By: Harold Piel
Event Name: Chiang Mai International Marathon
Date: Sunday, December 21, 2025
Location: Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Synopsis: Next in our Asian Travel running series was a simple 10K event in Chiang Mai. Logistics simple as a short walk to/from our accommodations, in Thailand’s 2nd largest city. With 64 countries represented, a very international field. The 10K was also a loop course with the start/finish being in the same location, whereas the longer venues had a point-to-point setup, and started 3-5 hours sooner!
What was provided at Aid Sessions: Like all races in Thailand, water every 2-3km. Being a shorter race, there was electrolytes available half way, though no extra food on the course.
How was the weather: Early morning starts are standard in SE Asia to ‘beat the heat’. Longer races starting hours before. Our 10K start was 6:00am with a humid 20C, and the temperatures climbing quickly as the sun rose to 24C for when the race finished.
My Race Experience: It was a scramble to get to the race kit pickup in time, as we were flying in from a previous destination in the far south from Hat Yai. Landing only 2 hours before cutoff, we zipped directly to the Tha Phae Gate where the race kit pickup was with our luggage, and easily zipped through the outdoor venue to grab our race kits and bibs. As we were not sure if we would get to the start of this race in time, we kept things simple when registering, and we both signed up for the 10K. As Judy was also still getting over her bad cough that had been nagging her these past few weeks, she was also grateful for the shorter distance! Lots of other displays and tents in the area, so we enjoyed walking about to see what was available, keeping in mind our limited luggage space and existing mound of race shirts. We took a short stroll to our accommodations inside The Old City, and enjoyed the rest of the evening in this familiar place at the night food markets and temples.
Race day was simple: up at 4:30am for a breakfast and coffee which in SE Asia is a relatively late wakeup time for a running race! We wore our running outfits as we left the hotel, and walked around 1.5km to the Tha Phae Gate, where the starting area was . . . greeting and thanking volunteers in the Old City as we went. At the gate, we admired the setup, music and announcements getting everyone hyped, and it was simple to drop off our very small finishers bag, that held a change of dry cloths. This international race had entries from 64 countries, so there were a lot of foreigners in the starting area, as Chiang Mai is a very popular tourist destination. With lots of music, announcer hype in Thai, and some English, we got into position and awaited the departure fanfare, with a big countdown and blaring of a dozen horns.
Shuffling through the start, it did not take me long to get into a reasonable shuffle starting about 2/3 of the way back. Lots of inexperienced participants around, and it was amazing how many folks took a pause 500m, 1km, or even 2km from the start as we wound our way through the inside of the Old City to the West Gate. Lots of dodging and weaving taking place, though all good for me, as I was just there to enjoy myself. Exiting the West Gate, we got onto the Old City inner Ring Road, that runs along the inside of the moat that surrounds the Old City walls.
After that, the run was simple: the Old City Walls perimeter run is something we’ve done often while staying in Chiang Mai, and it’s about 1.5km long on each edge in a big square: running on the closed dual lane road was relaxing. Counting down the turns on the square was easy, and surprisingly scenic, as you are always running beside a historic wall, Thai Temple, the water moat with a tree lined pathway is scenic considering we’re in the middle of Thailand’s 2nd largest city!
At the final leg of our run, the course wove back into The Old City, and we looped around to the main street, and approached the finishing line from inside the Old Town…. past historic walls. The KM markers were checking off, though near the end of the run, there was a long gap between 8-9km markers as the course took on some extra length as we passed by the famous Tha Phae Gate to the finish arch past a corridor of international flags representing all the countries participating. The 10K turned out to be a little long but that’s OK, as we all ran the 10.8K for the event!
The timing of the run was done so we would be arriving just after sunrise, and you could definitely start to feel the air temperature inching up as soon as the sun began to appear. Of note, the 21.1K and 42.2K runs that started at the same place we did, had a point-to-point course, ending up well outside of town towards the nearby mountains with their own finishing area and shuttle back to the start.
Found Judy, who finished the run – albeit in a relatively causal tempo, still getting over that bad cough. Definitely happy she did not sign up for anything longer! We enjoyed the numerous food tent offerings, including ice cream and popsicles, as the 24C humid air had my running shirt totally soaked. We picked up our checked bags, and I popped on a dry shirt, and hung out a bit. Not surprisingly, with the sunrise, came the Thai Monks, on their morning pilgrimages, and it was a very Thai experience to see many thankful finishers donating the finisher food to the Thai Monks for a blessing.
I was happy with my mid-race AG finish in the 50+ category in 1:08:19 with my fairly even run. Judy was also competing in the W50+ category, and mercifully did not finish top 5 with the sizable elephant trophies being distributed. We both had fun, and definitely picked up some great running shirts.
Happy with our experience, we strolled back to our place, grabbed a nice shower to wash up, and still had the full day ahead of us to enjoy the sights of this great city after we did some morning laundry of our running gear and travel cloths.
It’s a wrap, and another great SE Asia Thai race. Would we do it again if we happened to be in the area? For sure! An easy morning run that we often do while in Chiang Mai, and might even think about doing the 21.1k someday.
Run K2J 