I have been to Pattaya several times. Usually I would also do my 10 km morning run from hotel to Pattaya Beach Front Road, Walking Street, Bali Hai Pier and then Khao Phra Tamnak Viewpoint before making a u turn back. I have also run along Jomtien Beach several times.
However, I have never participated in Pattaya Marathon all these years that I have been there. Reason? It's very very very hot and humid in July. Who wants to be a roasted chicken running 42km under the hot sun right? lol!
Even though Thailand notched highest temperature on record at 45.4 degree Celsius in April, and the extreme heat has extended into summer months, I still decided to give Pattaya Marathon a shot this year. After all, I love holidaying in Pattaya. I might as well go there to enjoy the 42km run, the sun, sand, sea and beach as well.
Usually when I have a runcation overseas, I would arrange in such a way that I would run the 42km race first only then jalan-jalan / sightseeing. However, for this Pattaya Marathon held on July 23, 2023. I spent 5 days 4 nights in Bangkok with 25k-35k steps of walking / running (Benchakitti Forest Park and Lumphini Park) beforehand. Pattaya is a beach city. And my intention was not to run until I was out of breath! I just wanted to run by feel and enjoy the journey along the beach of Pattaya
42km course route
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| A very great route covering Pattaya Beach, Jomtien Beach and Sukhimvit Highway with starting point at Terminal 21. |
I think I will break down the 42.195km running route into 3 sections:
Section 1. Pattaya Beach Front Road > Thappraya Road
This is the most popular area for the tourists with countless hotels, pubs, shopping malls and shops along the route facing beautiful Pattaya Beach. In order to run to Sukhumvit Highway, we need to run past hilly Thappraya Road.
This is the most popular area for the tourists with countless hotels, pubs, shopping malls and shops along the route facing beautiful Pattaya Beach. In order to run to Sukhumvit Highway, we need to run past hilly Thappraya Road.
Section 2. Sukhumvit Highway (U-turn)
There is a tunnel / underpass to run through before making a u-turn, not to mention the rolling road conditions of Sukhumvit Highways. Hence, it's not going to be all the way flat.
Section 3. Jomtien Beach Road > Thaprraya Road > Pattaya Beach Front Road
Jomtien Beach can be windy but should be a nice route to enjoy.
By the way, the road in Thailand is paved with concrete instead of talmac as what we usually experience in Malaysia. It makes it harder to run. And with the extreme heat and high humidity in a beach city, 42km can be a long-suffering long journey.
But hey - my mindset was, "I'm on a beach holiday. I just enjoy what comes along!"
Race kit collection at Terminal 21
It was drizzling on the race kit collection day. The venue was Terminal 21 Shopping Mall - my most favourite mall in Bangkok and Pattaya. It's such a convenient location for runners.
The collection process was smooth and fast. I managed to collect my race kit in less than 10 minutes.
There were quite a number of exhibitors' booths. I could see Adidas, Nike, Under Armour running shorts, tee shirts and other running gear sold at a very very cheap price which you can't find in retail shops! :) Of course - they were all imitation goods. Even though there were a couple of booths selling genuine goods, but majority booths are having fake goods.
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| Race kit collection venue is the same as start line - right outside Terminal 21 Shopping Mall with many hotels nearby. It's so convenient! |
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| She is all smile for my camera! The signature Thai smile! Love it! |
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| The bag is made of high quality material, much better than KLSCM's quality. |
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| A wrist band for runners - for easy identification of valid runners. Even the wrist band is made of high quality material. |
Start line
42km race started at 3.30am. Good that I stayed at a nearby hotel which was just a 5 min walking distance to start line. It started to drizzle the moment I stepped out of hotel room. I wasn't complaining. Drizzling and any rain would be welcoming under such hot weather in Pattaya.
It's very nice of Terminal 21 to let runners hang around inside the mall, including the usage of the clean and nicely decorated toilets! In most races, runners usually would end up using the cubicle-style mobile toilets. Hence, I felt like I was really on a holiday enjoying all the 5-star facilities from start.
The start line was so atmospheric and colorful! Thailand is such a colourful nation! I could see runners wearing various bright colourful running vests. Some even dressed up in costumes!
Ah - look at the pacers' attire! All pacers had a specially designed back-pack with the target finish time flag placed properly on it. In most other races, we saw pacers carrying balloons instead. Hence, I found the pacers team to be very professionally dressed. And the organiser seemed to take every single detail seriously!
Perhaps it's more like a fun race at a holiday destination, pacer group started at 4.00 hour, 4.15 hour, 4.30 hour and so on. I didn't see any pacers at 3.45hour or 3.30hour or even 3.15hour like what I experienced in Taiwan marathons.
Due to my estimated target finish time around 430-500 hour, I was placed in Group B. Even as we were all at the start line, every runner kept social distancing. I was truly impressed!
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| Performance before the start of 42km race! |
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| Pacers have very nice time flag and backpack instead of using balloons as what we normally see in other races! Impressive! |
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| Yay! Time to start running! |
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| Beautiful aerial view of Terminal 21 and the round about in front with all the runners! |
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| Running towards Pattaya Beach Front Road |
Terminal 21 > Pattaya Beach Front Road > Thapraya Road
You know what? Even we we were running along Pattaya Beach Front Road at 3.30am early mornings, many holiday makers and tourists didn't sleep yet. Their nights were still young - with beers and food, and what not! Hence, some of them came out to the road side to cheers us on! It was really fun and eye opening to have so many onlookers and people to cheer us on at such odd hours! This was only possible in a sleepless city Pattaya I guess! haha!
One female onlooker saw me running past Thapraya Road. She shouted to me, "Sawadhee khra! Where you frommmmmmmm?" haha! So sweet!
Perhaps I was a bit concerned on dehydration. I drank lots of water before the race. I ended up looking for mobile toilets along the route. Surprisingly, the mobile toilets at water stations were very special - unseen by me even I have run so many full marathons. The mobile toilets were not the typical cubicle style. In fact, it was converted from a bus. There was female (on the left) and male toilet (on the right). In the male toilet area, there were 2 toilets with proper doors that could be closed. There was also a long urinal for guys to stand and pee. Besides that, there was a sink to wash hands etc as well! Gosh! I was so so impressed by this 5-star mobile toilet which I haven't seen in any other marathons before. The organiser Thailand Tri-League is indeed a very top-notch organiser.
I didn't wear a GPS watch. I wouldn't know my pace and distance. I was just listening to my music and running by feel! Even though it was drizzling, Pattaya was still hot and humid! With the concrete road and water puddle here and there, it was quite a challenge for me to get used to such a running condition. However, I was mentally prepared for such condition before I signed up for it. Hence, I couldn't complain about it but to embrace the running condition and enjoy the journey!
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| Such a beautiful aerial view of Pattaya Beach North Road full of runners with the beach on the other side! |
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| water puddle on the road from the rain. I tried not to get my shoes wet by trying to jump over the water puddle! |
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| I was still pretty much trying to get used to the hot humid weather. The rain helped a lot! |
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| I intentionally included this picture here because she and other wheel chair runners are inspiration to me! Their strong determination, never give up attitude, and happy faces really teach me good life lessons! Salute to them! |
Sukhumvit Highway > Tunnel
After running past exciting Pattaya Beach Front Road with cheering crowds and tourists who stayed up partying and drinking from the night before, and the rolling hill of Thapraya Road, we finally came to Sukhumvit Highway.
Sukhumvit Highway was a long stretch of wide concrete roads. We ran past Big C Hypermart, and a few others landmarks until we reached a long tunnel.
As I ran, I was looking for distance marker. I didn't know how many kilometres I have run. Pacers were out of my sights. And I couldn't find anything that can give me an indication of how far I had run. Usually in any full marathon races, there is a distance marker every 3-5km so that runners would know. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any distance marker for 42km runners throughout the whole 42km journey! Again - this was my first experience running without knowing how far I have run! lol!
I told myself, "What the hack! Just keep running until we make a u-turn! Then I will know I have run at least 21km half way already!"
So, I just kept on running and running and running looking for u-turn! lol!
Soon enough, a long tunnel appeared before my eyes! Wow! In Taiwan Marathon in Feb I also ran through a tunnel. Now in Pattaya, there was another tunnel for me to run through. As usually, inside the tunnel was very humid and stuffy. However, it was so well-lit with a few stand-by professional photographers taking photos of runners!
It was really welcoming to see so many professional photographers. I must compliment the photography team of Pattaya Marathon. I find them not only professional, but they really know how to take photos from various angles. There were ultra-wide shots, long-angle shots, aerial shots, top-down shots and the front shots! Such a great variety of angles the team took photos of runners, supporters, water stations, venue and the routes! Another impressive feat by Pattaya Marathon organiser!
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| Running past the well-lit tunnel at Sukhumvit Highway |
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| Trying to look cool in front of camera! lol! |
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| Sequential shots! |
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| Another sequential shots! |
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| Thanks to photographer for taking such great shots of runners! I just love this series shot at the Sukhimvit Highway tunnel! |
Water station after tunnel at Sukhumvit Highway
After running past tunnel, I finally saw runners making u-turn. Yippie! There was a u-turn in front! This also meant I had run probably close to 21km already! Still another 21km to go!
Just right after the u-turn, there was a long stretch of water station at road side!
I couldn't resist stopping there for at least 5 minutes or so...
You may ask, "To do what? stopping so long?"
Oh well, let me share with you what was available for runners:
1. Ice cream (yes! yes! yes! ice cream!)
2. Chocolates
3. Water melon
4. all sorts of jelly
5. Local delicacies
6. mineral water
7. Energy bar
8. isotonic water
9. tit-bits and snacks
10. local fruits
If there was a photographer, I'm sure my big happy smile would be captured, especially when I saw ice cream!
I remember at Tianzhong Marathon in Taiwan, ice cream was also provided for all runners! And I was so so happy to be able to experience this again - eating ice cream when running! In fact, I would like to mention that ice cream and all other tit-bits, fruits, jelly, chocolates were provided at 2 main water stations - this 21km as well as around 30km at Jomtien Beach!
The organiser was truly understanding how runners felt when running! All of these ice cream, jelly, titbits really put a smile on runners' faces!
I tried every single food available there. To finish it off, I had the ice cream. I was spoilt for choice of flavours too! Yes! The Ice cream! So cold! So nice! So delicious Aroi mak-mak!
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| Ice cream ice cream ice cream! lolly pops, jelly, tit-bits! Aroi mak mak! |
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| Look at the yummy goodies on the tables! And the runner with the love shaped jelly! So cool! |
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| Yummy ice creams! |
Sukhumvit Highway after u-turn
I used the 5-star mobile toilet converted from a bus again! I ate and drank a lot! haha! What a fun 21 km thus far!
Even without GPS watch and distance marker or any pacers in sight, at least now I know I was heading back to Jomtien Beach next!
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| Run run run! No GPS watch no distance marker - never mind! Just run! |
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| Jomtien Beach made me wanna run faster! But I was too tired! lol! |
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| Hello1 I managed to squeeze out a big smile for photo! haha! |
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| Phew! Finally I ran past the same tunnel again with fresh air now! |
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| Another inspiration seeing the wheel-chair runner doing 42km! Salute! |
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| Part of Sukhumvit Highway in early morning. |
Jomtien Beach Road > Pattaya Beach Front Road
I must say this Jomtien Beach route was the most enjoyable, most scenic, most beautiful, most fun, and most uplifting stretch throughout the whole 42km journey.
The moment I ran until Jomtien Beach Road and I saw the beautiful beach, immediately all my tiredness was gone! Immediately I had a big happy smile on my face! Immediately I felt so so relaxed even though my legs were awfully tired. And it so happened that I also got to see the early morning sun with feel the early morning cool breeze at Jomtien Beach. It was perfect moment!
I started to run even slower - with my eyes set on the beach and the colourfully dressed runners! I wanted to enjoy the moment longer! Beach has always had a special place in my heart because I was born in Langkawi Island. Walking across the street from our home was a beach already. I was so used to smell the salty sea breeze and feel the sea wind that any moment I smelled them. I felt so much at home!
Pattaya City is a very very clean beach city! Runners also did their part by not simply loitering their water bottles, trash etc.
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| Beautiful Jomtien Beach Road where 42km and 21km runners merged. |
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| Wow! I'm truly impressed by photography team - shooting from various angles, including this shot from above angle! Cool! |
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| Haha! I felt so relaxed! I felt like I was walking in the cloud! This stretch was after 30km. But I felt like I was just starting to run! lol! |
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| Smile! I just love how the photographers at Pattaya Marathon captured runners' running moments! One of the best I have experienced in marathon races! |
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| Beautiful background at Jomtien Beach Road. And I was so happy to run this stretch! |
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| I was bathing in the early morning sunlight with the rain drizzling still... |
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| Didn't we all still look so fresh from the wash of the rain? |
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| Both runners next to me were 21km runners! |
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| Ultra-wide low angle shot from photographer! Truly impressive perspective! |
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| yeah - I should stop smiling! Been smiling happily too long too much! lol! |
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| Oh - I was smiling again! This time I spotted a photographer! |
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| Thumbs up to Pattaya Marathon organiser, the photographer! I really love the event! |
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| If I could dance, I would! |
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| If I could jump, I would! haha! Smile! Say cheese! |
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| haha! Last of the sequential smiling shots! |
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| Caught in the act! You might be wondering what I put inside my mouth! lol! Chocolates and cookies from water station! lol! Yummy! |
Water station at Jomtien Beach Road before turning to Thapraya Road
I wanted to dedicate a section to this water station at Jomtien Beach Road before turning to Thapraya Road. I think this was about 30-35 km into the race. I wasn't quite sure because there was no distance marker for 42km route. Anyway, Since I was familiar with this area, I knew it wasn't too far from finish line already.
This was where I had another yummy icy cold ice cream! This round, I tried different flavour! haha! So I ate a total of 2 ice creams thus far! I saw some runners eating 2-3 ice creams! I should have done that myself but I was worried runners behind me might not get to have the ice cream later! oh well! I should be contented with 2 ice creams! haha!
I also had jelly, chocolates, local titbits, and drinks. I picked up another energy gel as well.
The only food I didn't try was the readily prepared hot instant noodle. If I ate the noodle, I would be so full to continue running.
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| Instant noodle stall for free instant noodle - right in the middle of a race! And the guy was eating 2 ice creams! Gosh! I should have taken another one! |
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| Look at what's available free for runners! We were spoiled by organisers! |
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| It was rare to have a photo of me at water station in the marathons I have participated. So happy to have this captured! Thanks to photographer! |
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| Yup! I took the titbits to eat! |
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| Jelly jelly jelly to eat! yummy! |
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| Alright - another cup of water down into my stomach! Time to run the remaining kilometers! |
Pattaya Beach Front Road
Alright! Finally I ran back to Pattaya Beach Front Road. Yohoo!
After the long straight stretch, turning right at end of the road would back running towards finish line at Terminal 21.
Unfortunately, by this time, I was totally tired! Perhaps it was from all too much running and walking of 25-35k steps daily when in Bangkok prior to this marathon. Or perhaps I didn't train for it since the New Taipei City Marathon in February 2023. Anyway, who cares! I could still walk to finish line if I could and still met the cut off time. haha! So I took my own sweet time to run slowly, but surely towards Terminal 21 while enjoying the cheers from the onlookers and supporters!
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| When we ran past this stretch at 3.30am, it was still dark. Good to see the light of it on our way back! |
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| Signature landmark: Pattaya City! |
Supporters at Jomtien Beach Road and Pattaya Beach Front Road
Why are Thai people so happy always? They are forever carrying big smile on their beautiful faces!
And why are Thai people so colourful always? They love to wear bright colourful shirts, costumes which really cheer every one up!
I was so impressed by the supporters along the 42km journey! From the bar goers in early morning. to night workers, then to onlookers and specially-dressed cheer leaders by local communities - they all gave me lasting impression! Without them, the race would have been less colourful! And them cheering us on - we runners felt so encouraged and motivated!!
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| Look at cheer leaders from local community! They truly cheered us from their hearts! |
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| Even though it was raining, I still saw supporters coming out with umbrellas to cheer us on! |
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| Wow! Look at all the smiles! Runner was happy! Supporters were happy too! Thailand - truly land of thousand smiles! |
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| Oh wow! Look at them having so so much fun! |
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| Cheer leaders with bright happy colours of costumes. And the runner was truly enjoying their cheers! He was dancing to their cheers! So sporty! |
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| Even McDonald said hi and cheered the runners! :) |
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| Another group of supporters with colourful costumes cheering runners on! |
Finish line at Terminal 21
There was a u-turn further up of Terminal 21 before reaching finish line. The u-turn for 21km came first. But for 42km category, we had to run a bit further before making the u-turn to finish line.
This stretch was full of people who had completed their races. More cheers from roadside too!
By the time I reached the u-turn, suddenly the drizzle turned into very heavy downpour! It was so heavy that i got myself soaking wet! lol! But it was fun! I ran in the heavy rain and crossed the finish line to he cheers from the crowd!
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| A very unique perspective of finishers with their finisher medals |
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| Yay! We are all runners! We are all finishers! |
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| Some runners had some fun at finish line capturing happy moments! |
42km finisher medal and goodies
Due to heavy downpour, I quickly went to collect my finisher t-shirt, finisher medal as well as some food and drink coupons to exchange for:
1. Pork noodle soup
2. Meatball noodle soup
3. Dessert (local ice kacang)
4. Mineral water
5. Isotonic drink
Additionally, free flow of cut watermelons was available for all runners to eat!
Can you imagine? After a long 42km run under the rain, a hot bowl of noodle soup not only would feed our hungry stomach but also to warm our souls! And Pattaya Marathon organiser had just done that for the runners! I was so touched by what was provided at end of the race! It reminded me a lot about running in Taiwan. - always with hot soup, hot meals, etc. It was so so memorable!
Usually I would sit at finish line area to eat up the hot meals. However, since my hotel stay included free buffet breakfast, I decided to bring the hot meals back to hotel room and kept them for late lunch instead. haha!
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| Beautiful finisher medal, red hot finisher tee, and hot meals! |
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| Overlay angle of the finisher medal and hot meals by organiser! Top class! |
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| Are you hungry? haha! |
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| My hard-earned 36th full / ultra marathon finisher medal! Very high quality! |
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| These runners were happily eating their hot meals at finish line! |
Full credits to the organiser and official photographers
Pattaya Marathon was one of the rare races I could find so many photos of me running! haha! And I have mentioned before, it's such a awesome team because the photographers covered from standard front shots, but also low angle shots, drone shots, etc. I saw a photographer even taking photos of runners through the water puddle (reflection shots). So so creative and amazing!
And in order to look for my photos, I didn't even have to search one by one. I could search by BIB number or I could search by Face Search by simply uploading a photo of mine. The AI then could match those photos with 90% similarity to my uploaded photo. Amazing! And best of all - all photos are without water marks!
All credits go to the organiser Thailand - Tri League and photographers! You have my salute and respect! I give you 10/10 ratings for this event!
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| "BIB" Search is cool! |
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| I'm truly impressed by this "Face Search". By simply uploading a photo my mine, it helped me to locate 113 related photos! so impressive! |
42km full marathon result
From the participant list, I realised that I was one of the 6 Malaysians who participated in the 42km category. I saw many foreign runners too during 10km race! I guess many of them are holiday makers - just like me - who decided to run a race as well during the beach holiday! haha!
I managed to cross the finish line with a gun time of 4 hours 51 minutes (net time 4 hours 50 minutes).
This result wasn't my slowest full marathon, and definitely this was one hour way slower than my fastest full marathon of 3 hours 48 minutes recorded several years back when i was much younger!
There was no distance marker no pacer, no GPS watch to guide me.
There were so much good food at water stations like ice cream, chocolates, jelly, water melons, etc to distract me. (Yay! I had 2 ice creams amongst other things!)
There were 5-star mobile toilets to let me slowly pee comfortably (I peed 3 times in the bus-convert 5-star mobile toilets).
Then there was breathtaking views of Jomtien Beach and Pattaya Beach that I slowed me down to enjoy!
haha! You see! It's just like our life, "It's not the destination but the journey!"
Truly, I had so so much fun running Pattaya Marathon. And Pattaya being one of my favourite places to visit in Thailand added as a bonus!
The organiser really did a marvellous job!
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| I was one out of 6 full marathon runners from Malaysia |
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| Not my best time but I was having so much fun! |
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| I ran slower and slower! far cry from my glory days of 5:40 pace! haha! |
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| Yippie! My Pattaya Marathon 2023 e-certificate! Thank you! |
Summary
Full/Ultra Marathon No. 36
Event Name:
Pattaya Marathon 2023
Event Website:
https://www.pattayamarathon.com/
Event Date:
July 23, 2023
Distance:
42km full marathon
Full/Ultra Marathon No. in all countries:
No. 36
Full/Ultra Marathon No. in Thailand:
No. 3 (Hat Yai, Chiang Mai, Pattaya)
Running Shoe:
Asics Dynablast 3
Run Time:
4 hours 51 minutes 06 seconds
Net Time:
4 hours 50 minutes 39 seconds
My thoughts:
Would I run again? Yes yes yes! I love the running atmosphere! I love the organiser! I love the ice cream! I love the 5-star toilet facilities! I love the high quality finisher medal! I love the hot meals at end of race! I love all the yummy food provided along the route! I love the beautiful Jomtien Beach and Pattaya Beach sretch! I love the loud cheering crowd! I love the fun-loving happy forever smiling Thai people!
And if you want to have some fun running and forget about your time, do make Pattaya Marathon one of your bucket lists!
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