I woke up this morning, slipped into my running shoes after pinning my race number to a matching blue shirt and was quietly out the door. The sky was gray and dark with the temperature being below 10 degrees Celsius. The goal for my morning was to navigate my way to Pyeongtaek Port, run 13.1 miles in at least 2 hours and 15 minutes, get some neat pictures, eat a bunch of food and come home. Spoiler Alert: I was successful, and here's my story!
I knew there was a shuttle bus near to my apartment that would take me the 45 minute straight drive to the Port. On normal public transportation it would have taken about 2 hours. Upon boarding the shuttle, I made a new friend. Speaking in broken English and really good listening ears, I found out he was 64 and was a Christian that owned a liquor store on the south side of town. Interesting guy.
When we arrived at the Pyeongtaek Port, I ended up losing him because the first thing that was on my mind was to find a bathroom. Below is a picture of Korean 'porty-potties.' They are more like trailers. In the women's room there were six tiny stalls with plastic toilets and one sink. There was no line an hour and a half before race time. Thirty minutes before race time, the womens' had no line, but the mens' had a line of 20 or so. Yes, you understand correctly.... The long line was coming from the mens' bathroom!!!! I was amazed to see it, and began to question why. It didn't take me long to figure it out....as I looked around at the gathering crowd of runners, it was 90% male. As a white young female I felt a little out of place, welcome to my life here.
After I hit the bathroom, I decided to explore the area a little bit more. Here are pictures I took long before the race started. Below is the main area. There were places to sit and food being prepared underneath the tents off in the distance.
As I got closer I found the stage where the opening ceremonies and cooperate stretching exercises were held. We warmed up as a large group of about 2,000 runners to none other than Gangnam Style by Psy.
A few minutes walk from the stage was the starting line and corrals. Now that I knew where the race would actually begin I felt comfortable just going back to the main area to wait until the opening ceremonies.
I waited in the area for the half marathoners; we were separated out from the runners participating in the 10K and 5K.
While I was waiting, a group of Koreans came up and said something about a camera to me. Since I was taking pictures on my phone and thinking, "How could I get a picture of myself?" I thought they were offering to take my picture. Thankfully, they did. : )
That was not their intention for approaching me though. They wanted to take a picture with me, I guess because I was so different from everyone else. I politely obliged three times. The first was normal, the second was in a running stance, and the third he wanted us to do Gangnam Style. Wow, could I not stop laughing!
I was getting pretty cold just standing around taking pictures and could not wait to get moving. I did not need to worry though because soon enough the opening ceremonies began and all of the runners engaged in warming up and stretching together. Here is a little bit of the group below. At the end of only the opening ceremonies, fireworks went off accompanied with colored smoke!
With warming up completed we headed to the starting line. In America, we pack into the corrals like sardines, so I was taken aback when all the runners seemed to be lined up with plenty of space between them. Prompted by Korean words over the loud speaker, everyone gave the person in front of them a neck massage! I am happy to say I was included in it too! Then we turned 180 degrees and gave a neck massage to the people behind us!
There was cheering, a countdown from ten and we were off!
I had no idea why people were on the sidelines of the race wearing rollerblades until finally I figured out they were medics!
For the first 5 miles of the run, I was disappointed in the landscape and view I had. I could only see buildings, streets and other made-man industrious structures. I was pleasantly surprised once the route got nearer to the other side of the Port known as Pyeongtaek Ho. At this end of the course there were parks, and I could finally see the sea! I had about a mile or so to run in this area before I turned around in the middle of the pack to trace the same route back.
With 5 miles left to go, I started running at a similar pace as two other guys near me. One on my left was probably in his twenties and the adjashi (sp?) on my right was probably in his forties or fifties. The two men were talking together in Korean even though I had my headphones on in the middle of them. A few seconds later, I realized they were trying to talk to me too! The only thing of significance that I could understand and now remember is the adjashi saying that I had a good pace, a 2:00 hour pace. We exchanged nods and smiles and continued to run together for the next 3-4 miles in silence. As we were nearing the end of the race, we somehow were encouraging each other to keep it up and keep going! I was getting pretty tired because the adjashi had kept us running at about a 9 minute pace. Not wanting to disappoint my new running buddy, I knew that no matter how I felt, I was not going to slow down. We kept up the pace and even pushed it little by little with every kilometer we passed the last two miles. Unfortunately, the younger guy fell behind, but the last mile the adjashi and I were running a steady pace. Finally the last quater mile I kicked it up a notch, adjashi right by my side, and we finished strong!! Without them there is no way that I could have completed the last half of the race in the time that I did.
I was overjoyed to see Mrs. Hyun, the art teacher at my school cheering me on at the finish line! She had finished her 10K in 70 minutes (Congrats Mrs. Hyun!) and stayed to watch me finish! As soon as I crossed she gave me a bottle of water. At the end of this race, I felt more exhausted than I ever have before, but with Mrs. Hyun there I felt much better.
Mrs. Hyun and I got post-race food, found a nice spot by the water to sit, and began to chow down. Mrs. Huyn and I had a nice time together chatting as much as we could together (she is still learning English). Eating post-race food is always one of my favorite parts of races. I have been waiting anxiously all week to see what type of food would be provided. I am pretty open to all food, and am beginning to start to like Korean food, so I was ready for anything! In my paperbag was apple juice, rice noodle soup (they provided hot water to add to it just like Ramen), a banana, and a dessert with custard. In another line they were offering free kimchi and tofu and another plate we got later with a vegetable egg pancake. The rice noodle ramen soup hit the spot after a cold race! While I was enjoying the typical meal, I couldn't help but miss my pb&j graham cracker sandwiches Big River Running passes out at the end of the halfs I did in St. Louis.
On my way home, I realized I needed to document my time, in case I couldn't read the website to figure out my official time. I took a picture of my Garmin watch, that I began when I crossed the start and stopped when I crossed the finish.
Mile 1: 8:50.57
Mile 2: 8:20.48
Mile 3: 8:34.62
Mile 4: 8:54.33
Mile 5: 8:52.92
Mile 6: 8:59.67
Mile 7: 9:21.08
Mile 8: 9:07.84
Mile 9: 8:56.59
Mile 10: 9:15.26
Mile 11: 8:53.96
Mile 12: 9:12.33
Mile 13: 8:48.07
I am very happy that altogether my new Half Marathon PR is 1:56:49, which is an average of an 8:55 minute per mile pace! Today October 13, 2012 was a successful day!
All I can say is I'm impressed! Nice work!
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