the last race of 2010.... unless we magically discover another one, which is not unlikely.
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| waiting for the marathoners to roll in at Dadaepo... |
After cruising through yet another week at Haeundae Corem, Tim and I did a quick workout at the gym on Saturday am and then ventured out to Nampodong, west of our part of the city, but the 'centre' of Busan. Because the race this morning would have taken over 90 minutes on the subway to get to, we decided to go part way, stay in a Love Motel, then leave from there in the morning.
Nampodong is on the way to Dadaepo ( our race destination) and it is a busy place with lots to do, eat, and buy, so it was the logical choice.
After about 45 minutes on the subway, we got off in Nampo, and found a Love Motel within 12 minutes. This was our first time staying at one (besides when we first arrived, which was arranged by the school), and I could not believe how easy it was.
Refresher: Love Motels are abundant in Korea. They are cheap motels which charge about 30$ a night and provide a really decent room, with a giant tv and often a computer as well. Their main purpose is for love-making amongst young couples, and probably business men ( and women?) who are spending the night with people they shouldn't be.
Just in case we had forgotten what a Love Motel was for, when we checked in, we were given a small ziploc bag with 2 toothbrushes, a razor, body wash, and 2 condoms.
'Checking in' involves giving the front desk guy 30 $ and taking a key, no questions asked - except ' one night, or two?'.
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| what else does one really need? |
Despite being right across the street from a busy pub, the room was great and was much better than waking up at 5 to take a 90 minute commute to the race.
We spent the evening shopping around and eating Kong Bul and McDonalds.... can't complain.
On Sunday morning, we woke up and made our way to the subway, where we happened to get on the exact same car as Kylene and Ian, the lovely people who have organized all of the foreigners at the road races in Busan. After meeting up with some more foreignys, we took the shuttle bus to the race site in Dadaepo and made ourselves at home... IN OUR VERY OWN TENT!! (Thanks Kylene!)
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| yeah, we do. |
There were people racing in all distances, 10km, 1/2 and full marathon and everyone did great. The weather was perfect, and the course was flat and all road, out and back.
At the beginning of the race, as I was standing at the very front ( of course), a Korean man beside me started yelling at the race announcer, who then called me out and pulled me out in front of the race and started talking to me in Korean in front of the entire crowd. He managed to ask me my name, say ' Hello baby', then spoke a paragraph of Korean before saying " Merry Christmas" and sending me back to the race start.
The race itself went fairly well. I found it a bit challenging and didn't run the pace I had hoped for. I have been scaling back on the outdoor and longer than 5km runs this past couple of weeks and I felt like I had lost some of my endurance today. I was in 4th or 5th for most of the race, and ran the last 3 km with a Korean man who told me he recognized me from the Yangsan race last weekend.
I ended up coming in in 5th with a time around 42:30 or so. Not my best time, and not an amazing time, by any means, but it was not overly difficult and therefore I am not overly upset with it.
Ian came in 3rd! Yay Ian! And we both got to be on the ( 5 person ) podium for guys and girls respectively. This means I now have in my possession, another giant glass trophy, and I also managed to pocket 50$ cash!
After all the runners came in, we actually ended up BACK at Kong Bul ( after a meander through the streets of Nampodong ) and had another meal of beansprouts, pork, and spice. Trust me - it's much better than it sounds.
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| Kong Bul with some new running buddies |
It is now 7pm, and another awesome race day is complete.
A big thanks goes out to Kylene and Ian the leaders of 'Waeguks Got Runs' ( Waeguks are foreigners) and without whom we would not have had nearly as positive of an experience as we have with all the races this season:)
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