Long Weekend at Phuket - Laguna Half Marathon

It’s the middle of the week and I am still feeling the effects of an eventful long weekend away.

The Laguna half marathon in Phuket was the latest race destination for our intrepid crew of recreational expatriate runners from South East Asia. As with previous trips of this kind, Lina and I flew solo, leaving Isaac at home where he attended a friend’s birthday party on the Sunday. Lina decided to make the weekend a little more leisurely and skipped the running part. I don’t blame her; our accommodation, Indigo Pearl was a very comfortable choice. It is a vast resort but still has the attention to detail that one would expect from a boutique hotel. The theme is based on the tin mine that was at this location many years previous and the design of the room is largely industrial artistic. There were 3 pools to choose from, including a pool bar, infinity pool and one for the kids as well. Young Keisha was loving the latter pool however I suspect her father was longing for some more quality time in the pool bar with a few Singha beers for company!

Things were not all smooth sailing however as we arrived via Air Asia missing our luggage. Luckily, my bag including running gear arrived later the same day. Lina, however had to wait till late on Sunday for the arrival of her luggage, missing our IPod – bloody thieves! Furthermore, I lost my voice the day before the race, a symptom of a dreaded lurgy that has been lurking in me the past week. On the eve of the race I was not feeling up to 21 km so I decided to make the call on whether I would run at 4.30am on race day. The throat was still croaky but good enough.

The gun went off for the half marathoners at 6.00am and I was very happy with my 5 km split times up to the 15km mark. I was starting to tire at about 13 km and the last 4-5 km was a real slog. Given the circumstances I was happy with running under 2 hours for the first time. Many thanks must go to my running mate and fellow manmum, Damien who has pushed me on our weekend runs and as a result my running has significantly improved. Stefan was the winner in our group with a well run 1.40 half. It was very hot and sunny with a low sun for the first 10km and unfortunately there was scant local support for the competitors, unlike at the Ankor Wat event. As usual, plans for a big night following the race ended with a chorus of yawns and droopy eyes as we all struggled to last till midnight.

The next event for the gang is undecided, some may be moving on from these parts shortly which will be sad to see. I am keen to repeat the Ankor Wat event in December as the conditions make for a good opportunity for a PB.