Danang Marathon in Vietnam – Continent #7

On Sunday, I ran Danang Marathon, in Vietnam. This was my 7th continent marathon – I have now run marathons on every continent. I will write a different post about that, but that’s the reason for picking this race.

I have been doing some work in Singapore, and to find this race, I asked some runners in Singapore what races they recommended on this weekend, and this came up. So I came to the region a couple of days early to run this.

Before the race

I flew from San Francisco to Singapore, then Singapore to Danang. On the plane to Danang, there was a guy sitting behind me who I spent most of the flight trying to decide if he was racing, looking for clues like whether or not he was wearing running shoes or had any recognizable running brands on his bags. As we deplaned, I verified with him that he was, in fact, racing, and we shared a car to the bib pickup. His name was Luis, and he was running this race to qualify for Comrades Marathon, which he had already gotten in to but just needed to run a race to prove that he was fit enough to do it (spoiler – he was!).

Bib pickup was really neat. It was at an open air square on the beach. As this was my first experience with Vietnam, I was thrilled with the location. The bib pickup process was also very easy and fast. There were a number of vendors there as well, which was helpful. I forgot to bring Gu and a Garmin charger, and I was able to pick up both there.

Afterwards, I checked into the hotel and had dinner nearby. The race started at 3am (likely to avoid heat), and there was zero chance my digestive system was going to be fully adjusted to the new time zone, so I just ate some food and hoped this would work out.

I set my alarm for 1:30am, drank a ton of water, then headed to the start line, which was a ten minute walk along the water.

There was some sort of warmup jazzercize activity happening to 70s/80s disco remixes, which was highly entertaining. Runners were taking their warmup very seriously, and most of them were dudes, so watching a hundred or so runners dancing around at 2am was fantastic. I joined in for a bit, because the music was catchy, and why not.

I forgot my water bottle at the hotel, but karma was in my favor – someone had left 5,000 VND in a vending machine and I was able to get a water bottle. I kept drinking ahead of the start, because it was very humid and hot and I didn’t want to get dehydrated.

The start line was divided into a handful of corrals. I was in corral 2, which seemed to somehow be sub-elite. On figuring this out, I drifted towards the back of the corral, and when they let corral 3 into our area, I hid further back in that pack. I had no time goal for this race – I was just wanting to finish, as it was part of a heavy training block, and its role in the training block was to be “miles on feet.”

The race was heavily male-dominated. 140 women (12.5%) vs 980 men. Can’t remember the last time I’ve seen that much of a gender imbalance in a major race!

Race

The race took a square-ish trip around Danang, with two additional out-and-backs. I like out-and-backs because you can see the elite athletes, and anyone else you’ve been running with, on their return. The race started out heading south along the water, in the dark, for the first out-and-back.

I quickly met up with Björn, a runner from Sweden living in Singapore, who was running his first race. He was keeping a pretty good pace, so we ended up running about 15-20 miles together. It was great to have company and make a new friend along the way.

As we headed south, we eventually saw the frontrunners coming back – there was a pretty small cluster of them, and they were flying. The women were a bit further behind and still going quite fast, although there didn’t seem to be as much competition amongst the women for the top spots.

We eventually turned around (no timing mat at the turnaround!) and headed back north. We turned west and crossed a bridge – Björn was disappointed that we didn’t cross the famous Dragon Bridge, but we ran by it right afterwards as we headed north. It was still very dark, so I can’t say the sightseeing was generally the best beyond stuff that was already lit up.

At some point, Luis caught up to Björn and and I, and ran for a few minutes with us before he took off. We took a low-light selfie but you can see the enthusiasm!

When we got to the top of the course and turned west again, it was getting a little bit lighter outside. This was about the half-marathon point. This also started the second out-and-back, so we were able to see the leading athletes coming back – two men were neck-and-neck with a third pretty far back, and the women were still a bit behind and more spread out.

When we turned around to complete the top of the square, heading east. Björn and I split up at this point – I was feeling pretty good and keeping a fairly steady pace, so I started trying to catch the folks ahead of me.

Right before the bridge – about a 200-foot climb on an otherwise flat course – I was feeling a bit tired. Then, a guy behind me caught up and asked if he could pace off of me going up the bridge. I had never been asked this before, and it was pretty awesome, because it meant that he thought maybe I was running an okay pace. I had been planning to take it easy going over the bridge, but now the power/requirement of teamwork motivated me to keep moving up the bridge, so I didn’t slow down as much as I would have otherwise.

The course also connected with the half marathon runners here, so there was a lot of dodging/weaving through this area.

I was struggling for the last 10k. Legs were tired, it was really hot, and I was getting a lot of chafing from the sweat/humidity. But when I saw the hotel, I knew there was only about a kilometer to go.

The last mile or so of a marathon is always a bit of a weird moment. You realize that the suffering is almost over, but the experience is almost over, as well. I always try to appreciate the last couple of minutes of a race, because instead of being in the moment, much of the race is spent wondering when it will finally be over. And suddenly, it is.

After the race

I finished in 4:22:13, which is fine on tired legs. I was 25th out of 140 women, which is not bad at all. That says more about the field than me, though.

I waited around for a few minutes for Vic to finish, and he was psyched to see me. We exchanged numbers, and later, pictures of the race.

I also talked to the race announcer – I had heard him the day before and at the start line, and his accent sounded suspiciously familiar. It turns out that he has family that lives about 20 minutes away from me in the Bay Area, which is pretty amazing when you’re so far away from home. The world is small! He announced that it was my 7th continent, which I will admit was nice to hear over the loudspeaker.

As I walked back towards the hotel, I saw Björn finishing – he was heads down, committed to the finish line, and didn’t hear me cheering. We connected later and I shared photos with him, and we ended up getting drinks at an underground bar later that evening, too.

Edwin Kiptoo won the race in 2:37:06 (7 seconds ahead of the next man), which normally I wouldn’t care about, but it was really cool to see him crushing it on the course. The first woman was Phạm Thị Bình in 3:10:33, known as the “Barefoot Queen” – I think she was wearing shoes for this race, though. She was 7 MINUTES ahead of the next woman.

I spent the afternoon visiting Marble Mountains and Hoi An. A lot of additional walking/climbing, but worth it to see very cool caves and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Technical notes about the race

• The race was pretty well-organized. Packet pickup was easy, race morning was easy, and the course was well-marked.
• The aid stations were early & often – about every 2 kilometers. Lots of water, Revive for electrolytes (some sort of fizzy drink – not bad), and bananas/watermelon for calories. No gels/Gu that I saw. At one aid station the water was cold, which was nice. I drank a TON of liquid during this race, so if you’re coming in from out of town and are not adjusted to the humidity, highly recommend carrying your own bottle to fill up.
• Course is all asphalt and pretty flat. The only two slight climbs are the two bridges at the end.
• Scenery is … okay. It’s dark for a lot of the race.

Reflections

I’m glad to have done this race. I probably wouldn’t have visited Vietnam on this trip otherwise. My one note is that I have become a bit more socially-oriented in my running over the past several years, so doing this alone left something to be desired. I’m glad I was able to meet some people and make some friends while there.

Will share a more detailed post about the 7 continents a bit later.