Racing in Seoul

On Saturday Daniel had a race to run up in Seoul. We weren't even sure where it was generally located until the week of the race, and by then we couldn't find a place to stay at the price we were willing to pay. No worries though. We got up early and took the metro into Seoul. Catching the 5:52am metro put us at Yeouido Station at 7:30am. Yes, a long metro ride. We would have taken the train (maybe) if we knew exactly where we were going ahead of time, but we didn't, the train left at 7 and got to Seoul @ 8am..only 30 minutes for us to transfer to the metro and find the starting line...so the long ride it was. The good thing about living "so far away" from Seoul is that there are usually PLENTY of open seats when we get on.

 Up in Seoul, along the Hangang River, smelling the roses and playing with the neat little stream they build to run along the path, parallel to the river. *After the race, a few Korean runners were dunking themselves in the stream. I would say bathing, but there was no soap or shampoo.*

The pre-race picture:

It says "The 11th Korea Defense Daily Comrade Marathon" and Daniel was volun-told that he would be running the half marathon. Come to find out the day of the race, there was only a 5k and a 10k race. I guess in Korea they just call all races marathons? Oh well, it was a pleasant surprise to have to only run 6.2 miles instead of 13.1!

The shirts runners received were pretty nice. Light in color and not heavy cotton. It was like a moisture wicking cotton.

We were trying to find Daddy at the starting line,

But the sea of people, mostly wearing the same shirt, and many having black/dark brown hair, did not lend itself to spotting Daddy easily.

After the both races started, we meandered over to the stream and the kids all got wet. No big deal.

As the first group of 5k runners started nearing the finish line, we started to clap for them. We did not set out intending to cheer for the runners, but seeing how happy it made them to see some strange "white" folks standing there alone clapping for them, we just kept on cheering for them. All of them.

 GO DADDY! The finish time minus 3 or 4 minutes...no official timing and there was a shuffle to to start for a good 5 minutes

The beautiful river, Seoul and the mountains in the background. The mountains were so much more defined and "closer" than in the picture.

 High fives and loosing my voice, but smiles all around.

We were all tired on the ride back home. Daniel and the girls passed out when they got some seats, and Little Man was sound asleep in his stroller.

We have another race to run in October, hopefully we can get some info on location ahead of time! If it's in the same place we just might go and pitch a tent on the beautiful green grass along the river; there were a few tents just chilling on the grass when we were walking to find the check-in booths.