Marathon Hazards

[PeteC]

The wife ran a 25K trail marathon this morning way back in the hinterland at Pluang Thong, almost where the borders of Chonburi, Rayong, Chachoengsao and Chanthaburi meet. The poor guy below was charged by a wild elephant, part of a herd coming down from a mountain area. Everything cancelled on the spot and it turned into a 10K. You never know what you're going to run into at these things. She's only had to put up with snakes and dogs up until today. The guy was very lucky.

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[Big Boy]

Wow!!! My son chose the Prachuap Run For Love this morning. Nothing so dramatic there - the only excitement was the police holding everybody up at the traffic lights for 3 minutes to let cars go through. Similar to the Safety Car in Formula 1, I suppose.

[PeteC]

Here's the promotional video if interested for that aborted race yesterday. They say that a 25K Trail marathon expends as much energy as a 42K Street marathon, and I can believe it. The above race I'm told is in the top 5 in the country for difficulty.

[Big Boy]

An interesting video Pete, thank you. Unfortunately its hard to judge the inclines. In the beginning, they show a mountain - does the trail go right up there, or is it around the base? It must be a much nicer run off-road, that is until you encounter an angry elephant

I'd imagine the off-road impact on legs is much reduced.

[PeteC]

It's always a mixed bag of flat and inclined, sometimes ridiculously so. If there's a beach nearby there always some km's on sand as well. The dirt may be softer to run on but ankles take a bad beating. I would say more retire from twists and sprains than they do from exhaustion. The wife only does 2-3 trails a year as it takes her days to recover as compared to a normal street race. There's even special trail running shoes that are much different thicker/stronger than normal running shoes.

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[Big Boy]

Those 2 photos show a lot more than the video.

[PeteC]

The photos from yesterday's race are just starting to come in. Below are two that show the terrain. The previous post shows photos from other races as an example.

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[PeteC]

The video was promotional to get people to sign up. It was from the 2018 race apparently.

[Big Boy]

I'll bet quite a dew trips and falls as well.