on the day of the race.

I selected a black tech t-shirt, pink tights and the Skechers Go Run Ride 7 shoes, which I tested out a couple of times prior to the race and found it to be lightweight and comfortable for running.

Heading to Bangkok

My flight to Bangkok was on Thai Airways the day before the race, and I touched down at about 1:30pm Thai time. I reached my accommodation, the Holiday Inn hotel at Phloen Chit Road, at about 3:20pm.

This hotel had been chosen mainly because it was just opposite the start/finish line of the race, which was at Central World.

It was in a convenient location – with quite a few shopping and dining options nearby, so I headed out and did some shopping for the rest of the day.

Race Morning

Despite shopping and staying out a bit later than I had planned to the previous night, I eventually managed to drag myself out of bed the following morning when my alarm had sounded. I should admit that the last thing that I had wanted was to oversleep and end up missing the race.

But I was still groggy and there was nowhere to buy coffee at such an early hour. So I was hoping that the race adrenaline would soon wake me up once I reached the race site.

Also representing Skechers in the SuperSports 10 Mile Run Bangkok with me was Si Ling, whom I had arranged to meet at the hotel lobby and we both walked down to Central World together, reaching the race site at about 4:20am. With the flag-off of the 10 Mile run beginning at 4:40am, this meant that we were right on time.

Waiting For Flag-Off

The race village looked incredibly crowded; after all, there were 7,000 runners participating in the event, with 4,000 running in the 10 Mile category. According to Skechers, the Bangkok race is the biggest event in the series.

I took a cup of Gatorade while waiting for my race to start, hoping that the sugar rush would wake me up.

The 5 Miles event was flagged off first at 4:30am and as I waited for my event to begin, I noticed that there were lots of latecomers from the 5 Miles race, who were still rushing to the start point.

Watching them, I wondered whether it was because of traffic congestion issues with throngs of runners all heading towards Central World at the same time.

We had been allocated pens on our bibs, and before the start, volunteers were holding up signs indicating the various pens, which Si Ling and I followed accordingly.

We were both assigned to Pen D based on our estimated finish times. But once the start pen opened for the 10 Mile race, it descended into chaos, with everyone rushing inside and the pens completely forgotten.

Beginning My Run

As I entered the start pen, the emcees on stage were creating a lot of noise, hyping up the atmosphere to pump up the mood of the runners. The actual race flagged off about five minutes late at 4:45am.

Race Route

The race was a two-loop race consisting of one large loop and one small loop. The small loop took us past Chulalongkorn University and the King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital. The large loop headed all the way towards Thanon Ratchadaphisek Road and past Benjakiti Park.

It was definitely not the most scenic of routes, as we were running through Bangkok’s urban jungle in the darkness and there was not really much to see to take my mind off the running, with buildings and shophouses everywhere that had looked almost identical after a while.

But that said, it was still something different compared to passing by the Singapore Flyer, Gardens by the Bay and Merlion all the time when I run at races in Singapore.

Due to the multiple corners that we had to turn throughout the entirety of the race, the route also seemed rather loopy and monotonous and it was at these moments that I felt as though my mind was playing mental games with me.

So it was indeed fortunate that I had my music blasting through my Sudio Tolv true wireless earphones – in order to distract myself during my run, though.

I Ran Too Fast

In the build-up to the event, I had been intending to take this race easy, but when the race actually began, I ended up running way too hard, with my average heart rate hitting the mid-steady zone and my maximum heart rate climbing into my moderately-hard zone.

My body is still supposed to be recovering from the Virgin Money London Marathon and I’m only supposed to be doing aerobic runs, so I have no idea what had happened and why I had wound up running so fast.

Usually I’m quite good at exercising discipline and self-control whenever I run, so I was quite surprised by this. Was the race-day adrenaline really that effective in hyping me up?

Race Humidity

The humidity seemed quite high, throughout the Bangkok race. So I felt myself getting sticky and sweating within the first few kilometres and my clothes were feeling wet.

I wondered whether this had been because we were running through a heavily urbanised area thus the trapping of more moisture; I remembered running in Phuket last year and it had felt breezier and less humid there.

Thankfully it was not too hot though, due to the early hour that we were running – the sun had not yet come out. I saw a thermometer measuring the temperature midway during my run, and it had depicted 28.5 degrees C.

The Hydration Stations

Altogether, there were about four to five hydration stations along the route, with the first one serving water only, but the rest all serving both water and Gatorade.

I had opted for the Gatorade at each of the stations, and to my dismay, some of the drinks were warm, whereas others were refreshingly ice-cold. The sugar rush from the drinks kept me going.

Race Mile Markers

Mile markers were positioned at every mile along the route. However I have to say that when I was running the small loop, the presence of these markings was quite confusing, especially with some overlaps of the race route in the two loops.

For example, it was less than a mile into the race when I saw the “3 Mile” marker.

I noticed that I was not alone; even the group of pacers that were running alongside me at that point, seemed confused too because I spotted them glancing at the sign and then checking their watch.

It was only when I had embarked on my second loop, the longer one when I had spotted the earlier “3 Mile” sign again – and that had made me realise that it was supposed to be pertaining to the second loop and not the first.

Besides the mile marker signages, there were also signs at the junctions to indicate which way the 5 Mile and the 10 Mile runners should run, and for the 10 Mile runners, these also indicated the distinction between the first and the second loops of the race.

While these signs were clear enough to me and I did not make any mistakes, I felt that in order to make things completely idiot-proof, the organiser could have stationed a person at these junctions to constantly scream out directions.

This was because I had spotted a few runners who were heading in the “wrong” direction; I concluded that these had been runners who had gone the wrong way and were thus making u-turns back to rejoin the correct path.

Road Closures and Bangkok Traffic

And with regard to road closures in the race, I noted that rather than entire roads being closed like for races in Singapore, it had been mostly lane closures, with orange cones separating runners from the traffic and marshals and traffic police at hand in order to keep the cars at bay.

There were also segments in the race where runners were required to stop at the traffic junctions and the marshals helped to control the flow of traffic, indicating when runners were allowed to cross and when we had to pause our run.

And this was easily the most irritating part of the race; I was stopped about three times throughout the 10 Miles, and this was a huge disruption to my running momentum and rhythm especially in the latter stages of the race.

On several occasions, I also found myself speeding up when I was approaching a traffic junction, in the hope that I could quickly run through it, this did not always work though. But I think that this had partially contributed to why I had been running so fast during the race.

Too Much Walking and Running

My legs began to ache a bit around the 7 Mile mark, probably because of all the shopping and walking that I had done the previous day.

But since there were only three more miles to go at this point, I grit my teeth and told myself to just keep on going and finish the race.

It was also at this point that I found myself counting down the mile markers and I told myself that every step that I did, would bring me closer to the finish line of the race.

But the Skechers Go Run Ride 7 shoes that I had been wearing, were springy and responsive and I feel that the bounciness from the shoes had really helped to propel my legs along during these latter stages of the race, and they helped me to maintain my running pace and rhythm too. So they were definitely a good choice.

The Last Stretch

Soon after, I saw the 8 Mile and then the 9 Mile marker, and I psyched myself up at this point in time that there was only one more mile left to go.

It was a bit depressing, however, when my watch indicated that I had already run 10 Miles (16km) but I still did not see the finish line anywhere in sight.

As well, it also played around with my mind when I spotted runners who had already completed the race, walking back with their medals, in the final few hundred metres of my run.

The Ending

Nonetheless, I picked up the pace, and turned the corner, and 200 Metres later, I finally saw the end point. I raced towards it, happy to be able to finish the run at last. The race route, according to my Garmin, had been about 250 to 300 Metres longer. My official finishing time for the 16km race was 01 Hour 42 Minutes 39 Seconds.

Upon completing the SuperSports 10 Mile International Run – Bangkok, I took a picture of myself at the finishing arch, before walking over to the finishing area to collect my race medal.

Catching Up With Other Singaporeans

I caught up with the other Singaporeans who had also come to represent Skechers at the race, Derek Li and Elaine Young at the finish area and then later on, I saw Si Ling too. Altogether there had been about six of us from Singapore. And it was great to see a few familiar faces amongst the masses in Bangkok.

A few of the staff from Skechers Singapore later caught up with us to take some pictures at the race, and we hung around with them for a while, chit-chatting about how the race had went and what our experience had been like running in Bangkok. I took the chance to share some of my feedback with them.

Food Festival at the Finish Area

Subsequently, Si Ling and I had a look at the finish area, where, to my surprise, there had been a mini food festival awaiting runners.

Gatorade and water were available for the runners to quench their thirst, as well as an assortment of dishes, such as Fish Porridge, Pork Congee, Teriyaki Chicken Rice and Hainanese Chicken Rice. Beverages such as Chocolate Milk and Lemonade were available as well to replenish the energy of the runners. So I was really spoiled for choice on what to pick for my breakfast.

Lots of Photo Opportunities

A few standees were also around for runners to pose with their race medal after the run and I took the chance to take pictures with a few of these.

I particularly liked that one depicting a cute cartoon monkey running and the huge mock-ups of the race medal that were available for runners to use in their photos, too.

Interesting Race Toilets

It was also after the race that I had noticed the toilets that were on-site. Unlike the races in Singapore where portable loos are used, the toilets in Bangkok were housed inside large trucks.

Though I did not use them, the other Singaporean runners who had, mentioned that they were actually air-conditioned, clean and comfortable to use. So it sure sounds like these are more superior compared to the often-dirty portable loos that we have in Singapore, anytime.

Sun Now Out

Walking back to my hotel after the race to shower up and change into fresh clothes, I was grateful that I was staying so near to the race site, as I was quite tired and it was getting rather warm and muggy too – after all, the sun had come out in full force by now.

Thank You, Skechers

Overall, despite a few shortcomings and grievances with the Bangkok traffic lights, I would say that I still had a great time at the SuperSports 10 Mile International Run – Bangkok, and that I had enjoyed myself at the race.