Run Club Bangkok: Our New Partner for Running in Bangkok

Two Bangkok communities, one partnership

Quick take. Bangkok Padel Community and Run Club Bangkok are now partners. Run Club Bangkok is a free guide, in English and Thai, to the city's running clubs, their weekly group runs and its races. If you play padel and want to start running, or you know runners who want to try padel, this is where the two scenes meet.

Bangkok Padel Community started as a Facebook group where players find partners, courts and games. Run Club Bangkok does the same job for runners: it gathers the city's running clubs in one place, so a newcomer can find a group that suits them. Both sites are free, both are in English and Thai, and both exist to get people out playing sport with others in this city. Teaming up was an easy decision.

What Run Club Bangkok is

Run Club Bangkok lists 44 running clubs across the city, each with where it meets, when it runs and how far. On the site you will find:

• Running clubs in Lumpini, Benjakitti, Silom, Sukhumvit, Chatuchak, Thonburi and beyond.
• A weekly club calendar showing which groups run on which day, and a run today page for when you decide at the last minute.
• Races and events, from short fun runs and 10Ks to marathons, with dozens on the calendar for the cool season.

The clubs range from early-morning social runs of about 3 km in Lumpini Park to coached track sessions and long weekend runs, so there is a group for every level.

Why padel players should run (and runners should try padel)

Padel is a stop-start game. Research on match play finds that most of the effort is moderate, with short bursts and pauses between points, rather than flat-out sprinting. A base of easy running helps you recover between points, stay sharp at the end of a long Americano night and get through a third set in the Bangkok heat.

It works the other way too. Runners spend their training moving in a straight line. Padel adds side steps, quick changes of direction and hand-eye coordination, and it is very social: four players on a small court, and a new partner every round at an Americano. You don't need to be fast to enjoy it.

A few tips if you mix the two:

• Run early or late. Bangkok's running clubs mostly meet at dawn or in the evening, for good reason. Our guide to playing in the heat applies to running too.
• Keep hard days apart. Skip the long run on the morning of a tournament. An easy jog the day after a big padel session helps more than a hard one.
• Warm up properly. Our 10-minute warm-up works before a run as well.
• Wear the right shoes. Running shoes are built for forward motion and slip on padel turf. Bring padel shoes for the court.

Where the two scenes meet

Some running clubs meet close to padel clubs. Benjakitti Park is a short ride from Kross Padel Asoke and Sterling on Sukhumvit. If you run with a club in Thonburi, No Drama Padel in Khlong San is on the same side of the river. A run in the park, then a game of padel and breakfast, makes a very good Bangkok Saturday. Every padel club is on our club map, and you can browse them by area.

What the partnership means

• Our two sites link to each other, so runners can find padel and padel players can find a running club.
• If you run a running club and want it listed, use Run Club Bangkok's submit a club form.
• If you organise a padel event, tell us in the Facebook group and we can add it to the events page.

Get started

Find a running group on Run Club Bangkok, book a court from our club rankings, and join the Bangkok Padel Community on Facebook to find people to play with.

Sources

• Run Club Bangkok
• Mellado-Arbelo and Baiget Vidal (2022), Activity profile and physiological demand of padel match play: a systematic review, Kinesiology