The day is October 3rd, 2011. There are only 3 full days remaining for me in Korea ( and 3 sleeps! ) and it's unreal how quickly the time seems to have gone, in hindsight.
Yesterday I got the awesome opportunity to re-run the Busan 10km that takes place on the 7km long Gwangan bridge. This race was the first one I ran in Korea a year ago and it seemed pretty fitting for it to also be my last.
The 10km race course begins on the bridge then crosses on the top level, goes down a ramp for a turn around then comes back along the bottom level of the bridge for a nice downhill finish near the Bexco Convention Centre. The course is perfect, I think, because it has a good variation of up and downhills - and you can't beat the views of the ocean.
I was a mixed bag of emotions for this race. On one hand, I really wanted to go out with a bang and redeem myself for my poor performance last weekend, but on the other hand I wanted to relax and enjoy my last race and not hold myself to anything too serious. In short: I had high hopes and low expectations.
A few of us took the secret short-cut to the start line atop the bridge (thanks Ian Doyle!) and were among the first at the start line. We all did the usual group stretch, 'FIGHTING' and countdown before finally taking off.
I felt pretty good from the get-go and went through a nice flat/slight uphill first km in just over 4:00. This was followed by a few fast kilometres with some awesome downhill sections that gave me a couple of kilometres at 3:37 and 3:50. I was flying high! By the time I got to the turn around I was feeling confident and found myself as the first female of the race. Unfortunately a little mix-up at the turn around (I didn't grab my halfway wristband quickly enough and had to double back a bit for it) caused me to lose my lead to a familiar Korean woman who has often beaten me before.
At the 5km mark, my time was abut 19:50... well on my way to a great PB!
I was ecstatic, cruising along, composing facebook statuses in my head all the way. I looked down at my Garmin (GPS watch) which told me I was running a 5:00/km pace, but knew it was because we were on the lower level of the bridge and satellites were not getting picked up. I decided not to look at my watch for the remainder of the race.
As I wondered just how far under 40 minutes I would be, I kept my sights on the woman ahead of me, but wasn't too worried about passing her. I had never expected to place in this race and if I was going to go sub-40, I would not have cared if I was the last person to finish.
The downhill finish started around km 9 and I gave er as hard as I could. When I neared the hairpin turn to see the finish line I was about 200m behind the first place woman. I kicked it up another notch and just missed beating her, probably by about 5 seconds.
When I looked at the clock/my watch, I saw no '3's.... meaning I had not gone sub 40. I was a bit confused, because I was pretty psyched to come second, and I had raced an awesome race, but still hadn't attained my holy grail of coming in under 40 minutes.
In the end, I was pretty pleased overall. 'Running a great race' comes first for me, with 'placing' and 'time' a close second and third.
I was lucky to participate in my first medal ceremony in my 'hometown' of Busan and even got interviewed by the local paper:)
The rest of the running crew also fared really well with a few PBs in both the 10km and half marathon. It was a perfect day for racing and I could not have asked for a better morning/course to call my last.
Thanks to all of the crew who have participated and encouraged running in Korea. I couldn't have done it without you.
Here's to many more PBs in the races to come.... fighting!
POST SCRIPT: Almost forgot! I don't have my official chip time yet, but according to my Garmin, my first 10km was in 40:26, while the course was a bit long (10.16km)so my time at the race finish was 41:00s.
post post script: Official chip time: 40:53. TWO seconds off the winning time.
Yesterday I got the awesome opportunity to re-run the Busan 10km that takes place on the 7km long Gwangan bridge. This race was the first one I ran in Korea a year ago and it seemed pretty fitting for it to also be my last.
The 10km race course begins on the bridge then crosses on the top level, goes down a ramp for a turn around then comes back along the bottom level of the bridge for a nice downhill finish near the Bexco Convention Centre. The course is perfect, I think, because it has a good variation of up and downhills - and you can't beat the views of the ocean.
I was a mixed bag of emotions for this race. On one hand, I really wanted to go out with a bang and redeem myself for my poor performance last weekend, but on the other hand I wanted to relax and enjoy my last race and not hold myself to anything too serious. In short: I had high hopes and low expectations.
 |
| just in case... |
A few of us took the secret short-cut to the start line atop the bridge (thanks Ian Doyle!) and were among the first at the start line. We all did the usual group stretch, 'FIGHTING' and countdown before finally taking off.
I felt pretty good from the get-go and went through a nice flat/slight uphill first km in just over 4:00. This was followed by a few fast kilometres with some awesome downhill sections that gave me a couple of kilometres at 3:37 and 3:50. I was flying high! By the time I got to the turn around I was feeling confident and found myself as the first female of the race. Unfortunately a little mix-up at the turn around (I didn't grab my halfway wristband quickly enough and had to double back a bit for it) caused me to lose my lead to a familiar Korean woman who has often beaten me before.
At the 5km mark, my time was abut 19:50... well on my way to a great PB!
I was ecstatic, cruising along, composing facebook statuses in my head all the way. I looked down at my Garmin (GPS watch) which told me I was running a 5:00/km pace, but knew it was because we were on the lower level of the bridge and satellites were not getting picked up. I decided not to look at my watch for the remainder of the race.
As I wondered just how far under 40 minutes I would be, I kept my sights on the woman ahead of me, but wasn't too worried about passing her. I had never expected to place in this race and if I was going to go sub-40, I would not have cared if I was the last person to finish.
The downhill finish started around km 9 and I gave er as hard as I could. When I neared the hairpin turn to see the finish line I was about 200m behind the first place woman. I kicked it up another notch and just missed beating her, probably by about 5 seconds.
When I looked at the clock/my watch, I saw no '3's.... meaning I had not gone sub 40. I was a bit confused, because I was pretty psyched to come second, and I had raced an awesome race, but still hadn't attained my holy grail of coming in under 40 minutes.
In the end, I was pretty pleased overall. 'Running a great race' comes first for me, with 'placing' and 'time' a close second and third.
I was lucky to participate in my first medal ceremony in my 'hometown' of Busan and even got interviewed by the local paper:)
 |
| my partner in crime, MrMcCue with a second place for the men! |
The rest of the running crew also fared really well with a few PBs in both the 10km and half marathon. It was a perfect day for racing and I could not have asked for a better morning/course to call my last.
Thanks to all of the crew who have participated and encouraged running in Korea. I couldn't have done it without you.
 |
| Mr Collins rolls in for the half. |
 |
| Philly after a great half marathon. |
Here's to many more PBs in the races to come.... fighting!
POST SCRIPT: Almost forgot! I don't have my official chip time yet, but according to my Garmin, my first 10km was in 40:26, while the course was a bit long (10.16km)so my time at the race finish was 41:00s.
post post script: Official chip time: 40:53. TWO seconds off the winning time.
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