The stars were aligned this mid June (how is it mid JUNE already?) weekend for a really great trip to Pohang, a city on the east coast of Korea. Pohang is about a 90 minute easy bus ride from north Busan, and is home to POSCO a giant steel plant (2nd largest in the world!) which looks pretty ugly in daylight but is actually quite snazzy when lit up with cosmetic lighting in the evening.
Tim and I travelled with our good running buddy, Matt, and arrived in the city early afternoon on Saturday. Love motels were plentiful in the bus terminal area so we price shopped for about 4 minutes and settled on the Ilbeu-jang Motel for 30,000 won. Our rooms were decent sized with clean bathrooms, A/C and flat screen TVs - can't ask for much better than that.
The three of us set off on a walk to explore and possibly find the race start. On our travels we each had some very traditional Korean snacks:
Tim: KFC Snacker
Matt: Starbucks tea and scone
Me: 2 Dunkin Donuts
After finding the stadium where the race started, the boys got their minds set on renting bikes, so we asked at a bike shop which had rental-looking bikes out front. We were first denied because they weren't rental bikes at all, but the owner then decided we could take 3 bikes for a couple of hours in exchange for one of our IDs. What trust!!
And cycle, we did. Through the seedier side of Pohang and along the Hyeongsan River we took in the sights of the city including the POSCO plant, Songdo Beach, and Bukbu Beach from afar.
On our return to the motel, we happened to run into 4 more Busaners and joined up together to rustle up some grub. In retrospect, looking for beef barbecue on a beach widely known for its raw fish was maybe not the easiest way to go about it, but we persevered and found a barebones BBQ restaurant with tasty beef indeed.
On race morning, the atmosphere in the stadium was buzzing. Drums, dancers and thousands of people were gathered on a fairly hot and sunny day. Races started at 9:30, which is relatively late and made the warm-up especially warm.
We reconnected with some familiar faces, and even ran into a friend who I have crossed paths with at St FX and UNB.
As for my personal race story, which I know you can't live without, I had originally planned this race as a 'fun' run, back when I knew it was only a week after the Gimhae half marathon, and didn't expect much from myself. However, since running can never be 'just fun', no matter how much I tell it to, I took it a little more seriously than I had planned.
The race was a flat and fairly straight out and back on the road. The way out was pretty windy which slowed people down quite a bit. I had some fun running about 6 inches behind a woman for 2km, allowing her to shield the wind for me before I took off past her. I ran as the 4th female for most of the race, trying to stay positive but honestly feeling pretty dead. At kilometre 7 or so, a lady passed me. My first thought was 'Oh well, there goes 4th place, good for her'. Then I grew some guts and said "No! If she can pass me, I can pass her back". I did, and left her in the dust after a small hill and 2km to the end of the race.
Though it might seem minute, at the moment I decided to kick it up a knotch, I made a difficult choice between being complacent and being a competitor. Maybe there isn't much difference between fourth and fifth place, and my time was really nothing special, but I feel awesome about deciding and pursuing my own race today, and not letting someone take it away from me just because she could. (She also wore high heeled boots to the race ceremony, so I'm extra glad I beat her.)
Post-running, the buzz in the stadium continued. The on-stage entertainment included K-Pop dancers and Belly Dancers, while the Korean Military band put on a a pretty good show on the field. Free Makgoli (Korean rice Liquor) and noodles were some more perks and this impressively organized race.
In truth, I was not expecting much from Pohang, but it went a long way in proving me wrong. Now it's 'so-long' to racing for a couple of months, and 'hello' to training hard for the next one. Here's to breaking 40:00, attempt #2......
P.S. Tim also ran a fast and furious race in the 5km - that's my boy!
 |
| POSCO, by day. |
Tim and I travelled with our good running buddy, Matt, and arrived in the city early afternoon on Saturday. Love motels were plentiful in the bus terminal area so we price shopped for about 4 minutes and settled on the Ilbeu-jang Motel for 30,000 won. Our rooms were decent sized with clean bathrooms, A/C and flat screen TVs - can't ask for much better than that.
The three of us set off on a walk to explore and possibly find the race start. On our travels we each had some very traditional Korean snacks:
Tim: KFC Snacker
Matt: Starbucks tea and scone
Me: 2 Dunkin Donuts
After finding the stadium where the race started, the boys got their minds set on renting bikes, so we asked at a bike shop which had rental-looking bikes out front. We were first denied because they weren't rental bikes at all, but the owner then decided we could take 3 bikes for a couple of hours in exchange for one of our IDs. What trust!!
 |
| didn't work quite like I wanted. |
And cycle, we did. Through the seedier side of Pohang and along the Hyeongsan River we took in the sights of the city including the POSCO plant, Songdo Beach, and Bukbu Beach from afar.
 |
| Bukbu Beach |
On our return to the motel, we happened to run into 4 more Busaners and joined up together to rustle up some grub. In retrospect, looking for beef barbecue on a beach widely known for its raw fish was maybe not the easiest way to go about it, but we persevered and found a barebones BBQ restaurant with tasty beef indeed.
On race morning, the atmosphere in the stadium was buzzing. Drums, dancers and thousands of people were gathered on a fairly hot and sunny day. Races started at 9:30, which is relatively late and made the warm-up especially warm.
We reconnected with some familiar faces, and even ran into a friend who I have crossed paths with at St FX and UNB.
As for my personal race story, which I know you can't live without, I had originally planned this race as a 'fun' run, back when I knew it was only a week after the Gimhae half marathon, and didn't expect much from myself. However, since running can never be 'just fun', no matter how much I tell it to, I took it a little more seriously than I had planned.
The race was a flat and fairly straight out and back on the road. The way out was pretty windy which slowed people down quite a bit. I had some fun running about 6 inches behind a woman for 2km, allowing her to shield the wind for me before I took off past her. I ran as the 4th female for most of the race, trying to stay positive but honestly feeling pretty dead. At kilometre 7 or so, a lady passed me. My first thought was 'Oh well, there goes 4th place, good for her'. Then I grew some guts and said "No! If she can pass me, I can pass her back". I did, and left her in the dust after a small hill and 2km to the end of the race.
Though it might seem minute, at the moment I decided to kick it up a knotch, I made a difficult choice between being complacent and being a competitor. Maybe there isn't much difference between fourth and fifth place, and my time was really nothing special, but I feel awesome about deciding and pursuing my own race today, and not letting someone take it away from me just because she could. (She also wore high heeled boots to the race ceremony, so I'm extra glad I beat her.)
Post-running, the buzz in the stadium continued. The on-stage entertainment included K-Pop dancers and Belly Dancers, while the Korean Military band put on a a pretty good show on the field. Free Makgoli (Korean rice Liquor) and noodles were some more perks and this impressively organized race.
In truth, I was not expecting much from Pohang, but it went a long way in proving me wrong. Now it's 'so-long' to racing for a couple of months, and 'hello' to training hard for the next one. Here's to breaking 40:00, attempt #2......
P.S. Tim also ran a fast and furious race in the 5km - that's my boy!
No comments:
Post a Comment