Doi Suthep And Back – Chiang Mai, Thailand

I finally got around to installing the newest Mac OS and pulled the data off the Epson SF-810 I took on my trip to Thailand. My fifth run with this spectacular watch was through the jungle to Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai Thailand. I did the run four days after the Angkor Wat Marathon and ran it with my buddy Ethan and his workmate in Chiang Mai. They are rock climbing instructors and the trail they took me on was wet from the daily monsoon rains and went straight up the mountain.

It was awesome to have local knowledge and without Ethan I never would have found the trailhead. We had the trail to ourselves and about halfway to the top we passed an empty temple sitting next to a stream emptying down the mountain. I stopped for a few seconds to snap some (blurry) photos before moving on. The final stretch up to the temple drew every ounce of energy from my exhausted legs with a grueling 309 step staircase straight out of Kill Bill. They punished me pretty bad but Ethan absolutely crushed them.

We reached the summit at Wat Phra That Doi Suthep just before dusk and had stunning views of Chiang Mai as the city lights took over for the night. We started heading down in the dark and had to make the hard decision to abandon the trail for the security of the road. The road was almost three times longer than the trail and had no lights on it, but had far less snakes and ravines. We pointed the flashlight app on my iPhone behind us so drivers knew they were sharing the road. Bikers (as always) ended up posing the greater threat.

The run came in at just over 9 miles and took us 2 hours and 30 minutes to complete. Our ascent was 855 meters (over 1/2 a mile!) and our descent was similarly 857 meters. My max recorded heart rate was 173bpm – almost 3 beats per second. Huge shout out to Ethan and his friend for taking me on their trail. Some maps and graphs are below.