Ken Hill lives in Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok, but he was born in Salt Lake City (Usa/Utah), and spent most of his years in Mountain Lakes (Usa/New Jersey). Ken, who is 47, is currently a managing director and has been running for fifteen years. Though Ken's running club has well over 100 members, the Monday Night Hash club in Bangkok, the turn out is usually between 35-40. Ken is a very dedicated runner and runs between 5-10 kilometers everyday, and occasionally takes a Sunday off. On Monday nights Ken runs with his club members, but otherwise he tends to run alone and has five different runs, mostly because he finds the traffic so bad in Bangkok that he needs to avoid intersections.
It is a good thing that Ken prefers to run in hot and humid weather because he says that runners workout in weather that is hot, hotter and hottest in Bangkok. Ken runs in shorts and a T-shirt and owns two pair of running shoes, one pair that he uses until they are worn out and a back up pair. When his shoes are worn out he replaces them with the back up pair and then purchases a new back up pair. Then he replaces the back ups.
Ken uses a pedometer that measures distance, time and pace and reads a populare American running magazine, though it usually arrives to him in Bangkok a few weeks late.
When asked if running is populare where Ken lives he said, "Running is fairly popular in Thailand, although most Thais think it is just too hot to run. They would rather eat". He mentioned that running is more popular with men than women and that runners are constantly running away from the street dogs. Besides the challenge of avoiding street dogs, Kens says that runners also need to have caution because the sidewalks are more used by motorbikes than by people and the roads are shared with tuk tuks, food vendors and wild buses. Not to mention that vehicles and dogs have the right of way.
In Bangkok there are organized races that are usually around 10 kilometers, as well as marathons. The races cost about $5 which includes a race packet or usually a medal, but typically only water is provided as a refreshment.
Ken runs in other cities when he travels and has completed many half marathons and his favorite run of all time is the "Run for the Roses 10K" in Denville (Usa/New Jersey).
Run The Planet would like to thank Ken Hill from Thailand for taking part in the Planeteer Spotlight.
