Khon Kaen International Marathon 2025 – Race Report

Background: 8 years ago I was the stereotypical 29-year-old novice marathoner. I was going through a lot in life want to hurt and marathon training gave me a way to do that. I roughly followed a novice plan and then gave everything I had on race day to finish in 3:58:54. The course had a big hill between kilometres 35-37. My legs were in so much pain and I was laughing like a maniac as I ran up that hill. After the race I sat down and couldn’t stand up, I couldn’t walk properly for a week, and my big toenails both fell off, For a long time after that I didn’t want to run anymore. It took me several years to get back into running, I went down the trail and ultra path for a while but with a young family I don’t have the time to spend all weekend on the trails After overcooking the training resulting in a disappointing DNF in an ultra. I decided it was finally time to jump back into the marathon.

Training:

Base phase (7 months out): I had returning to the marathon in mind for 7 or 8 months. so I did a base building block 50-60ks per week mostly easy with a bit of tempo sprinkled in, long runs 20+ km. I didn’t enjoy this type of training and was struggling with piriformis impinging on my sciatic nerve. I end that block by blowing myself up in a trail race, going out way too hard.

Speed block (4 months out): Next, I jumped into a shorter 5k block. (45-50ks per week) this was a lot more fun working on speed. We went on a beach holiday at the end of this block and my pain disappeared during the holiday. I realised I have a desk-sitting injury rather than a running injury. I finished this block with a 5k PR of 20:45. I programmed my own training for a few weeks to bridge the gap until T-13 weeks to start my marathon block, hitting 65ks a week with a focus on long threshold efforts to prep for an upcoming half.

Marathon block (3 months out): I used Dr Will O’Connor’s “Marathon Race Ready (13 Wk, 4-5 Days/Wk)” on Training Peaks. I like that it starts with a threshold test and all the workouts are % of threshold so it is automatically tailored to your specific pace and heart rate zones, The plan content is the standard stuff, long runs, weekly speed and tempo/MP workouts. I like that the long runs have lots of MP in them. I nailed all the training for the last 10 weeks of the plan including all the optional 5th day runs. I ran HMs in October (1:37:46) and December (1:34:14) both PRs. I think I could have retested my threshold and adjusted my pace zones halfway through the block but decided to stay conservative and stick with 4:55 per km as my marathon pace. One of my goals for the marathon was to finish strong so Ididn’t want to push the pace right to the limit from the start. I went off plan and took a risk 12 days out on a New Year’s Day Park Run. I told myself to just take it easy but that’s not my style I did a steady first km and then turned it into a progression run, picking up each km and ending with a 20-second PR.

The Race:

I decided for my return to the marathon I would return the same marathon as my first, Khon Kaen Thailand. That way it would be directly comparable and I would need to conquer that hill again. I banked a couple of nights of good rest 2 and 3 days out, carb-loaded with oats, rice, and pizza. Race day it was cold and quite windy (by Thailand’s standards anyway). The race starts at 3 am so I was up at 1am and on the bus to the start a 2am. Waited as long as possible to take off my warm clothes then and quick warm with some short race pace efforts. I was in A Coral just behind the elites, I let myself fall back into the pack a bit, based on past results there should be 100-150 people ahead of me. I started too quick and had to really control my excitement and settle into my race pace which felt good and steady. I resisted the urge to pick it up in the first half, it was colder than I’m used to so I was drinking too much water, normally I’d be dripping sweat, instead, I lost a minute with a bathroom stop at 14km. I worked with some other runners taking turns breaking the wind. I went through half in 1:43 just ahead of where I planned to be. From there,I started to slowly put my foot down. Around km 26 the course took us out onto the highway. Despite my increased effort km 26-30 my pace was slowing slightly, I could feel the tightness in my high hamstrings,and glutes, all around my hips. I picked it up my effort even more, as much as I dared with so far still to go and with the imminent risk of cramping. Started peeling off km splits in the 4:40s. km 34 we joined in with the half and 10k crowd with lots of slow traffic to navigate, loosing touch with the other marathoners meant i really had to focus on keeping my pace and not falling in step with the runners from shorter distances. Up the hill I kept my effort consistent and my pace dropped a bit but I picked off a few other marathoners. Over the top of the hill it was time to go but again I found I need to increase my effort just to maintain my pace. some of the other marathoners came back onto my shoulder. I still had more aerobic capacity but my legs couldn’t turn over as I would have liked. I pushed harder again and my pace picked up into the 4:30’s for the last few ks, I dropped the guys that were on my shoulder and started picking off other runners again Only 1 guy from the marathon flew past, I went with him for a few hundred metres but I couldn’t hold that for 2 more ks. The last 2ks seemed to be the longest, I was just hanging in there knowing the finish was just around the corner. I crossed the line in 3:25:22 a huge PR. I was very pleased with my race, I executed on my plan and finished strong.

Post race: I immediately pulled up and into a stiff-legged hobble. Marathons are hard! I was in much better shape than after my first and now I’m already making plans for another, excited to see what I can do with another big training block.