Tongyeong National Marathon

     On Saturday, November 24, 2012, I ran my first big race by doing the 10k (6.2 miles) run for my city's 12th National Marathon. When a Korean friend posted on facebook, asking the foreigners here if they would run, I thought that 10k seemed like a crazy distance to run. I hoped that I could do 5k. I had never done distance running before, and had trouble running a mile at one point in college. I began training by running on a hilly road in my city. On my first run, I was able to run 3.5k, feeling like I could go further. Within 3 weeks, I surprisingly was able to do 10k in about 68 minutes. I kept practicing, alternating between 5k-8k runs. The runs worked as great stress relievers, as I always felt better mentally and physically after each run. Another unexpected benefit was that I gained a firmer grasp of measuring distance in km instead of miles. Overall, training was a great experience! I ran one more 10k two weeks before the race, at about 64 minutes. Unfortunately, the following week when I ran, I strained my calve muscles in both legs. I rested the rest of the week, planning to still run since I had already paid for the race.
     Saturday came, and my friends and I met up at the race venue to prepare for the race. Since it was my first race, in another country too, the event was quite a sight for me. There were fireworks going off, along with street food being sold. There was also music and speakers on a stage. Moments before runners took off, they did synchronized stretches and cheers together (at one point to "It's Raining Men" lol). There were over 1000 runners signed up for the 10k, and a few friends and I unfortunately didn't line up in front. Because of this though, we got to take pictures with some Koreans, and even with a Japanese guy who wore a Super Mario Ninja Costume (sword included)! A few more cheers and stretches after the line up, and we were off!
     It was quite a slow start as we literally walked to the starting point and around to the first street. From there, it was a matter of bobbing and weaving through people to get going. My calve strains bothered me the whole run, but I kept going and tried to keep a good pace. Afterall, I had just talked a friend on the ride over about how I saw a video where a marathon runner crawled to the finish line! I actually saw one of my first (6th) graders during the run, and found out later that some of my other students ran the 5k. I was proud of them for participating in the event. My goal for the race was an hour, and I finished with a time of 1:00:28.50! I felt very accomplished afterwards, and was thankful that I was able to have such an experience with friends. Below, I have some photos from the event: