I have been going through Thanyapura withdrawal the past couple of days. The withdrawal is not from the Sports Hotel itself, which is perfectly adequate, or the restaurant, Divine, where I ate 10 meals on the trot and was not bored yet, or the amazing facilities: the indoor tennis, the 50m pool with 8 insanely large lanes, or the outstanding track, or the amazing biking trails around Phuket, or the gym which had the most unforgiving machines: they counted reps and did not allow me to cheat..
The withdrawal is from the high of sharing that place with the most wonderful, kind and gifted athletes I have ever seen up close and personal. Anyone who can do a 110K bike ride deserves a temple, in my opinion. When someone can help an out of shape wannabe like me achieve that, including physically pushing me for around 5K, and doing that with a smile, all the while cracking jokes and feeding me sticky rice all without dismounting the bike: well, they just need to invent an award for that.
In every discipline, the goal of the wonderful coaches and trainers was to help me become better. Nothing was spoon fed, but I was given a lot of encouragement. I had Ricky accompany me on a run, and when he saw me panting around the 7K mark, he bought a cold bottle of water for me and poured some over my head and encouraged me to keep going in the blistering heat.
And I made some great friends too. Yeah, we were in the slower group and always the last few to complete, but we had a great time. And during the day, to relax: I could go watch the ITF Pro Women's matches taking place at Thanyapura.
A big thank you to the coaches: Jurgen, Ricky, Tim and Alistair. An amazing amazing experience. I cannot wait to get back.
Stayed November 2013, traveled with family