Running across Seoul

Kiwi and I right before the HiSeoul Marathon. Don't judge our picture, its 730 am and cold!

As mentioned a LONG time ago, I started running. Well the regular running lasted about 1 week but I still managed to get my self suckered into some races. My first race I ran was 2 weeks ago. It started SUPER early and I was questioning my choice. In the end though it ended up being a really nice run. There were a lot of people on the run but they closed off the entire road so there was lots of room. We ran through downtown Seoul and then down to the river. I managed to run most of the race only stopping 3 times. My time was 1:16, which is respectable considering A) I have never run that far before B) I had done basically no training, about 3 Km once a week.

my name is on this board... can you find it?

This weekend I did the Nike Human race. Its a race that was all over the world on the same day. The goal is to get as many people running the same distance, same day all over the world. There were people running on every continent on October 24th. Surprisingly, but not really if you understand Korea, there were 12,161 runners. The only other city with a higher turnout was Mexico City with 13,631. Every other city was more like in the low low thousands. So to say that Seoul had a great turnout is an understatement. UNFORTUNATELY, the route in no way was set up for that many people. We ran on the road which only had one lane blocked off. It was near impossible to run because people were constantly stopping. Another favorite was the people who would go from a sprint to a dead stop to answer their phone. There were also the couples who were walking arms linked blocking the little space there was for running. So the path was a little bit difficult.

The actual race though was over two of the bridges and along the Han. It also had tons of bands set up along the way which was really cool. Also, everyone had to wear the same thing so it was cool to see all the rad shirts. It was just a sea of red everywhere you looked. So visually it was awesome. I finished the race in 1:14 so I was pretty excited since I had been sick for the past week and wasnt planning on running at all.

I ran with a group of people I have met here in Seoul. We have actually formed a running group called team dirt, which is fundraising for the disease Choroideremia (CHM), which is a genetic disease the causes blindness. If you have some time check out the website, its a great cause and something that gets very little press. http://www.firstgiving.com/fightforsight Of course, if you want to donate, it will be greatly appreciated!

team dirt

Now I have 2 races under my belt I might be running another one but I am thinking for now I will be retiring my racing shoes!!