The alarm sounded at 3:45am, a time that until now I’ve only known as meaning it’s time to get a kebab and find a taxi. This morning, though,  it was a time to get my kit on and head out for a half marathon.

The inaugural Thailand International Half Marathon had been postponed from late 2011 because of the floods that hit the country at the end of last year. The new timing, just days before I finish my four-month trip and head back to the UK, meant I couldn’t refuse taking part and notching up my first overseas event.

Running a race in Thailand is, in many ways, essentially the same as running a race back home: long queues for the toilets at the start, several miles of wondering why you signed up for this thing and first place is taken by a Kenyan runner. The differences being that it’s hot, humid and those toilets at the start are of the ‘squat loo’ variety.

The Rama VIII Bridge in Bangkok, a striking mix of steel and concrete, marked the start and finish of the race. More than 700 runners lined up for the 21k race with more waiting in the wings for the 10k and mini-marathon. My new running buddy, Rish a 50+ Indian runner who was taking on the course barefoot except for a pair of socks to keep his timing chip attached to, found me and we lined up.

The course took us up onto the ‘sky way’, a highway about 50 meters above the streets below, and we headed 10k out of the city in darkness before turning back on ourselves. It was 5am and it was already hot. The plan was to make hay while the sun didn’t shine by running the first leg faster than the second.

The refreshment stops were being supplied by Singha. Usually I’d have been disappointed to see a beer company handing out water, but as we reached the first stop it was one of the first times in my life that a free beer was the last thing I wanted. Half the water went up my nose as I tried to drink but the other half, and the ice cubes, went down the back of my shirt where they rattled for a kilometer or two.

The next few water stations came thick and fast and, being used to running half-marathons marked in miles, so did the kilometer markers. Walking through drinks stations became my plan, but soon my legs needed the drink stations more than my throat.

We hit the half way mark bang on 1 hour (though I only know this looking at the chip timing data as I was running without a watch) but soon after I urged Rish to go ahead as he was looking for a PB. Around 14km I had to adopt a run/walk strategy but used my walking breaks productively by taking a few pictures and chatting to other runners. Then around 15k the 10k runners joined us.

With the sun starting to rise and the Rama VIII bridge starting to get ever closer in the distance, the reason for setting the alarm so early became clear – not only were we treated to a brilliant sunrise but it was getting even hotter now.

I shuffled over the line managing to smile for the cameras in my slowest ever half time of 2h 12m. I’ll take that. The plan had always been to treat this as a training run and a barrometer for marathon training. What I hadn’t banked on was a hug from Rish who had been waiting for me beaming because he’d knocked 7 minutes off his PB and was putting it down to my pacing in the first half. A successful day at the office and it wasn’t even 7.30am yet.