Marathon Man

Doug's brother, Dan, lives and works in Bangkok. He's an awesome runner, and recently ran the Khon Kaen marathon. We are so proud of him! Here's his account of how the race went:

Greetings,Well, the end of January came and went and with it the Khon Kaen marathon. I left Bangkok at 6am in a dense thick fog on Saturday, Jan. 24th. Drove the 6 hours to Khon Kaen. The marathon was last Sunday (Jan. 25th), starting at 4:30 am. A beautiful cool morning. The starting line was on the campus of Khon Kaen University in the province and capital city of Khon Kaen. Located in the northeast region of Thailand. This was an international marathon, supported by IAAF, the official organization for marathons (as well as other athletic events). The Kenyans, and Ethiopians, and Russians, and Americans, and Thais, and Japanese, and well a lot of countries were represented. The course meandered through the streets of Khon Kaen. Crowds of people were lining the streets cheering us on the entire time. I had a great run. I was able to hit a 4:29 min/kilometer pace in the first half of the marathon and pegged it for the rest of the time. Finishing witha 4:29 average pace. I came in 13th in the age group out of 48 runners and 64th overall, out of 549. Not bad, I think. My time (if you have not done the math yet) was 3 hours 8 minutes 41 seconds. I beat my previous best time (this past Nov. in the BKK marathon) of 3 hrs 22 min 29 sec. Crushed it really. This time is also good enough to qualify for the Boston marathon. Unfortunately, Boston is already sold out for the April 2009 marathon. Great run. ---dan