Kay oh Ray: We get a round...

a round.... BED, that is!!

In what has become a pretty routine occurrence this past weekend, Tim and I set sail for a Sunday morning race early on Saturday afternoon... just to avoid having to wake up too early on race morning.

The Busan Half Marathon race was held in Dadaepo, a 'something else' kind of area of town that boasts a 2km beach and a majestically choreographed water/light/music fountain show.
Although Dadaepo is technically part of Busan, it is far from central and took us 2 hours of travel before we arrived from the dong. (Bus-subway-bus anyone?)

The weekend I had envisioned - maxing and relaxing on a white sand and sunny beach - didn't really match the reality of arriving at the destination in cloudy, muggy weather with no sign of a love motel for miles.

After searching for about an hour, the ever-dependable Daegugan, Adam (Coyote) McCue, showed up and led his disciples to a humble abode about a mile away from the beach.

And so, my beach fantasy remained a fantasy, but nevertheless we managed to pass a very pleasant evening in Dadaepo with some new friends, new food, and familiar drinks.

Race morning was on the brink of perfect - until it started to rain fairly heavily about 20 minutes before the guns went off. The showers tapered just as Mr Collins and the half-marathoners busted out in search of PBs down the long, long, long, long stretch of highway-made race course.

Not feeling up to doing much more than 'getting through it', I had a decent race and ran alone for most of it. I saw no female competition ahead or behind me and didn't know my place until I spotted two women ahead of me at the turn around point. Not thinking there was any money involved, I coasted in for a 42:33 finish, a decent time for me especially considering my 42:50 PB that stood for a good 2 years before I finally broke through it last fall.

A couple of newbies to the Korean race scene (but not to running itself), Sarah McBean and Svien Piene (another fellow Frederictonian in Busan!) came out for the race and did quite well: Sarah finished 3rd in the 5km race, and Svien .... well he lacked a solid race plan, so to say :). I think, based on the prize money that surfaced in the race ceremony, it's safe to say that Svien will be coming to a few more races before he goes back to Canada this summer.

Good ol' Coyote McCue did not disappoint in the men's 10km, though he did fail to show up and collect his prize. Luckily his good friend/doppelganger, Mike, was able to slip onto the podium and go through the motions for him.