Kay oh Ray: to do and do and do

Oh. Hello.

There are oh so many items on April's to-do list!
They include but are not limited to:

-camping (check)
-Mom and Dad visit (half check)
-Daegu race (check +400m)
-report cards (not even close)
-teaching presentation
-Jinju race
-5 favorite people leaving Korea

M&D Visit

Mother and father arrived safely at Gimhae airport last Wednesday and have been slowly adjusting to the Korean tourist's life. Dad had a bit of a rough go at the beginning, feeling pretty jet-lagged and not overly into trying every Korean food I tried to shove at him, but he is making progress. I told him he should have practiced his chopsticks before coming...

We have taken Mom and Dad to a few spots in Busan including Haeundae beach, and they have also visited our school to meet a few of my classes.

Yesterday after returning from Daegu (more on that later) we took a walk up the Dalmaji road to take in the beautiful cherry blossoms - what a sight!

Bob a Dob and Deb a Beb are now on a vacation from their vacation in 'tropical' Jeju-do where they will stay for a few nights before returning to Busan for a week.

Daegu

This weekend we really gave them a taste of our life here in Korea. After finishing work at 7:00pm, we took a cab down to Lotte, ate some good ol' western food at Quiznos, then jumped on the subway for an hour commute to Busan Station to catch a 10:00pm train to Daegu. We may have made an unscheduled trip to Seoul had Mom not been 'Mom' and been the only one to hear our stop announced.

Dad, enjoying the cultural experience.

Saturday was a beautiful day in Daegu. After checking out the race start site and a giant bell, we spent the afternoon on Apsan, cable car-ing and walking around, meeting some locals and taking in the extremely panoramic view atop the mountain.

the BIGGEST bell.

don't worry Dad, you'll like this one.

Daegu from atop Apsan

We forced some more Korean dishes down M&D's throats for supper then called it a night before the big day on Sunday.

ever the good sport.

THE RACE

figh-ting

Luckily, our hotel was only about a 3 minute walk from the race start, so we did not have to get up too early on Sunday. I thought I might throw up about 8 million times, but thankfully, did not. I was really nervous about the race after telling myself it would be the one where I would finally break the old 40 minute barrier.

We walked to the race start and found our crew amidst warm-ups, baggage drop-offs, portapotty lines and all the other pre-race shenanigans. A few of our buddies were running the full marathon - one of them a previous marathon virgin - so we wished them luck for their 9:00am start.

le crew.

The race was the largest Tim and I have ever attended with a total of close to 15,000 people in the marathon and 10km events. The marathon was an important event for Daegu as they are hosting the IAAF (track and field) championships in August. The marathon was a test run for the marathon happening then and it was definitely a big deal in the city. It was really exciting to see lots of promotion for the event in August - can't wait to go back!

can you see the hurdlers?

droves.

Partially due to the relatively hot weather (about 15 degrees at start time) the race was no walk in the park. The gun went off for the 10kers at about 9:25 and I was off to a slow start, having to jostle through the obligatory, clueless people who put themselves at the front of the start line without a thought that they are IN THE WAY!

My first km was much slower than I wanted or needed (4:15) but I put it behind me and tried hard to relax and not surge. This paid off and my next few kms were progressively faster, eventually getting down to 4:06 and 4:03 paces. Some gradual uphills made the course more difficult than I had anticipated and the wide, straight course sometimes made it hard to figure out which side would make for a shorter race.
By the 8th km, I had passed and been passed by the same woman and her coach who I finally 'let go' with a cheer of ' Way to go! Good job!' (I like to cheer on my competition because I think it really screws up their race mentality - Ha!)

On the final downhill stretch of the race, I heard my GPS beep, indicating 10km had passed, yet I knew I was at least a few hundred metres from the finish. That was a huge punch in the stomach. I pushed until the finish and could barely stand up at the end, but I knew my time was nowhere close to 40 minutes, and definitely no PB.

The course turned out to be about 400m long, which translates into almost 2 extra minutes on my time, which was 42:35 (but 41:00s at the actual 10km mark).

Although this was disappointing, it didn't ruin my race or my day. I am happy with my race and managed to place 5th female overall - which meant my parents got to see me experience the outlandish awards ceremony (1st-6th finishers are awarded).
I learned from the race, and as strange and wimpy as it may sound, I don't think my brain was ready for the sub-40 just yet.