*BEEP!*-*BEEP!*-*BEEP!*
The alarm went off way too early this morning as I rose at 5am. Today was the big day, the vertical marathon! Running 61 flights of stairs as fast as you can, anyway you can! The Princess of Thailand puts on this event each year at the Banyon Tree hotel and people come all the way from Japan to run it! One of the teachers found out about it and told the grade 9 and 10’s if they ran it they would get extra credit for PE class. He asked if I wanted to do it as well. Turns out we had 6 teachers and 11 kids come! It was a fantastic time despite the wake up call!
We all piled into 1 school van, some on the floor, others on laps, Sammy was even in mid air at one point as he tried to straddle the seats…and of course, no seatbelts! We flew down the road as there was no traffic due to the fact that only soi dogs and rats come out at this time of day! We all registered for our age groups and then bonded for the next couple of hours as we awaited the start. I can’t even describe to you the sights we saw! With so many people gathered, the laughs abounded!
Soon it was time and We put the microchip anklet that recorded our time around the leg of our choice and fell into our respected lines. How to run it? No idea! Pace? Sprint then walk? Stop? Too late, the sign was given and we went off in groups of 10 every minute.
We met at the top and high fived as we waited for others and gasped at the vertical view of Bangkok that always takes my breath away…wait, that’s the pollution…I took some kids down in the elevator and when our ears popped they all looked at me and smiled and said, “Pressure!” I love it when they quote science stuff they’re learning!
You know the best part? Not the race, not the band, not the food, t-shirt, or metal. It was in the van on the way back sitting next to Puppap as he told me about his parents, their jobs and what he wants to be when he grows up. He’s the small, spitfire new kid that takes a lot of abuse from his class but keeps a smile! “I look at my dad and think I want to be that. He’s awesome!” Wow!! Despite the fact that he has “mom 1, mom, dad 1, and dad 2” he is so proud of his father’s that love him and take care of him. His English is still rough but when he couldn’t think of a word he’d tap Joch, who was beside him, and they would jabber in Thai until they came up with a way to tell me what he wanted to say. How cool is that?
It was the highlight of the week! Second runner up? The 11 foot long Python that I saw when I went to breakfast on Saturday morning. It wasn’t a show. The workers had caught it in the klong (nasty stream water) and grabbed it because it was eating their chickens and cats. As the guy held it, I looked in its gapping mouth and watched as it slithered its tail around his legs. This was no show! Apparently, the snakes can grow so big up north that they eat small children! I can’t even imagine that! Fantastic Thailand! Have a great week!