Marathon #16: Sukhothai Marathon

The Sukhothai Marathon is my most recent Marathon done at the end of June.  This year, 2016, the race was on 26th June at the beautiful Sukhothai Historical Park ( UNESCO World Heritage).

 

Location

Sukhothai Province is in Central Thailand that is accessible by road and air transport.  There are however, no trains to support the roads to Sukhothai Province.

Sukhothai is a province in central Thailand, around 400 km north of Bangkok. At its heart, the Sukhothai Historical Park contains the partially restored 13th- and 14th-century palaces and temples of the Kingdom of Siam’s first capital. This classic ‘Sukhothai style’ of architecture left Thailand a lasting legacy. The modern town of New Sukhothai, 12 km east, is the capital of the province.

The town is just another simple Thailand town, somehow it brings me back to Singapore in the 80s or 90s.  As usual this is the type of feeling that I get from the towns in Thailand.  To speak the truth, the new town itself really has nothing much to offer.  Most of the tourists come here for the historical town of Sukhothai, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage site.  Race site is also situated in the Historical Park itself.  But take note, the New town is about 14-15km away from the race site.  Which means if you are like me, who booked the accommodation later, you will need to hire a tuk tuk to and fro the race site.  However, I was lucky to have booked the transportation earlier.

THE RACE

Choosing this marathon was because I had already signed up for the Angkor Empire Marathon in Cambodia.  To continue the legacy, I decided to join this after searching online and finding it.  Read about the good reviews and it was really not that expensive, judging that I could get relatively cheap air tickets from the budget airlines here.

The race was organised by Unique Running : https://uniquerunning.goodsportsthailand.com/

They have three races together:  The Sukhothai Marathon is the first installation, followed by another historical town, Ayutthaya Marathon and also the Khao Yai Half Marathon.

The race bib collection and festival is actually quite impressive, there were tentages set up all around the fields near the start point in the park itself.  Besides the race bib collection, they have heritage exhibition showing the culture, handicrafts and local tribe stuff .  So if your family or friend who is not into running can also get to enjoy the festival anyhow.

You can chose to register on the spot or like me I had signed up rather early on the internet with a better price. The full marathon is only about 1000 baht, and it comes with a tee shirt , finisher medal and also finisher tee.  The best part is the unlimited amount of food and drinks available at the site itself.  Really worth the money.  The thing about races in Thailand and Malaysia is that the price is relatively cheap based on the exchange rate and there are so much food and drinks to look out for.  The water points are also very ample.  Although there is nothing much inside the goodie bag, I personally feel it is more than enough as compared to Singapore races, which are getting really stingy these days in the freebies.

If you can, do sign up fast for the transportation service, it is really worth the deal.  800 baht.  They bring you safely in nice clean 10 man seaters to and fro Sukhothai to Bangkok.  Along the way there are good pit stops for souvenir and local food shopping .  They also bring you to the hotel in Sukhothai with goodie bag collection.  In the race day morning, they will also come and bring you to the race start ( for me it is really worth as I was living in the new town, early tuk tuk will already cost me about 200 baht).  They will also fetch you back after the race, but since I was the only person going for the Full , I felt bad and told the driver no need to.   ( There was another reason for this).  Going for this option is good because the convoy comes in 11 vehicles.   They can help to look out for each other if anything happens and if worse comes to worse, should anything happen, you can always hop to another vehicle in the convoy.

Accommodation

If you want to stay near the park, you really have to book early, June is also a period for many people to travel and locals in Bangkok snap up the accommodation around the park really fast.  Do check out the booking.com or agoda.com for good deals.  I was late so I stayed in a small place in the new town called Baan Thai Guest House.  I only paid SGD 10 for it so practically I was happy.  As long as I get some shower and a place to rest and keep my stuff I do not have much to complain about.  This place was more like a dormitory.  But they do have some more private rooms with pte showers.

There are more exotic hotels and accommodations in the area around the park itself , which is also not very costly.  At the same time you will be able to enjoy the festival in the park itself.

The race route

To speak the truth, this race route is relatively good except for the last part where there were many winding and turnings.  There were also a lot of people coming in together in the last part, making it rather messy.  Other than that, considering it as a full marathon, it is scenic, not much of traffic ( as in cars or bikes) and a lot of historical monuments in sight.  There were also not much of an elevation or obstructions.  The Marshalls are very clear on the directions and there were not much of a confusion as to where to proceed to.

Hydration and Nutrition

For the full marathon, I personally feel that there are ample drink stations.  The park itself has many vegetation, this gives it the natural shelter from the sun.

There were really a lot of food at the race end.  Chicken rice with scrambled egg, fried noodles, good old chicken porridge, cereals with milk, all comes FREE! I am talking about substantial volume too and it is buffet style, you can just stand there and eat and eat until you are full.

There is also a small area for the sale of sporting goods with brands like Nike, Addidas etc.  for their apparel.

 

IN CONCLUSION

The race is very worth the money to go for and also most of the participants are locals and a fair bit of ASEAN runners.  There were also teams of them from Japan with Unique tours.  If you can, do stay one or two days to enjoy the scenery of the Historical Park, but I must say the FM would have already brought you through the whole park itself.