This summer I get a chance to spend 2 months in Thailand for work and personal business. A friend from college reached out once she knew that I was in Thailand. She was organizing an 8-day, 1000-km charity ride from Phuket to Bangkok to raise funds to create exercise space for disabled athletes. After checking the schedule, I told her I could not join them for the whole distance but I could join for the last 2 days from Pranburi to Bangkok, which was about 270 km (167 miles).
Pan Pan Kun (ปั่นปันกัน) Project (Cycle to Share) was founded by a group of 4 sports enthusiasts to create a charity ride project to raise awareness and funds to support various causes. Each year the concept and objective of the charity campaign are adjusted to problems presented in the society. This year they rode from Phuket to Bangkok with a total distance of 1,000 kilometers.
I joined the team on their 7th day of riding in Pranburi. A couple of other cyclists and I left Bangkok around noon and arrived in Pranburi around 4pm. We checked in, met with the other riders who rode from Phuket, and had dinner together. I originally was concerned that I did not know anyone besides my friend who organized this ride but it turned out that everyone was so nice and friendly. Most importantly, all of them were long distance triathletes and/or ultramarathoners. So, it was not hard at all to connect with them :)
On Saturday morning, I woke up and had breakfast. The ride started around 7:30am. We also had other cyclists joining us in Hua Hin and rode with us for a good portion. It started to rain around 10am but we kept going. The good thing about this ride is that I was not concerned about safety because they had a very good marshall team, the camera crew, the support vans, and an ambulance following us. Because my mileage was not up to riding 80 miles a day yet, I started to feel tired around Mile 70 but I was able to keep going until we reached the hotel for that night.
Of course, we had some beer after a long day of riding, which was pretty rewarding :)
Today we covered 80 miles and stayed overnight in Bang Tabun.
On the next morning, we started around 8am. The schedule had us arriving at the National Stadium in Bangkok around 5pm and the closing ceremony was around 6:30pm (and the Bangkok Governor would be there for the closing ceremony). We expected some rain on this day but it turned out that it did not rain so it got pretty hot and humid (yike). I was struggling with the afternoon heat after lunch. Thank god I learned to deal with heat from Vermont 100 and other races :)
We arrived in Bangkok around 4pm and had to stop to re-arrange the group and the formation near Hua Chang Bridge before riding to the National Stadium for another 1 km.
We entered the National Stadium and rode 2 loops around the stadium with para-athletes who were waiting for us there. On this day, we logged in about 88 miles. Then, we had a closing ceremony. P. came to pick me up after the ceremony and we dropped a friend off at her condo before we went home.
In summary, the ride went really well and it was for a great cause. I would like to thank all friends and family members who donated to the cause. The ride was organized very well and all riders felt very safe even though we were riding on many dangerous, high-accident roads in Bangkok.
I hope I get a chance to participate in such amazing activity again in the future :)
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