Singha Obstacle Run V

At the end of last year, I had the chance to participate in my first obstacle run at Singha Park in Chiang Rai. I had never run in an event like this before and had no experience with obstacle courses. When I signed up, I had no idea what to expect or how to navigate the obstacles. I registered for the 7.8 km course along with some coworkers, thinking it would be exhausting to run and tackle obstacles at the same time.

I was quite excited about this event because, as I mentioned, I had never done anything like this before, which made me feel a bit anxious. But I was also up for the challenge.

We went as a team from the office, though we didn’t run as a team—everyone ran at their own pace, and we agreed to meet up at the finish line.

Judging by the weather and the course, I initially thought it would be easy. As soon as the race started, I ran at a steady pace, not too fast, since the path was just a regular dirt road. But as soon as I reached the first obstacle, I realized this was going to be tough! We had to climb up a steep incline—three levels high! This obstacle took a lot of energy. After that, the course continued with more hills, some sandy areas, and a lot of climbing, all of which were quite physically demanding.

It got even tougher when we encountered water. The air was already pretty chilly, and I was wearing a white shirt—great, right? But there was no choice but to push through. And then came the mud—everything got messy!

After about 4-5 kilometers, I reached my favorite part of the course: running through the tea plantations. The scenery was absolutely stunning, so much so that I almost stopped to take pictures—but I couldn’t! By this point, my knee was starting to hurt, so I began walking in parts.

One of the toughest obstacles was near the end, where we had to jump into a mud pit and then try to climb out. By this time, I was exhausted and almost out of energy, making this obstacle especially challenging.

As I neared the finish line, I faced one last deep mud obstacle. It was so tough that my shoe ripped apart— the sole completely came off, leaving me to finish the race barefoot. This was a disaster, and the pain in my knee came back immediately, but I gritted my teeth and pushed through to the end.

In the end, I completed the race and learned a lot from the experience. I saw the kindness and camaraderie of all the athletes, helping each other along the way. I’m definitely coming back next year!