As well as being the month of Songkran, April also marks Thailand's National Day of the Elderly. Here, Life features two seniors who have found a way to stay strong and live well
Thanee Srisuthisa-ard.
Thanee Srisuthisa-ard
Triathlete
At 60, Thanee Srisuthisa-ard found himself learning how to swim for the first time as part of his preparations to partake in a triathlon, a sport consisting of three different events — swimming, cycling, and long-distance running. The 63-year-old businessman considers himself an amateur triathlete and has attended many international races at his own expense.
Sport has always been part of Thanee's life. He took up tennis at 25 and played until he was 50. After that he tried golf and stuck with that for 10 years. At 60, he changed to cycling, until his friend introduced him to the triathlon, a sport he always watched on television.
"If I had not been introduced to this sport, I would never have known that I would be able to do it for real," Thanee said. "I always thought of a triathlon as a kind of sport that was not for ordinary people."
His wife and daughters, of course, opposed the idea of him being too keen on the extreme sport, but he convinced them that he was well aware of his limits.
Thanee signed up for a swimming course and the first contest he entered was for beginners. From participating in competitions in swimming pools, he has now made headway to swim in open waters in many countries around the world.
"For my first-ever swimming event of 400m, I was scared that I would not finish," Thanee said. "Now a 400m distance is what I do just to warm myself up."
Before joining any triathlon events, Thanee needs to be disciplined, especially prior to attending his favourite Ironman Triathlon, organised by the World Triathlon Corporation that features a 4km swim, a 180km bicycle ride, and a 42km run. Thanee said that he needs at least a week of rigorous training to make sure that he is able to handle these kinds of events. On Sunday, he participated in the Ironman event in Taiwan.
Thanee says one of the reasons that he loves doing triathlons is for the health benefits that the sport has brought him.
"I think my body will tell me when to stop eventually," Thanee said. "Now when I'm out cycling 80km to practice, I still feel fresh when I get home. However, I have also seen some older friends of mine who have started to decrease their training difficulty. I thought to myself that it could be me one day."
He advises anyone that it's never too late to find a sport to play or exercise regularly because it will make a huge difference to their health.
"It's true that we can't escape ageing," Thanee said. "However, playing sport will help increase your longevity. Or at least, for a more instant reward, the endorphins that the sport provides will make you happy."
Mongkol Waiyawuth.
Mongkol Waiyawuth
Cyclist
Mongkol Waiyawuth regularly cycles up to 100km on his weekly excursions. Every now and then, he also cycles extensively to nearby countries, such as China or Malaysia. He might sound like an ordinary cyclist who is addicted to a life on two wheels, but Mongkol is 81 years old.
"I promised my daughter, who was worried about me cycling at 60, that I would quit at 80," Mongkol said. "After I turned 80, she asked me why I had not quit. I told her to extend the contract we made until I turn 90."
Born in 1934 in Lampang, Mongkol witnessed World War II and used to sneak into the Japanese military camp with his friends and go through their stuff for fun.
After Mongkol finished high school in Chiang Mai, he made his way to Bangkok to become a policeman. However, to his dismay, he found that the training was too rigorous and decided to return home.
Realising that there was no need to rush into something that wasn't fun, he became a country playboy for a while, buying a fancy motorcycle to attract girls.
"I went for years with no serious direction," Mongkol said. "I had the time of my life and it was a lot of fun."
Soon he got married and started a career at Siam Commercial Bank in Lampang. He was promoted to an executive at the bank's foreign money exchange centre in Chiang Mai; this was the job that he was to have until his retirement.
It was then that Mongkol became bored and was desperate to make his life less monotonous. One day he walked past a bicycle shop and decided to take up cycling.
His cycling regimen includes both solo and group trips. The group of cyclists he mingles with range from teenagers to retirees, he being the oldest.
"Many younger people I go cycling with refer to me as uncle or grandpa," Mongkol said, laughing "I often notice them nudging and telling each other to look at me when they are running out of energy and I'm going full steam."
Mongkol is also very tech-savvy and is always taking selfies on his trips to share them on his Facebook page.
Over the past 20 years, Mongkol has had a series of minor accidents, with the most severe being when he was hit by a car which took him a while to get back on the road. "Warriors have to have wounds," Mongkol said by way of explanation.
Mongkol believes that cycling is the thing that keeps him away from his doctor and said that he has not even had a cold in the past three years.
"Sometimes I feel that I have lived to the fullest but at the same time I also feel that the duration I have lived is far from enough," Mongkol said. "I still want to live to see how the world is going to change tomorrow."
