The horn went off at 5:15 am. and the mass of runners made their way into the darkness towards the fringes of Khao Yai National Park. I took it easy and walked up the steep hills, as I knew I had a long day ahead of me. I was running with some Japanese runners (the eventual 2nd place male and 1st place female overall). We swapped places many times, as they were faster uphill and I was faster in the rocky and 'mini route choice' sections. I took a gel at the 7 km. mark. Overall throughout the race I took a gel about every 7 km. The Japanese runners both started to pull away from me around the 18 km. mark. Then just after the 20 km. mark I did not see a small path branching of to the left of a main trail and I ended up going for about 200 meters before I realized there were no makers. I turned around and located the correct route. I hit the 25 km. mark and checkpoint #5, where I changed my socks and got some more gels from my drop bag. After the 34 km. mark I began to struggle, I took some walking breaks and my pace started to slow. By the 50 km. mark I was only walking, as my legs hurt and I had no energy. Despite walking so much in the last 25 km. I was surprised that I only got passed by 3 people. One guy passed me at the 57 km. mark, one lady at the 71.5 km. mark and another guy at the 74 km. mark. Overall a disappointing first 75 km. race, but I accomplished the first goal...to finish! When I crossed the line I threw my hands in the air, slammed my hat to the mat and let out a 'Yeahhhh'. There seems to be a mistake with my result. Some split times are not recorded and the time posted is 30 minutes longer then my GPS time. They thought that I did not attend the race briefing the day before, but I did! They corrected the problem. I placed 9/133 overall (there were 52 finishers) and 7/111 in the Male Open category.
Route:
https://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=7469229Results:
https://www.sportstats.asia/display-results.xhtml?...Race Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUA2H-8j1to