from gwangju, we took a bus to mokpo (목포)...after the horrid experience the day before, we were understandably nervous, but this was a direct bus, and went straight to the bus terminal in mokpo...though it was a farther distance, the time involved was only 50 minutes...woo hoo!!! mokpo is a port city, on the southwest coast of the peninsula...there isn't a whole lot else going on there...
from the bus station, we took a taxi to the train station, and booked a train ticket back to gwangju the next day...(despite this bus ride being good, we were still nervous about another bus)...we found a love motel close to the train station (only 25,000 won, or about $22...you can't find anything that cheap in the states!!) and booked in...we used the tourist map, street signs and guidebook to get us to the ferry terminal...we figured there had to be some sort of ferry ride we could take just because...and there was...we didn't understand the information boards we could see, but there was a nice lady at information who told us what we could do...the next boat left almost immediately, but we wanted lunch, and that seemed more important...so we went to find lunch, only having to walk across the street...yay...sometime during lunch kim asked me why i kept eating the same food, she had noticed i ordered the same thing quite a few times during our trip...what can i say, i have no problem with repetitive eating:)
the next fery ride was two hours later, so we had some time to kill...we decided to walk along the coast, enjoying the water view, nice weather, and constant breeze...it was sunny, and there were quite a few men out fishing...the ferry ride itself was nothing spectacular, but it was enjoyable...just being out on a boat for a couple hours in calm water is great:)...some people got off at the islands, they were probably going to visit family...
after the ferry we followed the signs to the "mountain" in the middle of town...yudalsan...(유달산)...it's not really a mountain, more a hill...especially since you can drive right up almost to the top...it isn't a high mountain, but the views over the city are great...(though mokpo isn't particularly scenic)...a lovely place to be with lovely weather...up near the top is a statue of admiral yi sunshin...one of the most important military figures in korean history, it was in this area that he showed how much of a genius he is...a story which is related on information boards in at least three places...lol...we definitely had the idea after that...according to the sign, this was also the most "lively" statue of the guy in korea...i thought it looked just the same as the statue in seoul, but apparently, i'm wrong...on our way down the "mountain" we passed by a building that was eerily empty...it looked like a european building, not a typical korean building...behind the building was a gated tunnel, which seemed even more creepy, especially because we couldn't figure out what it was...a little further down we found a sign that said the building was the former japanese consulate...no wonder it was now totally deserted, with no attention drawn to the site...
in our search for dinner, we opted for a place that served lots of different types of mandu...(dumplings, like the well known polish pierogis)...the sign outside the restaurant said they had pizza mandu, among other options, but when we asked about those inside, we were told they weren't available...we sat and waited for quite a while for someone to come take our order...while waiting we counted at least four employees who looked directly at us, and were clearly aware that we were ready to order, but they seemed scared to come talk to the foreigners...when they did come take our order, we did it quickly, and in korean...
from there it was back to the hotel where i stayed up longer than i should've watching a bad american movie...kim went to sleep waaaay earlier than i did...
the next morning we got on the train back to gwangju...the train took longer than the bus! at the train station in gwangju we stored our bags in the lockers they have available, then got lunch...after lunch we decided to go see the one remaining 5.18 sight we hadn't seen...the 5.18 national cemetary...interestingly enough, the bus we took to get out to the cemetary was bus #518...as we looked at the route, we figured out we could've used this bus quite a bit during our first day in town...oh well...the cemetary was nice and quiet...we saw the old cemetary, as well as the new one...the old one was dug up and partly destroyed in the mid 80s when the military dictatorship running the country decided it wasn't good to have a cemetary devoted to those who had died in an uprising about democracy...i have no idea what happened to the bodies, but in 1994, the new cemetary project was started; it was completed in 1997...national cemetary designation came in 2002...the volunteer information lady told us there are over 600 bodies buried there...some of them died during and soon after the uprising, others who were involved are still alive, and will be buried there after they die...there are also a few graves of unknown folks, and a few graves devoted to those they know died back then, but they don't have the bodies...
we took the bus back into town, then took the ktx (bullet train again, yippee!!) back to seoul, arriving 3 hours later...a great trip!!!!!!!
26 September 2010
25 September 2010
gwangju (광주)
chuseok (추석) is a majour korean holiday...probably the biggest holiday of the year...its three days long, and follows a lunar schedule...(which can be good or bad, depending on the days of the week the holiday falls on)...this year it fell on a tuesday/wednesday/thursday, and i took the friday off as well...i taught that monday at school, or at least, i kept the kids entertained all day...only a little bit of what is normally done in the classroom actually happened, since some kids were missing, and i didn't want some classes to get ahead of others in their books...anywho...
tuesday i relaxed most of the day in my flat, watching the rain out the window...it poured...ALL DAY...after a while i got to wondering how the sky could possibly still have any more rain...that evening, i made my way over to kim's flat, she has two bedrooms...(the perks of being a teacher at an international school often include a higher housing allowance)...her flat is only a ten minute bus ride away from the train station we needed wednesday morning...she had spent her entire day working on lesson plans...YUCK...and unlike my lesson plans, which are done mostly for appearance, hers actually mean something...
we had decided to go to joellanam-do (저라남도) which can be translated as south joella province, the province farthest from seoul on the peninsula...neither one of us had been in that area before, and with the extra days, it made sense to explore while we could...as i read in the guidebook, that area of the country was once where political dissidents were sent as a form of exile...
wednesday morning we got up, caught the bus, and hopped on our train to gwangju (광주)...it was a ktx train, a bullet train...it goes around 300kms/hr, which makes korea really small!! three hours later, we arrived in gwanju...it seemed the rain had followed us, which wasn't so pleasant...just outside the train station was an information booth, so we grabbed a tourist map, and got in the taxi line...we took the taxi to the bus station, knowing that there would be plenty of love motels to be found...love motels don't have the greatest reputation, but both kim and i have always found them to be clean, and usually cheaper than any other option...plus you get cable tv, and sometimes a computer!!...we could've chosen a yeogwan (여관) near the train station, but we knew we'd need the buses to get around, hence the taxi ride...since we arrived around lunch time, both of us were hungry...we'd seen plenty of open restaurants in the bus station and train station, so we figured we'd find something relatively easily...but that definitely wasn't the case...it took around two hours of walking to find food!!! korea reeeeeeally closes up shop during this holiday...of the three days, the middle one is the BIG day, so there is even less open...while walking, we had started following signs toward a cultural center and 5.18 democracy plaza...
close to that monument was a subway stop (gwangju has a single subway line, stretching through the city, both kim and i wondered how much the subway is used on a regular basis) so we got on a train and took it to the convention center stop...the convention center looked to be the closest stop to a park we identified on the tourist map that seemed interesting...well, we though we had identified the parks...it took us a few minutes to figure out which exit we needed from the subway station, and then we started walking...the signs pointed to 5.18 liberty park, and we followed...at one intersection, the sign pointed right, but that seemed to be a residential street, (massive apartment complexes) so we kept walking...at the next intersection, we saw signs for 5.18 memorial park, (pointing straight) and 5.18 liberty park (pointing right)...needless to say, we didn't know there were two, or what the differences might be...so we turned right...almost immediately we saw what was clearly a park, and walked in...only it had absolutely nothing to do with 5.18...5.18 was the may 18th uprising in 1980...that's when the people rebelled against the military dictatorship that was running the country at the time (propped up and supported by the US government, which made us decide that the US government has no trouble supporting repressive governments, so long as they aren't communist) and the uprising was put down...harshly...this was the second majour uprising that had started in gwangju, and knowing that it had once been a place of exile for political dissidents, we weren't too surprised to find out that their posterity had also become political dissidents...the 5.18 uprising was put down by the military police, with force...some were killed in the fighting...many were arrested, and kept in the military police base in the city...they weren't even put in the regular jail...instead, in the mp station they were imprisoned, interrogated, and tortured...
as it turned out, the first park we found wasn't either of the 5.18 parks...it was called sangmu citizens park...a nice place for people to hang out...a couple fountains, sculptures in a wooded area, a pond, etc...but not what we were looking for...
in the guidebook i had read about a temple called (운주사) about 40kms outside gwangju, so our plan was to go the next day (thursday)...according to information, the bus we needed could be caught at the bus station, thankfully...it was only 40kms, but it took an hour and a half...the bus wasn't going slowly, but it did go through neighborhoods and make stops, as city buses are supposed to do...the temple itself is 600m down the road from the bus stop, in a small valley...
when the temple was first built, a long time ago, information says that there were 1000 pagodas, and 1000 buddhas...now, there are less than 80 left of each...the temple itself is a typical temple complex, a few buildings (that all look the same to me as just about any other temple in korea)...the nifty part is all the buddhas and pagodas that are around...they are all over the sides of the valley, and up on the hills...the whole area is beautiful, and in climbing up to see all the buddhas and pagodas, we were treated to some lovely views over the whole valley area...after seeing all that, it's now one of my favourite temples in korea...too bad it isn't closer to seoul...the bus ride back to seoul was awful...just awful...the driver was a petrol head, and always tried to avoid the speed bumps...this means he was always going faster than he should've been, slowing down suddenly at the last minute, and swerving around the ends of the speed bumps...kim and i were sooooooo sick by the time we got back to the city...the driver kept up the crazy driving even in the city, even with old folks and young children on the bus...despite the speed, we didn't get back any faster than we had gotten to the temple...i ended up dry heaving only a couple minutes after getting off the bus...it was AWFUL...
dinner that night was in a restaurant in a tunnel under the bus station, and we went for a walk later in the evening...a walk to nowhere in particular, but it was still nice to walk...gwangju is so much quieter than seoul!!!
tuesday i relaxed most of the day in my flat, watching the rain out the window...it poured...ALL DAY...after a while i got to wondering how the sky could possibly still have any more rain...that evening, i made my way over to kim's flat, she has two bedrooms...(the perks of being a teacher at an international school often include a higher housing allowance)...her flat is only a ten minute bus ride away from the train station we needed wednesday morning...she had spent her entire day working on lesson plans...YUCK...and unlike my lesson plans, which are done mostly for appearance, hers actually mean something...
we had decided to go to joellanam-do (저라남도) which can be translated as south joella province, the province farthest from seoul on the peninsula...neither one of us had been in that area before, and with the extra days, it made sense to explore while we could...as i read in the guidebook, that area of the country was once where political dissidents were sent as a form of exile...
wednesday morning we got up, caught the bus, and hopped on our train to gwangju (광주)...it was a ktx train, a bullet train...it goes around 300kms/hr, which makes korea really small!! three hours later, we arrived in gwanju...it seemed the rain had followed us, which wasn't so pleasant...just outside the train station was an information booth, so we grabbed a tourist map, and got in the taxi line...we took the taxi to the bus station, knowing that there would be plenty of love motels to be found...love motels don't have the greatest reputation, but both kim and i have always found them to be clean, and usually cheaper than any other option...plus you get cable tv, and sometimes a computer!!...we could've chosen a yeogwan (여관) near the train station, but we knew we'd need the buses to get around, hence the taxi ride...since we arrived around lunch time, both of us were hungry...we'd seen plenty of open restaurants in the bus station and train station, so we figured we'd find something relatively easily...but that definitely wasn't the case...it took around two hours of walking to find food!!! korea reeeeeeally closes up shop during this holiday...of the three days, the middle one is the BIG day, so there is even less open...while walking, we had started following signs toward a cultural center and 5.18 democracy plaza...
at one point, the plaza stopped appearing on the signs, it took us a long time to figure out why...the cultural center also didn't appear...while at lunch, i got out the tourist map, and it said that the cultural center wasn't supposed to be open until 2012!! since there was nothing about it not being open in the guidebook, we figured it was probably undergoing massive renovation...the plaza turned out to be the area around the culture center...oh well...
after lunch, we stopped at a memorial for the november 1929 student uprising...the students had rebelled against the japanese colonialists for the crappy treatment of koreans, crappy treatment of students, etc...during those years of colonialiazation, japan had forced the instruction in schools to be only in japanese, in fact it was illegal to speak korean at all...basically, japan had tried to take away korean identity completely...(on a side note, this history is not being taught in japan, so many younger japanese these days don't know, or understand why the koreans hate them so much)...the memorial is small, in a small garden area, next to the current high school, and next to a memorial hall...the hall was closed, but we figured it was probably a museum inside...
as it turned out, the first park we found wasn't either of the 5.18 parks...it was called sangmu citizens park...a nice place for people to hang out...a couple fountains, sculptures in a wooded area, a pond, etc...but not what we were looking for...
we decided to follow the signs for the liberty park, with me still trying to figure out where either park was on the tourist map...finally, i did figure it out...that map wasn't at all clear! anywho, 5.18 liberty park ended up being more of a museum than anything else...it was the old military police station, kept as it was during the uprising...the rooms in the buildings are mostly empty now, but there are pictures of what happened in each area, and some of the rooms have mannequins dressed in appropriate clothing, demonstrating EXACTLY what happened...the signs outside each building also told what happened...rather bluntly...kim and i enjoyed learning what had happened, but we were the only ones wandering around, so that made it a bit creepy...since i had figured out the map, we decided that next we'd head to 5.18 memorial park...on the way, we stopped at a temple...a single building instead of an entire complex...it was simple, quite, and nice...and while we were there, there were quite a few people worshipping, with a monk leading prayers, so we didn't stay long...plus, the sun was starting to go down...we followed a lovely wooded path to 5.18 memorial park, which was basically a giant memorial to those who had been killed or otherwise involved in the uprising...a nice, open area
at that point, it was dark, and we were hungry...according to the map, it looked to be a straight, relatively short walk back to the bus station...we should've remembered that the tourist maps in this country are never done to scale, so you never know how far something is from another point on the map...our walk back to the bus station was at least half an hour, and we weren't walking slowly...dinner was at the bus station food court, since that was still one of the only places we knew would be open...at the end, i realized we'd probably walked about a half marathon...i've done that kind of walking before, i did it a lot during my trip...but kim hasn't...either way, both of us were tired, and went to bed not long after getting back to the motel...(i should point out that love motel names are often really cheesy...we were staying at the ritz:)...a good night sleep helped our bodies (especially our feet) recover...
when the temple was first built, a long time ago, information says that there were 1000 pagodas, and 1000 buddhas...now, there are less than 80 left of each...the temple itself is a typical temple complex, a few buildings (that all look the same to me as just about any other temple in korea)...the nifty part is all the buddhas and pagodas that are around...they are all over the sides of the valley, and up on the hills...the whole area is beautiful, and in climbing up to see all the buddhas and pagodas, we were treated to some lovely views over the whole valley area...after seeing all that, it's now one of my favourite temples in korea...too bad it isn't closer to seoul...the bus ride back to seoul was awful...just awful...the driver was a petrol head, and always tried to avoid the speed bumps...this means he was always going faster than he should've been, slowing down suddenly at the last minute, and swerving around the ends of the speed bumps...kim and i were sooooooo sick by the time we got back to the city...the driver kept up the crazy driving even in the city, even with old folks and young children on the bus...despite the speed, we didn't get back any faster than we had gotten to the temple...i ended up dry heaving only a couple minutes after getting off the bus...it was AWFUL...
dinner that night was in a restaurant in a tunnel under the bus station, and we went for a walk later in the evening...a walk to nowhere in particular, but it was still nice to walk...gwangju is so much quieter than seoul!!!
20 September 2010
lake chungju (충주호) and jochiwon (조치원)
Lake Chungju...a man made lake in the middle of korea...there aren't many lakes here, so it was nice to see...kim and i started our saturday morning early, meeting up at a bus station in seoul...not entirely surprisingly, i was running late, so she bought the tickets for the next bus, and i got there about five minutes before it left...we arrived in chungju faster than expected, and kim and i were both hungry, so while waiting for our friend heather to pick us up, kim and i went hunting for kimchi dumplings (김치만두)...we found them at a typically small korean restaurant...soooooooo good!! and sooooooooo many!!! AND, they were homemade...the weekend was already looking grand:)
After eating we made our way back to the bus station, meeting up with Heather, who had brought along her friend April. Kim and i have known heather since the two of them worked together in 2007...heather now lives outside of seoul, teaches at a university, and has her own car!! woo hoo...heather having her own car allowed this entire weekend to happen...
our first stop was simply to look at the maps we'd picked up, and figure out where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do...that's when these first few photos were taken, i couldn't get enough of the brightly coloured flowers:)
making our decisions took a little while, partly because we were also catching up with each other, and kim and i were talking to april for the first time...(april also lives outside seoul, and also teaches at a university, though a different one from heather)...we decided to drive to the ferry terminal, and see what we could figure out in terms of a tourist ride...unfortunately, the next ride would've involved waiting over an hour, which we didn't want to do..so, this is the ferry we would've taken:)
instead we drove back around the way we had come, stopping at this monument...i'm not entirely sure who it honours, but i love monuments, and with the awesome blue sky, how could i not take the photo?!?!
close to this monument we found a lookout sort of area, it was probably built as part of the damn...walking out little way is beautiful, so of course i did the shallow thing and had my photo taken:)
since our ferry ride didn't work out, we decided to drive to a nearby national park and do a little bit of hiking...and we decided to take the scenic route...heather had a decent idea of where we were going, so the gps in her car had to reroute itself a couple times...howeva, at one point we ended up on a very very narrow road, one that probably wasn't meant to be used very often...and when i say narrow, i mean really narrow...at times it was just barely big enough for the car...needless to say, the road wasn't paved, and had big holes and rocks, so we weren't entirely sure whether we would make it back to a sealed road w/out some sort of car trouble...this is the road!!
notice how skinny that road is!!! even though we probably shouldn't have been on this road, we still had fun with it...heather kept apologizing to the rest of us, we just laughed it off...somehow or another, the gps still recognized the road!! a couple times we passed other vehicles (not very easily) and the looks on the faces of those drivers were priceless...they were shocked to see another car, and they were even more shocked when they realized it was a car full of foreign girls...hee hee...that road took us over a pass providing sweet views like this one...sure, we went where no foreigner had gone before, but i'm pretty sure no other foreigner has seen this view either:)
the road took us into an agricultural area, we noticed a whole LOT of apple trees...kim and i couldn't resist this picture:)
notice how the trees in the background have bags on each of the apples, while this one is "unbagged"...we figured it must have something to do with speeding up the ripening of the apples, and this tree had just been checked to see if the apples were ready...this photo doesn't show nearly how awesome those apples looked...amazing...
tons of food in korea is made with a spicy paste, though these chili peppers are the first i'd seen being grown in korea...
after driving for a while longer, we FINALLY got onto a sealed road...it took us around this corner of the lake, which we thought was gorgeous...
this seemed to be an area looking down on the lake a bit...when we walked up a little we could see quite a ways over the lake...the photo doesn't show how much we could see, because i couldn't figure out a way to prop up the camera closer to the edge...as it was, to get this photo, i climbed up on the car (heather said she didn't car!) and set up the mini tripod, directing the girls "take two steps left, nooo, move back that way, etc"...they laughed, but did what i said...at one point, while i was on the car, another car drove the other way, and we kept laughing at the looks on the faces of those in the other car...they must've thought i was crazy:)
after driving around for quite a while, we realized we hadn't found the part of the national park where we wanted to hike...argh...but we were really hungry, so that became our next adventure...trying to find food wasn't as easy as we thought it would be...to be fair, it was 1530, not exactly a common eating time...in the end, the four of us had dwinjungjiggae (된장지개) a yummy soup...served with lovely side dishes, it hit the spot...our parking spot was near this stream:)
in the parking lot was a tree already well on it's way to dropping it's leaves, and i loved the redness of the leaves...
since the hike didn't work out either, we decided to drive to suanbo (수안보) to try out their famous hot springs...(famous in korea anywho)...heather had heard of a hotel that had an outdoor hot pool so that's where we headed...we sat in the water long enough to be well and truly pickled, and it was wonderful...soooo relaxing...plus, there was a giant shower room, with shampoo and conditioner provided, so we were all super clean afterward as well...i would love to go back there in winter, when it's snowing...we were there while the sun went down, so just before leaving i took this photo of the city at night...
after the hot springs we drove april back to her flat, about 20 minutes away from heathers place...heather lives in a lovely 2 bedroom flat, and had said kim and i could stay the night...heather wanted to clean up a little bit, so heather and i went to a nearby family mart and picked up a couple snacks...heather had gotten out an air mattress by the time we got back, so it didn't take us long to get ready for sleep...even though we hadn't been super active during the day, we still felt like it was a day in which we had seen quite a bit, so we were all tired...kim and i didn't take long to fall asleep...kim is short, so she took the couch...i had the air mattress, and i'm pretty sure i hardly moved during the night:)
The next morning we got up slowly, and had breakfast slowly...chitchatting about anything and everything the whole time, as women do:)...kim and i packed up all our stuff, and heather gave us a little tour around jochiwon...near this temple is the mountain spring where heather gets her water...
these tombs are from the baekje dynasty...
in jochiwon there is a small reservoir, it only takes about 15-20 minutes to drive around the whole thing...the weather was overcast the day we drove around, but it could be a lovely little spot, a great place to relax...
after driving around the lake, heather drove us to the train station...we got tickets for a train back to seoul, then went to two more places...one was a mart that sold lovely foods like chickpeas...i doubt many people would get as excited as i did, i'm such a dork...the next part was even better...a chocolate boutique!!! the chef/owner is korean, but lived in france for 10-15 years, training...so he knows his stuff...there wasn't a huge selection, but what was there was REALLY good...i REALLY want to go back!!!
then we got on the train, and rode back to seoul...a totally unexpected weekend, and i loved every minute of it..
13 September 2010
running near the DMZ
a while ago i signed up for two half marathons near different areas of the korean DMZ..the first race took place in yanggu county, i think it was called the clean yanggu DMZ marathon, or something along those lines..since it was out of town, i asked my director to make sure there was a shuttle bus i could take to and from the race before i signed up, and there was..my shuttle left at 0600, and in order to get to the pickup spot, i had to catch the first subway possible..just so you know, that's at 0532..not exactly the time i want to be on the go on a sunday morning, but oh well..for quite a while i was the only foreigner on the bus, but just before we left another foreigner got on..the seat next to me was still empty (it would've been the last seat to fill up if the bus had been full) so she sat next to me..we had a lovely chat on the way to the race, at least until the road got curvy and we both got a bit bussick..i put my head down, she put her head back, and we both focused on not getting any worse..lauren is from south africa, and it turns out that another girl with her same name was also running the race..same given name and same family name!! about 2.5 hours after we left, the bus arrived at the race sight..the race was supposed to start at 0900, our bus didn't get there until 0840..i'm not one who ever likes to arrive long before the race, but 20 minutes was cutting it close..the parade area was covered with people, apparently most of the other buses had arrived quite a bit earlier...
i noticed lots of groups of people wearing the same clothes, so i guess it was quite the group event..many of the people wearing the same clothes were korean army soldiers in their pt uniforms..even before the races started (full, half, 10K and 5K) i felt sorry for them..it was muggy, and mesh shorts aren't optimal running shorts anywho..(not long into my race, every soldier i saw had stripped off the outer shirt and was running in just his base layer t-shirt..it was soooo muggy)..
there were the standard aerobic exercises before the gun sounded, and of course i skipped them..why on earth would i want to do aerobics before running a half marathon? the full marathon folks were called to the start line, and sent off..their course involved two out and backs..next up was me, with all the others running the half..they played a bit of def leppard's "pour some sugar on me" to get us excited..then the gun shot, and a military band took over..hee hee..
the course was out and back, which i don't particularly enjoy, though it is a standard of races here in korea..howeva, this course was a whole LOT more scenic than most courses i've run in korea..we ran through several checkpoints manned by soldiers, and past the army barracks..i noticed quite a few folks watching us out their windows..after that everything got really pretty..i could see a river on my right, and rock/hill/trees/bush on my left..most of the time there was barbed wire strung on my right, hung with signs warning of mines every 2m or so..that was a bit surreal..this was definitely NOT a course to step off anywhere if you needed to use the loo..just after the turnaround for the 10K runners, the road turned into an unsealed road..not so fun, but not awful either..at one point i ran through a bridge that was likely loaded with mines/dynamite that could be blown if the north ever decides to invade through this area..it was painted a bright army camouflage, if that makes any sense at all...just before the turnaround for the half marathon i passed the turnaround for the full marathon, and remembered thinking that wasn't very nice...after that the hills started...not huge, but they were definitely hills, and i definitely wasn't ready!! even as i ran down the first one, my thoughts were only that i'd have to come back and run up to finish the race...there were probably three or four hills, which i of course had to run the other way after turning around...
at some point during the second half of the race my ipod died...ugh...i had forgotten to charge it the night before, so it didn't have a full charge when i started the race...i tucked it into my sports bra and kept running...i might've actually run faster after that, as i didn't have anything to keep myself amused...then, to make everything even more entertaining, it started raining...not hard, but there was definitely precipitation...it got a little heavier, then lightened up, got heavier, then lightened up...it never got that bad while i was running, thank goodness...though between that and the sweat, i was soaked...about 2km from the finish, i was passed by the leader of the marathon...in other words, he had run nearly twice as far, twice as fast...yeah, that didn't make me feel so good...hee hee...the end of the race was awesome...the course took us through a small tunnel, past a tank or two, and past more soldiers on duty...it was by far my slowest EVER half marathon...i'm not at all fast, but this was bad, even for me...
post race goodies were pretty much the same as always, though i did have the option of a couple cups of beer...had i been able, i would've partaken...the finishers "medal" was fantastic...definitely the most unique i've seen at any race...they made fake dog tags!! the downside to running a race out of town, and relying on shuttles is having to wait for a long time after finishing...sooo, we waited...at some point after i finished, the rain started in earnest...a total downpour...and it stayed that way for the next couple hours at the very least...there was a small pavilion area that had been used as the stage, thankfully it was covered...a bunch of us were hanging out under there, feeling sorry for all the people working the race, who had to be out in the mud...the marathoners who finished in the downpour were all laughing...why not?
the bus ride back from this race took four hours, due to traffic...yuck...that wasn't so fun...
the second race i ran was called the DMZ international peace marathon...it involved another shuttle, this one leaving at 0530...fortunately, this one left from the majour intersection where i live, so i didnt have to get up any earlier...5 o'clock is plenty early!!! the bus arrived plenty early, i had a lot of time to kill...almost two hours!! for a 9 o'clock race the bus arrived around 0715...even as we arrived, not all the tents and such were set up...so early...everything was also soggy, as it had been raining quite a bit the night before...i was thrilled it wasn't raining anymore, but the ground was totally waterlogged...so walking around in the staging area wasn't fun, as you ended up with wet shoes and socks...
the race started with another korean military band, as well as coloured fireworks:)...the route on this one was a loop, which i love...we ran on a sealed road the entire time, and from time to time there were people out cheering for the runners...good times...instead of running in a gorge this course was in a wide open area...lots of pretty flowers lining the roads, and farmers fields growing...the first water station wasn't until the 5K mark, which i thought was a bit too long, and i was quite thirsty...at that point, i had watched each of the kilometer markers go by, without water, and i was sooooo ready for water...anywho, after that, they appeared every 2.5 or 3K, which was great...at one point i even grabbed a couple choco pies...YUM!!! normally i don't eat those during a race, but i was tired of bananas, which were also available...
at the halfway point or so, my left hip flexor started making it's unhappiness known...i don't know why it tightened up, but it did...oddly enough, it was less comfortable to walk than it was to keep a slow run...around the 15K mark, there was a shower of sorts stretched over the road...the sun hadn't come out for most of the day (which thrilled me, as the weather was nearly ideal for me) but it was still a little warm, so the brief shower felt good...my hip wasn't getting any better...by the end of the race, it was just something i was tolerating...i wanted to get off my feet, and lay down...
my official time wasn't that great, but at least it was back to the times i'd been running in may...thank goodness...i can't wait until the weather really cools down, as i feel like i'll be a whole lot faster...cold weather works so much better for me...
upon finishing, i waited at the finish line because i knew my friend anina was coming in shortly after me...this was her first official half marathon, though she had run one as a practice run a month or two before...her training hadn't been good toward the end, and her knee was causing some pain, so before the race she was extremely worried about finishing before the time cutoff...needless to say, she had no worries on that issue...anina rocked, i was soooo happy for her...another friend, gina, had intended to run anina in, and had started running toward anina just as i was finishing...in other words, she didn't really get a chance to run her in, as anina was far ahead of where she had expected to be at that point...gina is awesome, and had finished the race just a little under an hour ahead of me...she's fast...plus, she's beautiful, and nice...one of the girls you want to hate, but you can't because she's so awesome...anywho...
after finishing, we headed straight for a pool to soak our legs...anina had seen a few foreigners doing it the year before...i climbed in, and it felt good...a bit chilly, but nice:)...the three of us (plus anina's husband phil, who is also awesome) ended up talking to cody (or was it colin?) who had just finished his first ever half marathon, having come up from mokpo (목포) for the race...at some point a couple korean guys walked by, and seeing gina stretching, one of them had grabbed her leg and pushed it a bit...not surprisingly, that was a bit creepy...but he was just trying to be nice...he had just finished his first ever half as well, and was pretty happy...(gina was faster than him, but she never mentioned her time:)
after that, we walked over to the bag check area, where i realized that my bag check number had fallen off my bib number somehow, and i hadn't memorized the number...so all of us started searching for my bag...it sounds like an easy thing to do, but there were thousands to see, and every bag was inside a white plastic bag, making the whole thing much more difficult...eventually, by pure luck, i saw my bag...thank goodness!! the ground was soggy, so a lot of the bags had gotten a bit wet...so had mine...a friend of gina and anina's had skipped the race, but sent her timer chip with them, so they turned that in, and picked up her medal and food bag...hee hee...the medal was so so...the food bag included a box of energy drinks (which, more than two weeks later, i still haven't gotten around to drinking) a banana (which had gotten smushed) and something else...near the bag check area there were a couple tents set up handing out hot food!!! bibimbap!!! (비빔밥)...basically rice, veggies, spicy pepper paste, and meat if you wanted it...the four of us went over to another fountain (this one wasn't on) and sat down to eat...there were people camped out eating all over...good food, good conversation, great people...
the best part was at the end...this might be my favourite race for one reason: FREE MASSAGE!!! somehow the race organizers had gotten a bunch of massage students to give free massages..we got in line when it wasn't too long anymore, and the massages were great...gina and anina liked theirs so much they got back in line and had another:)...i was a little sore from the massage the next day, but it was well worth it...plus the guy who did my massage spoke english well, and was funny...he wanted to set me up with his boss...lol...
the bus ride home was fast, and i was back in seoul around 5...a great day...
i've never seen any other place/race organization that can match koreans in terms of putting on a good race...they send out race packets a week or two ahead, along with the race souvenir...shuttle buses are usually provided if the race is out of seoul...there is always a finishers medal, and a bag of food after the race...LOVE IT!!!
there were the standard aerobic exercises before the gun sounded, and of course i skipped them..why on earth would i want to do aerobics before running a half marathon? the full marathon folks were called to the start line, and sent off..their course involved two out and backs..next up was me, with all the others running the half..they played a bit of def leppard's "pour some sugar on me" to get us excited..then the gun shot, and a military band took over..hee hee..
the course was out and back, which i don't particularly enjoy, though it is a standard of races here in korea..howeva, this course was a whole LOT more scenic than most courses i've run in korea..we ran through several checkpoints manned by soldiers, and past the army barracks..i noticed quite a few folks watching us out their windows..after that everything got really pretty..i could see a river on my right, and rock/hill/trees/bush on my left..most of the time there was barbed wire strung on my right, hung with signs warning of mines every 2m or so..that was a bit surreal..this was definitely NOT a course to step off anywhere if you needed to use the loo..just after the turnaround for the 10K runners, the road turned into an unsealed road..not so fun, but not awful either..at one point i ran through a bridge that was likely loaded with mines/dynamite that could be blown if the north ever decides to invade through this area..it was painted a bright army camouflage, if that makes any sense at all...just before the turnaround for the half marathon i passed the turnaround for the full marathon, and remembered thinking that wasn't very nice...after that the hills started...not huge, but they were definitely hills, and i definitely wasn't ready!! even as i ran down the first one, my thoughts were only that i'd have to come back and run up to finish the race...there were probably three or four hills, which i of course had to run the other way after turning around...
post race goodies were pretty much the same as always, though i did have the option of a couple cups of beer...had i been able, i would've partaken...the finishers "medal" was fantastic...definitely the most unique i've seen at any race...they made fake dog tags!! the downside to running a race out of town, and relying on shuttles is having to wait for a long time after finishing...sooo, we waited...at some point after i finished, the rain started in earnest...a total downpour...and it stayed that way for the next couple hours at the very least...there was a small pavilion area that had been used as the stage, thankfully it was covered...a bunch of us were hanging out under there, feeling sorry for all the people working the race, who had to be out in the mud...the marathoners who finished in the downpour were all laughing...why not?
the bus ride back from this race took four hours, due to traffic...yuck...that wasn't so fun...
the second race i ran was called the DMZ international peace marathon...it involved another shuttle, this one leaving at 0530...fortunately, this one left from the majour intersection where i live, so i didnt have to get up any earlier...5 o'clock is plenty early!!! the bus arrived plenty early, i had a lot of time to kill...almost two hours!! for a 9 o'clock race the bus arrived around 0715...even as we arrived, not all the tents and such were set up...so early...everything was also soggy, as it had been raining quite a bit the night before...i was thrilled it wasn't raining anymore, but the ground was totally waterlogged...so walking around in the staging area wasn't fun, as you ended up with wet shoes and socks...
the race started with another korean military band, as well as coloured fireworks:)...the route on this one was a loop, which i love...we ran on a sealed road the entire time, and from time to time there were people out cheering for the runners...good times...instead of running in a gorge this course was in a wide open area...lots of pretty flowers lining the roads, and farmers fields growing...the first water station wasn't until the 5K mark, which i thought was a bit too long, and i was quite thirsty...at that point, i had watched each of the kilometer markers go by, without water, and i was sooooo ready for water...anywho, after that, they appeared every 2.5 or 3K, which was great...at one point i even grabbed a couple choco pies...YUM!!! normally i don't eat those during a race, but i was tired of bananas, which were also available...
at the halfway point or so, my left hip flexor started making it's unhappiness known...i don't know why it tightened up, but it did...oddly enough, it was less comfortable to walk than it was to keep a slow run...around the 15K mark, there was a shower of sorts stretched over the road...the sun hadn't come out for most of the day (which thrilled me, as the weather was nearly ideal for me) but it was still a little warm, so the brief shower felt good...my hip wasn't getting any better...by the end of the race, it was just something i was tolerating...i wanted to get off my feet, and lay down...
my official time wasn't that great, but at least it was back to the times i'd been running in may...thank goodness...i can't wait until the weather really cools down, as i feel like i'll be a whole lot faster...cold weather works so much better for me...
upon finishing, i waited at the finish line because i knew my friend anina was coming in shortly after me...this was her first official half marathon, though she had run one as a practice run a month or two before...her training hadn't been good toward the end, and her knee was causing some pain, so before the race she was extremely worried about finishing before the time cutoff...needless to say, she had no worries on that issue...anina rocked, i was soooo happy for her...another friend, gina, had intended to run anina in, and had started running toward anina just as i was finishing...in other words, she didn't really get a chance to run her in, as anina was far ahead of where she had expected to be at that point...gina is awesome, and had finished the race just a little under an hour ahead of me...she's fast...plus, she's beautiful, and nice...one of the girls you want to hate, but you can't because she's so awesome...anywho...
after finishing, we headed straight for a pool to soak our legs...anina had seen a few foreigners doing it the year before...i climbed in, and it felt good...a bit chilly, but nice:)...the three of us (plus anina's husband phil, who is also awesome) ended up talking to cody (or was it colin?) who had just finished his first ever half marathon, having come up from mokpo (목포) for the race...at some point a couple korean guys walked by, and seeing gina stretching, one of them had grabbed her leg and pushed it a bit...not surprisingly, that was a bit creepy...but he was just trying to be nice...he had just finished his first ever half as well, and was pretty happy...(gina was faster than him, but she never mentioned her time:)
after that, we walked over to the bag check area, where i realized that my bag check number had fallen off my bib number somehow, and i hadn't memorized the number...so all of us started searching for my bag...it sounds like an easy thing to do, but there were thousands to see, and every bag was inside a white plastic bag, making the whole thing much more difficult...eventually, by pure luck, i saw my bag...thank goodness!! the ground was soggy, so a lot of the bags had gotten a bit wet...so had mine...a friend of gina and anina's had skipped the race, but sent her timer chip with them, so they turned that in, and picked up her medal and food bag...hee hee...the medal was so so...the food bag included a box of energy drinks (which, more than two weeks later, i still haven't gotten around to drinking) a banana (which had gotten smushed) and something else...near the bag check area there were a couple tents set up handing out hot food!!! bibimbap!!! (비빔밥)...basically rice, veggies, spicy pepper paste, and meat if you wanted it...the four of us went over to another fountain (this one wasn't on) and sat down to eat...there were people camped out eating all over...good food, good conversation, great people...
the best part was at the end...this might be my favourite race for one reason: FREE MASSAGE!!! somehow the race organizers had gotten a bunch of massage students to give free massages..we got in line when it wasn't too long anymore, and the massages were great...gina and anina liked theirs so much they got back in line and had another:)...i was a little sore from the massage the next day, but it was well worth it...plus the guy who did my massage spoke english well, and was funny...he wanted to set me up with his boss...lol...
the bus ride home was fast, and i was back in seoul around 5...a great day...
i've never seen any other place/race organization that can match koreans in terms of putting on a good race...they send out race packets a week or two ahead, along with the race souvenir...shuttle buses are usually provided if the race is out of seoul...there is always a finishers medal, and a bag of food after the race...LOVE IT!!!
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