THE KILLER CALLED DOI SUTHEP: CHIANG MAI

Running up Doi Suthep Mountain with the Thai Davis Cup Team

Whenever the Thai tennis teams trained for an important event, we often traveled to the northern Thai province of Chiang Mai.  It helped to focus the players by getting away from the distractions of Bangkok and was also ideal because of the opportunity to run up Doi Suthep, the mountain that overlooks Chiang Mai.  It’s a daunting run but always meant that my players were in the best possible shape when competition time came around.

Apart from the regular on-court sessions in Chiang Mai we would conduct an early morning run before breakfast, either a lap of the city or a 5k run part way up Doi Suthep. These morning runs were always competitive and although I would be first on the runs at the beginning of our stints in Chiang Mai, soon the players would be running past me and I would be finishing back in the pack!

Running Doi Suthep was one of the toughest runs I have ever done.  Marina Beach in Chennai, India was difficult because of the length of the beach and the soft sand that made it difficult to get a good footing, but Doi Suthep was tougher.  As you climbed higher up Doi Suthep the air became thinner and the incline steeper.  It was every bit as much a test of character as it was a test of fitness.

I can honestly say that I remember my runs in the various countries I visited with better recall than the matches played there. While in Tel Aviv, Israel I went running through the streets with a woman I was coaching on the tour.  We eventually got lost and as darkness began to fall she began to panic, fearing that we would be stranded miles from our hotel with no way to find our way back. After many wrong turns and numerous stops to ask for directions we eventually did make it back! 

While I was still playing competitive tennis I had a regular Sunday run from the township of Bluff at the southern most tip of New Zealand, to Invercargill.  Someone would drive me to Bluff on a Sunday morning and I would run the 15 miles back home. It seemed to always be either cold, wet or windy, and often all three conditions on the same day was the norm. 

I must have run around Lumpini Park in the centre of Bangkok several hundred times.  It was never boring as the thousands of people in the park kept you motivated with their running styles, unusual running attire and crazy warm up routines.  You had to plan your run so that you finished before 8:00am or started after 6:00pm so that the Thai National Anthem didn’t break your run. The whole park would stand still in respect for the 2-3 minutes and then snap back into action once the music had finished. This ritual is repeated at the same time in parks and government buildings every day throughout Thailand.

But for sheer difficulty Doi Suthep was the toughest. I’m glad I don’t have to do that run anymore.