Top tips from Thailand’s toughest trail runners on beating the heat and going the distance
From eating sticky rice and spicy papaya salad before a race to running in all kinds of temperatures, athletes from Thailand, Hong Kong and France reveal the secrets to speed and endurance
In rural Thailand, thousands of people pay to wake up before sunrise and take part in trail running events through paddy fields and forest trails, and over steep, rocky hills. These diehard trail runners brave heat, rain, wind, mud, scrapes, aches, cramps, and encounters with testy country dogs.
This month, about 2,700 people from 50 countries took part in The North Face (TNF) 100km trail race in a grassy corner of Nakhon Ratchasima province northeast of the capital, Bangkok.
What does it take to go the distance on a Thai trail – whether it’s 10km or 100km – and also do well, and win?
Hongkonger, 70, is ready for his 16th Trailwalker 100km race. And he volunteers to clean up the trail
The day before the race, Sanya Khanchai, a two-time overall winner of TNF’s 100km race, explained his surprisingly simple training diet.
“I’m OK eating sticky rice and som tam [spicy papaya salad] for my meals and snacks and bread from convenience stores to keep me going,” the Thai runner said.
Does the veteran runner consume copious amounts of beetroot juice, hazelnut butter and multigrain bread? No. Even the night before race day, he said he would eat a dinner of rice and grilled fish, then wake up at 1am and eat sticky rice, before his 100km race at 5am. A tough simplicity characterises the 44-year-old’s approach to running.
“I try to run in all kinds of weather and temperatures to get my body used to different conditions, including rain, heat and cold, and on trails and roads.”
