The event was held in the south-eastern part of the city along a stream that flows out of the Han River. It was a really beautiful place to spend a spring morning. I showed up at the race after only sleeping 4 hours the night before (its hard to go to bed early on a Friday night when there's so much going on in Seoul!) and was given a towel, tank-top, and number. Over near the starting line everyone was led in tai chi meets tae-kwon-do warm-up exercises. It wasn't really my style, but "when in Rome..." Shortly after the strange stretching routine ended the 10k runners lined up and were off. As soon as I started moving I realized that it is a hundreds times harder to run on pavement in the humidity than it is to run on a treadmill in an air-conditioned gym. Hmmm...I should have figured that out sooner. Regardless, of the mild heat exhuastion that set in after the 6th kilometer I pushed myself to continue running. I turned up my ipod as loud as the sound would go and zoned out to an upbeat Death Cab song for the remainder of the race. I was too tired to even search for a new song so I kept listening to the same thing on repeat over and over again. When I finally crossed the finish line I was told that I had placed 3rd in the women's division! I was seriously confused because I thought that I was near the end, but it turns out one of the women ahead of me had cut a corner and was disqualified. Asa! More than anything I'm just happy that I pushed myself and finished the race. It was a good day, for sure.
me and julie after i ran the race.
working the registration table.
To all of you marathon runners out there...I dont know how you do it. I wont be joining you anytime soon.
