Thai 300 (Race Report)

Pai, Thailand

Wednesday, January 14

200+ mile attempt #14

Weather - Warm and humid during the day and mild overnight

Preface

A few months ago, when I was in Canada with Paul for Divide 200, we were having lunch one day before the race. We were talking about upcoming races and he mentioned that he was considering doing the inaugural Thai 500 (km, not miles). At the time, I had no intention of joining the adventure - I had already been taking a decent amount of time off and didn’t think there was any way possible I could squeeze in another week + adventure. We had a blast talking about the event and doing research - although there was admittedly not much to find. Paul was insistent that if he did the race, he would be going for the 500km, which I was never interested in. After Monster 300, I decided that anything in the 200 mile range was more than enough. I saw there was a 300km and figured IF for some crazy reason we decided to do this thing, the shorter distance would suffice.

Fast forward to October and Paul and Ana had signed up for the big kahoona. After some debate, I talked to Ben and I told him that if I could get the time off approved that I was going to sign up. So… I did. The race itself was not very expensive at all (I believe it was about $700 USD), definitely way less than what the mainstream 200s go for in the states. I also had been doing a lot of research of flights and managed to get everything booked for under $1,000. Additionally, the race was providing transportation from the airport in Chiang Mai to the start line in Pai for only about $11 USD (each way) - so it eliminated a lot of travel logistics. Ok, I guess I am going to Thailand!!

Race Day

Knowing that it was over a mile to the start line, I had done my research and decided I would try to get a ride to the start line. I did not know enough about the area to know that that there was no Uber or Lyft, and even taxis were not something to find easily. I did finally get some information from the woman the front desk of my hotel and through Facebook found the guy’s WhatsApp - I was about 80% sure that I would actually get picked up at my requested time of 7:00 am.

Since I had prepped everything the day before, I had given myself 45 minutes to get ready. In typical fashion, it took longer than that, but since I had gone to bed so early and slept very well, I did not mind the extra time. I was even able to enjoy some coffee before heading out. I did also find out that Ana and Paul had DNFd their race (which started a few days earlier), but they would be at the start line to see me off.

My taxi driver not only showed up, he was about 10 minutes early! Thankfully I had gotten cash the night before, although I hadn’t been told how much the ride would cost. When we arrived he asked for 150THB, but I didn’t have a bill small enough for him to make change, so he took my to 7-11 so I could buy a coke. Either way, with the conversion rate, my ride was less than $5USD. Totally worth it. 

Since I had not been able to pick up food for breakfast, I was relieved to see they had a lot of food at the start, so I had some rice, meat, croissant, and of course, more coffee. 

As an aside, these bottled espressos were at ALL aid stations!!

I was chatting with some people at the start and was headed to use the bathroom when I saw Ana, Paul and CJ heading over. I was very thankful to have a few minutes to hear about the course and made some last minute decisions about what to carry. They said they would be in Pai for the week and would be seeing me on course. Yay!! 

Finally, it was almost time to start. The 300 might have been the smallest registration distance and I think there were maybe only 12-15 of us starting, and I knew right from the start that I WAS THE ONLY FEMALE. 

Day One

I was actually lined up at the front, where I definitely didn’t want to be, but also knew I would not be there long anyway. Funny story is that we all turned the wrong way onto the Main Street - yay, getting lost right away. 

There were actually going to be a TON of aid stations on this course - 27 total for 313km (the official distance) - so not nearly as far apart as I am used to from other events. The “bad” part was that I would only have two drop bags, so while I wouldn’t have to carry a ton of water, any special snacks/nutrition/batteries would have to be carried a long way, etc.

The course started in town and thankfully we were starting at 8 am before things got too crazy, although the streets in Pai are narrow and there is a lot going on between cars and scooters and people on foot. I wanted to run what I could since this was easily on paper the hardest 200 miler I have ever attempted, with nearly 50,000’ elevation gain and a very narrow 100 hour cutoff. So yeah, you could say I was a bit scared!

First section was about 6 miles and it was all in town or on the shoulder of the main road out of town. I did a lot of running in this section, but still figured I was last or maybe one person was behind me. I was not going to let anything discourage me this early. I had looked at the profile and knew that the hardest climbs would come in the early miles, and as long as I could stay ahead of cutoffs there was a chance that I could actually finish this thing!

These signs were seriously huge - like 6 feet tall!!

Arrived at the first aid station.  I can’t remember if I took any sort of food or not, but I think all I did was top off my water. The next few sections were going to be the hardest of the course, but I still didn’t really “know” what I was going to be up against here. 

I was now heading onto the trails and could see the people in front of me. The climbing was already looking pretty intense. Here we go! Of course there was a photographer RIGHT THERE, just to capture people dying up the climb. It was hot, sunny and exposed. The terrain was loose dirt and prairie grass. The course markings were AWESOME. In town and at major intersections they were using HUGE 6’ or so tall signs (picture above) and the flagging was all red/white reflective. I had the route downloaded on both Gaia and Garmin Explore and felt confident that I would only need to pull out the map in very rare situations. I had called Ben when I started this section since I wasn’t sure when I would have phone service again. I did miss a turn, but thankfully knowing how often the course was flagged, I knew it right away and was able to backtrack where I needed to be. The course moved into a bit of a more wooded area, which was nice to block the sun. I had a few of the 500km runners coming down towards me, and those were going to be pretty much the only people that I would see the whole day.

This doesn't LOOK steep, but it really was

Photo: Shutterrun

Where oh where am I going?

I was getting really hot and it was super humid. I was sweating a ton and my phone was taking foggy pictures from being moist. I was really trying hard to not take many breaks on the climb. 

This section was SO HARD. Just up, up, up. I was trying to move as purposefully as I could and take as few breaks as possible. Any movement forward was going to be progress here. I was getting a bit worried in this section that I was going to run out of water. I was already drenched with sweat and I was moving so slow. Another runner caught up to me at some point and we leapfrogged a bit. It was reassuring to know that there was at least one more person out there! I had set up my watch to record in km since that is how all the aid station distances were determined, but my pace was still in mph because, let’s face it, I wasn’t going to be able to calculate kph even under normal circumstances. Came up to an area where the course split and this was going to be the only out and back to an aid station.

Ran into the guy from Scotland here - he had been right in front of me going into the first aid station. He was so fast that he had already done the whole aid station and was heading back by that time I got there. He was just sitting on the big rocks soaking in the views. I hoped I would have time to enjoy everything as well!

There were some photographers in this area and we had been rewarded with some amazing panorama views for all our climbing. There were sections that were taped off on all sides - I assume warning that there were steep drop-offs, which sorta made me laugh. Was glad I was not doing this at night. 

Photo: Shutterrun

I made sure to take some pictures and videos, but tried to not dawdle. We had some runners coming back towards us, and it didn’t seem like we were THAT far back. 

Finally, got to the aid station. The guy from Sweden was there, and with the other guy I had been leapfrogging with, we were the last three on course. I drank a bunch of water and topped off my bottles. Had a sandwich here, this was actually the only aid station of the course that had these! 

I headed out right after the Swede, and immediately I was thinking…. I don’t remember this? Did we really come this way to the aid station? 

Turns out we actually did a loop around the aid station. The top of the hill we had climbed up was rocky with a lot of exposure and I remember thinking that I was very happy to have done all that during the day and not at night!! Back to the same climb back towards the fork in the road and more pictures from the photographers. (Seriously impressed with how many photographers there were on this course!!)

Photo: Shutterrun

Photo: Shutterrun

Photo: Shutterrun

At this point, I am already not able to remember much of anything or where things might have been on course. I got back to that junction and went the other way. There was a lot of very technical single track in here. I kept Ana’s words in mind - this course has a lot of bushwhacking. I definitely fell A LOT on the downhills. While I love to remind people how much I suck at climbing, I *really* suck at steep and technical descents. 

It's definitely not easy to see in this picture, but this was so sketchy

Once we got to the fork in the road we had some pretty nice single track (?) I guess. I don't really remember this part, but I have pictures, so I guess this is what we did!

Unbeknownst to me, my first encounter with water buffalo. Scared the crap out of me!!

Getting closer to the aid station and we have a very big climb with wooden handrails - it was actually one of the scarier sections for me. Being so short, I had to rely on those a lot to pull myself up and I just had to hope that they were strong enough to support weight. 

I made this pic extra big and it's still hard to see the railings I'm talking about. Also - SO STEEP.

Really pumped when I got to the top and there were these really nice stone steps. Felt so good to have something sturdy under my feet! 

I came up to another runner - he was in the 500, and he said he was going to be missing the cutoff. Ugh. That ignited something in me and this section was thankfully wider and not as technical, so I did some running here to get to the aid station. I was able to have dinner with a view - I can’t recall what I had, but am sure it was rice and meat of some kind. I was able to wash my hands before leaving and headed out into the first night.

I was hoping that Ana was right and that I wasn’t going to regret not having anything more than my R1 for a layer. It was an absolutely gorgeous sunset, and then we had more technical descent. After having a few sections that seemed “long” - not really because of the distance, but more-so the technical terrain, I was excited to see that we had two back to back “short” sections. I was happy to be ahead of cutoffs and moving well. 

Leaving the aid station started on a nice, paved road. Nice because it felt good on my feet, but it was still a pretty steep grade.

Looking back to the aid station I just left - what a view!

Best sunset picture I got during the race

From here, we moved back onto trails. My first encounter with some of these weird gates. Was this supposed to somehow open? Was I supposed to squeeze through? I ended up climbing over, I think.

Unfortunately about here is when I can’t really remember much. There were two sections that seemed really close together and I stupidly thought that I would be done with them pretty quick. The first segment was in the cornfields. I had remembered seeing this section on a course preview and it was definitely creepy doing it at night.

Stalks were definitely taller than me!

This was also the first section where the course markings were not as good. I remembered following the flags and then suddenly I didn’t see any more flags. I pulled up both Gaia and Garmin Explore and still was not able to figure out where I was supposed to be. I backtracked 3-4 flags and simply could not figure out where the route was supposed to be. Finally I just moved towards the route and suddenly saw a flag. Still not sure what happened in this area. Did someone just keep marking what looked like the main route and then not take down flags that were wrong? I’ll never know, but I definitely got mad about wasting time in this section since it probably took over 10 minutes to get back on track, and even then, this section was SO technical. I remembered thinking about what I was going to tell Ben about this section.

The whole segment was less than 8km, and yet I felt like I was in this for hours. There was really steep jungle descents, and then we were on a really narrow and sloped ledge with a drop off to water and rocks below. I remember looking around thinking this was super scary and sketchy, but it seemed like the only way was to just keep going. Having poles out in this section did not necessarily seem like a good idea as the trail wasn’t even wide enough to use them and I kept reaching for things to hold onto on the trail anyway. Adjacent to the trail was a water pipe, but it was NOT sturdy enough to support my weight the handful of times I reached out and tried to grab it.

Just look how sloped and narrow this is! 

There were not many times during this race that I thought about quitting, but this section was an exception. It was really scary and exposed and I remember thinking that if I could find ANYONE that spoke English I would ask if there were other sections like this in the rest of the race. I definitely was NOT happy in this section. At some point I was finally done descending, and I was in a marshy area with lots of boulders and rocks. I had a hard time following the flagging in this section as well. 

Here is where things get fuzzier and I can’t remember from one section to the next. I remember nothing about the next segment, which I also think was relatively short. 

Most of the aid stations had food options like this - rice with a sauce and some sort of vegetable and meat. Delicious!

I left an aid station and then followed the course into what seemed to be a monastery. A really cool section in here. 

I was really looking forward to the sun coming up. Some really big climbs after leaving this section and it was definitely foggy. I had to take a picture of the GIGANTIC leaves that littered the course. I seriously can't think of any leaves I have seen that were bigger!

I survived night one, hurray! Got up pretty high in the trees and saw a cool inversion, although my pictures aren’t really that great. 

There were a couple issues with finding flags in here, but I think some of that might be because I was trying to get a good picture of the horizon and I moved just slightly off course and lost my way a bit. After I got to the top there was some less technical trails. FINALLY. Some continued issues with course finding because of conditions and not being able to see well. 

I also had a pretty big river to cross. It wasn’t deep, but there was zero chance of being able to keep my feet dry. Following the flags and it seemed like the course was literally on some dirt road and there were small shacks on the side. Off the road. Still foggy, I was now in what seemed more like some farmland and had my second sighting (but first “close” encounter) with water buffalo! These animals definitely seemed to belong to someone as they had big bells around their necks. I had to just not break eye contact with them since they seemed to be protecting a baby - I DO NOT WANT TO HURT YOUR BABY!! (Also, they are actually REALLY cute in real life).

Onward. I think I was now heading into a village where the aid station was - and this was FINALLY going to be my first drop bag! 

I laughed out loud when I saw this. Reminded me of the first time I summited Bergen Peak and it was so foggy that I couldn't see a thing

As I was heading in, I saw the Scottish guy heading out, he seemed to be in good spirits. The aid station seemed to be bustling. I was able to get a ton of food, my first coke at an aid station. 

I guess you could say I got a little dirty in the first 60ish miles.

The sleeping area was on a balcony of sorts above the aid station. I had hoped to lie down and get a little bit of sleep, but there was just too much noise and too many things going on, so I was not able to sleep. I did change myy clothes, although I opted to not change my shorts since the ones in the drop bag were a lighter color. I had spent so much time sliding down hills that I thought keeping black shorts on might be better in the long run.

I did spend a bit more time than I wanted to at this aid station, but I also needed to make sure that I had everything I needed since I had another 70ish miles to my next drop bag. Finally decided to head out.

This next section was really hot and exposed and I think mostly on a dirt road - it was definitely steep. There was a surprising amount of rural traffic, so I had to keep an eye out for the dust and also keep to the side anyway. At one point I caught up to the Scottish guy. He said that it looked like I was moving really well and that his legs were totally trashed. I had just been happy to have NOT technical trails so that I could move a little quicker. 

I tripped at one point and fell face first in the dirt. I also managed to rip open the same knee that I skinned shortly before leaving Colorado. By the time I came into the aid station, I was a big bloody mess. I didn’t want to spend a lot of time at this one. I tried asking for a wipe or napkin or towel or SOMETHING just so I could clean my knee a little bit before putting on Neosporin and a bandaid. You would think I asked for a million dollars and a new car. I probably waited closed to 10 minutes (I was at least eating and hydrating during this time) before someone finally showed up with a first aid kit. They were tossing cotton balls and iodine at me, but it was good enough that I was able to get the dirt out of the wound and cleaned up a bit. I headed out and the Scottish guy still had not made it in.

Crossed a bamboo bridge that was a little scary. 

Back into the woods.

I don’t remember this section being all that technical, but I did have more encounters with a large herd of water buffalo here - and more babies. They are definitely stubborn and did not want me to pass, so after a decent standoff I had to find a bit of an alternate trail above to get around the adults - the baby even tried to run after me. I DO NOT WANT TO HURT YOUR BABY.

Sunset night two. 

I came into an aid station and was really tired. Maybe this was the one that I tried to sleep in a hammock? I guess that could have been the first night, they all run together. If it wasn’t that aid station, it was one where there was a small school or building where I tried to sit up and take a nap in my bivvy. It was too cold and the floor was not at all comfortable. So, time to press on.

This may have been the section where there was a very long paved section leaving the aid station and it seemed like my legs were just done. I was basically trying to step sideways up the hill because my legs were just NOT functioning. I was also finally starting to feel all the fatigue. I was looking around on both sides of the trail for anywhere that I might be able to get vertical and take a quick nap. I finally found somewhere that seemed ok and I got in my bivvy. Not sure I even slept, but when my alarm went off and I was packing up, I saw some headlamps coming towards me.

There were two runners that said “come with us” and I said I would be right with them. I was still tired but if I was with other people maybe I could make it through the night, or at least to the next aid station. The two runners were the only female left in the 500k, from South Korea, and a guy that was in the 300k from Thailand. Thankfully, they both spoke SOME English, so we were able to have somewhat of a conversation. We moved along, sometimes all together and sometimes spread apart, but just having actual people near me and seeing other headlamps helped SO MUCH. 

Arrived at the B4 aid station and they had a big fire going and a mat with blankets. I was so excited to be warm and take a nap. I did actually sleep at this aid station. The girl was sleeping in a nearby tent and the guy was still asleep when I awoke, but I knew I did not have a ton of banked time, so I wanted to get going, even if it meant going out alone. 

I would be heading out on the out and back section that was over 40 miles each direction, toward my second (and last) drop bag. I felt so much better after having even just a small amount of sleep. The next section seemed like I was running next to a black hole. Finally came into another aid station shortly before sunrise. I didn't stay at this one too long. This whole day seemed went by in a blur.

I don't know where this picture was taken either, but I assume coming/going from an aid station

Lots of exposure here. I'd be standing looking around and see a dirt road across the valley and think, well, probably going over there, and I would be. The roads were steep and again, a decent amount of trucks driving through here. There was one confusing section in the woods where I had a hard time finding flags and ended up with a ton of sand spur/goat head type stuff stuck to my shorts and socks. 

There was even a section where there was a new road being paved. Didn't expect to see that in rural Thailand! 

Wish I could be more specific about these sections, but I just didn't take many pictures and don't remember. Finally I was coming up on one of the longest sections without aid, about 17km (which compared to other 200s isn't really that far but seemed long for this). It was mostly very steep road. 

This was crazy steep

At some point we moved onto a "busier" road and there were huge signs warning that there were runners on the road. 

Zero recollection of anything. At some point, I obviously made it to my drop bag, which was at race headquarters. Most exciting because it was inside and there were cots and blankets. I think I planned on a longer sleep here, and thanks to part of the cot being raised, I was able to sleep without being too congested. I did a full change of clothes here also, and headed out, first for the 40 miles back to where I was and then onto the final section of the "loop."

I encountered more off leash dogs, and thankfully I had my poles on me because some of them were pretty aggressive and followed me for a bit. Even though I had just done this section, I didn't seem to remember a lot of it. It was a warm day, and there seemed to be more climbing going this direction (which looking at the profile, made sense). 

More paving progress!

Back in the wooded section and there was a runner that was at the confusing gate section and I told him to NOT go through the gate (I had made the same mistake earlier) - he followed me for a few minutes only to realize that was the way he came, so I told him to basically do a 180 at the gate and he would see the flags going down. 

Thank goodness for some cloud cover!!

At some point, I pulled out Garmin Explore to see how many miles I had left. Somehow, the navigation on my watch stopped and started running through the app? I have no idea how or why this happened, but my watch went to the "restart" screen, and I'll admit I had a few moments of rage when I thought I had lost 170 miles of tracking. Thankfully, it seemed to load up again after a few minutes.

I also had a few 100km runners come up behind me in this section - crazy to see people out on the trails after all these days. Everyone was really friendly, and fist bumps are really a universal language. 

This tree was scary!!

CAKE AND COKE OUT OF A GLASS????

Onward! I kept waiting for Ana and Paul (and CJ) to catch up to me after getting a whatsapp message that indicated they had signed up for the 100k and were hoping to run me into the finish. The last section back into A10 seemed really tough and I did not remember it at all (in reverse). I tried to take a nap at this aid station, but there was too much commotion, so I ended up just grabbing some food and getting out of there. 

Onto the C loop! I had heard that this section was "rolling hills." Spoiler, the first section into C1 was really tough. Another segment that felt like I was on the edge of a cliff in the dark. I really really hated the descent going into the aid station. It was steep and really technical and I was just over it. Not to mention, I came into town, more stray dogs chased me AND I got a really nasty bloody nose. The good part was that the aid station had an indoor bathroom, so I was able to really get my hands clean. When I tried to ask if the next section was like this one, I heard "it's the same." Which really put me in my first bad mood of the race. I was really hoping to have an "easier" time to get into the finish, hoping to get earlier so I would have time to shower and maybe even nap before checking out of my hotel.

Here is where things get weird. I had phone service, so I think I was checking my messages and saw in one of my group chats that Tyler said he did not get into High Lonesome. I'm walking up this road (on course) and I guess I have one of my first "real" and somewhat scary hallucinations. I vaguely remember that I was basically drunk walking up the hill, swerving all over the place from exhaustion. I would catch myself walking strange and think that at some point I stopped because I honestly could not figure out what I was doing out there. I think I talked to another runner that passed me, but I don't think he spoke English and for the life of me I cannot remember what I said. The scary part becomes when I can't remember if I was awake or not but I had this feeling that I was with Tyler and we were having a conversation about High Lonesome. I said even if he didn't get into the race lottery, I had hoped that he put in for the parking lottery. Apparently in my dream/hallucination, the road that I was on was the road to High Lonesome (as if that was a specific location and not an actual race). We "parked" along the road and were walking to... the start? I'm not sure, when all of a sudden I seemingly came to my sense and I was sitting in the actual middle of the road - yes, one that I am sure cars would be driving on if it wasn't the middle of the night. I bolted up in a panic. Pulled out my maps to make sure that I was actually on course since this was NOT the scary technical trail I expected to be on in this section and that I was going the right way. SO WEIRD. I called Ben and talked to him for a few minutes. I don't think I have ever been so out of it mid-race, definitely overly sleep deprived. At least having that happen gave me an adrenaline rush and I was thankfully now wide awake.

I stayed on the phone with Ben for a few minutes, which helped pass time while I was waiting for the sun to come up. I came upon another runner (YAY) and we were working to climb up these insanely steep (thankfully paved) roads. I don't think I even had my poles out at this point and I was moving pretty well. I passed the runner (not sure what distance, but I think he was 500k) when we got to the downhill. I kept expecting him to catch up, but he never did. 

The final sunrise!!

I don't have any recollection of the last two aid stations. When I finally got to the last segment I really could not believe that I was actually going to be finishing this race. I decided to do some short running intervals in hopes that I could get this done sooner and hopefully with what I would consider a PR (for a true mountain 200, but since they are all so different, probably not comparable). It was a foggy morning and I was not coming into Pai from the same place as before. Even when I got near to where my BnB was, we moved off to a more rural road. 

I don't actually know where this was taken but I have a whole series of pictures where I look like I am sleepwalking

Ben wanted to listen to me finish, so I was on the phone with him. Suddenly I turned onto a street and recognized the lanterns, and I was at the finish line!! I think I may have surprised the photographers as they didn't have the tape ready for me to break as first (!!) female! They did end up giving it to me for pictures, though.

Time to unload all my gear at this point so that I could run to my hotel and shower and get all my stuff. Had to memorialize my swag first!

I arrived back at the start/finish just in time for the awards ceremony. FOR MY FIRST PLACE AWARD!!!

After the clock ran out at noon, we even did a big group photo, which was super cool!

Garmin Time - 96:23:17 (lost about 3 minutes with that weird loss of navigation)

Garmin Distance - 194.04 miles

Elevation Gain - 45,072' (officially the most I've ever done!) 

Official Time - 96:29:27 (I've only found the time on ITRA, no idea where/if results are posted)

Overall Place - 2/3

First and only female starter/finisher!!

Thoughts:

• This was by far one of the scariest/coolest things I have ever done. I don't think I ever really thought I would be able to finish this race. I spent a bunch of time thinking, " wow, I have to do a 50k to start with about the same amount of vertical gain that I did in Transylvania - and then do another 250km." This was SO hard.
• Somehow, I basically did not have any chafing - Salty Britches FTW! Shocking because of the humidity. I also did not really have to do any major foot care. I cleaned my feet and reapplied squirrel's nut butter on  my feet when I changed socks (only at the two drop bag aid stations) - I had hot spots but ZERO blisters that required attention. This really surprised me because of the amount of time my toes were slamming into the toe box.
• With all that went right ^ - even using bug spray (actually wipes, and only the first day) - I got eaten alive by SOMETHING. With a day or two left of the race I was just ITCHY. By the time the race was over I had irritated welts covering my legs and other exposed skin. It was so bad that I went to see the medic at the finish and she doused me with calamine lotion (which I doubt I've used since I had chicken pox in 8th grade) and gave me what I think was Benadryl. For a week after the race was done I was STILL itching - Ben had to help me put Cortizone on the bites and he joked that my legs were basically covered in braille. It was HORRIFIC. I guess if I had to do it all over again, maybe I would have worn leggings - but with the amount of times I fell they would likely have been ripped to shreds.
• I'll admit I was a bit worried because of the lack of literature and information - I guess I am used to 40-50 page race manuals. I think the race guide was 7 or 8 pages and it mostly just had the required gear (which wasn't all that much, really). 
• There was only the one big map and the only elevation profile I had was emailed to us a few weeks out. I did not break up the elevation gain/loss between aid stations, so that was all a fun surprise. I did have a little cheat sheet that had distance between aid and total distance - but that's it. Honestly - this course was pretty much dead on, which I really appreciated!
• The aid stations were SO great. Every aid station had food of some kind and the bottled espresso. I must've had 15-20 of those throughout the race. Amazing.
• The volunteers were so helpful. Most of them seemed to have at least some English in their vocabulary and when all else failed, I did some miming and people knew what I was asking for. I kinda hated being "the dumb American" - but everyone was so kind! A few volunteers even had google translate to ask if I needed things, it was SO appreciated.
• The course marking were a 9.85/10. Honestly they must have used 8 million flags and some of them were in the most obscure places - how did they even mark this course!? Outside of the couple of sections where the markings were off, the flags were so close together that if you went more than a minute without seeing one, you were probably off course.
• For the price tag, we got SO MUCH. Doing the conversion rate today, the races was just over $700USD, so less than half the cost of the mainstream 200s in the US. Race entry included a VERY nice duffel/drop bag and a shirt that was customized with a flag for the country represented. I also paid about $12 each direction for the shuttle to/from Chiang Mai.
• The Facebook page was very active, and the handful of times that I had questions, they were answered either via email or FB message.
• The buckle and awards are awesome. Period. After finishing, I also got a special finisher shirt AND jacket. 
• Would I do this again? No, but only because of the time/travel required. Plus, like I say, there are so many events to do, I can't really justify doing duplicate events.
• Would I recommend? YES, YES, A THOUSAND TIMES YES. Honestly, even if I would not have finished, so much care and attention was put into this event. They really did want you to succeed and did everything they could to make that happen. I'll admit that having the TorX name behind the event had me more willing to sign up.

Essential Gear:

• UltrAspire Zygos 5.0. With the aid stations so close together, the pack was perfect. I was able to hold everything I needed and had plenty of room.
• Garmin Enduro 2. I charged a handful of times when stopped at aid stations, but in general, I think one good charge at my second drop bag (had I remembered) would have been all I needed to do. 
• Goodr sunglasses, although I had a hard time wearing these because they fogged up and in the trees there were too may shadows.
• Clothing - Three rabbit UPF sun shirts. I had rabbit EZ tees underneath. Two pairs of Patagonia Maipo 7" shorts. Zensah high neck sports bra. I had my Patagonia R1, but I probably wore for less than two hours the whole race - and only if I was cold when I left an aid station. Never wore gloves. Wore my fleece UltrAspire hat only because I don't like a headlamp touching my head. Tahoe 200 hat. OR sun gloves (as an aside, they got SO dirty from falls and blood that I actually had to rinse them off multiple times during the race). Buffs. Shoes - brand new Ultraventure 4s, a pair of old Topo Mountain Racers and Vistas for the last segment - which was probably not a good shoe choice for the steepness, but live and learn.
• Leki poles that I used for about 3/4 of the race. New Black Diamond headlamp that Ben got me for Christmas, Kogalla, quite a few battery banks. My awesome SOL bivvy that I picked up at the first drop bag and did use quite a few times. 
• Personal nutrition - Raspberry LMNT, Nerd Clusters, Sour Patch Kids, Swedish Fish, Hi Chew!
• Carried but did not use - North Face Aprhrodite pants - I think I finally ditched them at the second drop bag since I hadn't used for any nights, disposable poncho.