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Time is FLYING by as it always will do.
I figure the only way to keep up with it is to learn to fly too! :)
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I left off just before the Ansan half marathon a couple weeks ago and i think that most of you few that read this probably arleady know the scoop... but that's never stopped me before!
.
Ansan is a 1.something million person city on the coast up outside of Seoul a little bit. We made it into town early in the afternoon on Saturday and had plenty of time to look around, eat a delicous carb-loaded dinner, relax and get a good nights sleep - all the opposites of my race prep for the last 'half' a month ago! I felt truly ready. I hadn't felt this poised for a perfect run since high school cross country.
The busy and dense downtown of Ansan, South Korea. Plenty to do and see as is the trend over here.
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Race morning came and everything was on track. We were the first ones there and felt fine. The rain was clearning up and I had nothing but a personal record in mind. Sarah had made a last minute decision to go ahead with her run eventhough she had the 2nd degree burn the size of a silver dollar on the top of her left foot from the 'hair straigtener incident' a few days before. the 10K that morning would be her first race in years! Both excited and ready to do something amazing, the race started and soon proved to have other plans for us.
.
Here come the excuses: the most humid conditions I have EVER run in made everyone's legs feel like cement by maybe the 5 or 6 mile mark..... except we had no idea where any mile (or kilometer) mark was becasue there was absolutely NO indication of how far you were along the entire course!!! i've never seen anything like it. Those markers let you know your pace, give you short-term but significant goals to pick off one-by-one and keep you going. Never had a clue the whole race!! Top it off with only having five water stops on a half marathon course in July! AND the 5th one was OUT of water by the time the first 20% of runners came through! This was the first of my 5 half marathons that I ever walked even a step - and I walked much more than only one step.
.
However; at long last.... the stadium and finish line came into view and the horrific course became a memory. I never even looked at my official time but it was around and hour and 51 minutes - right about the worst half i've ever run. Nonetheless, another half under the belt and many lessons learned!! Perhaps the most important thing that I took from this race is a serious hunger to run like a world champ in my next runs to make up for it! Sarah was able to fight through the foot pain and finish her 10K too! What a gal! ;)
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There's the exhausted finishers with their medals and great senses of relief.
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Easily the most extreme tides i've ever seen! the shores draw back almost a mile to the point where you can walk to other islands! on the islands, they call this the 'Moses miracle'. Really a cool thing to witness though! you can see the boat landlocked by more than a hundred meters is anchored down. :)
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.
excuse us little guy... just passing through and want no trouble! 3 inch spider that looked like one mean S.O.B!!
Time is FLYING by as it always will do.
I figure the only way to keep up with it is to learn to fly too! :)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.
.
I left off just before the Ansan half marathon a couple weeks ago and i think that most of you few that read this probably arleady know the scoop... but that's never stopped me before!
.
Ansan is a 1.something million person city on the coast up outside of Seoul a little bit. We made it into town early in the afternoon on Saturday and had plenty of time to look around, eat a delicous carb-loaded dinner, relax and get a good nights sleep - all the opposites of my race prep for the last 'half' a month ago! I felt truly ready. I hadn't felt this poised for a perfect run since high school cross country.
The busy and dense downtown of Ansan, South Korea. Plenty to do and see as is the trend over here..
.
Race morning came and everything was on track. We were the first ones there and felt fine. The rain was clearning up and I had nothing but a personal record in mind. Sarah had made a last minute decision to go ahead with her run eventhough she had the 2nd degree burn the size of a silver dollar on the top of her left foot from the 'hair straigtener incident' a few days before. the 10K that morning would be her first race in years! Both excited and ready to do something amazing, the race started and soon proved to have other plans for us.
.
Here come the excuses: the most humid conditions I have EVER run in made everyone's legs feel like cement by maybe the 5 or 6 mile mark..... except we had no idea where any mile (or kilometer) mark was becasue there was absolutely NO indication of how far you were along the entire course!!! i've never seen anything like it. Those markers let you know your pace, give you short-term but significant goals to pick off one-by-one and keep you going. Never had a clue the whole race!! Top it off with only having five water stops on a half marathon course in July! AND the 5th one was OUT of water by the time the first 20% of runners came through! This was the first of my 5 half marathons that I ever walked even a step - and I walked much more than only one step.
.
However; at long last.... the stadium and finish line came into view and the horrific course became a memory. I never even looked at my official time but it was around and hour and 51 minutes - right about the worst half i've ever run. Nonetheless, another half under the belt and many lessons learned!! Perhaps the most important thing that I took from this race is a serious hunger to run like a world champ in my next runs to make up for it! Sarah was able to fight through the foot pain and finish her 10K too! What a gal! ;)
.
.There's the exhausted finishers with their medals and great senses of relief.
.
Next in line-
Next in line-
Aug 24: The King of the Mountain in the southwest of Korea: 18K up, along the top and back down the other side of a 2400 foot mountain! for charity and going to be a BLAST!
October 29: Chuncheon Full Marathon, will be my thrid full, but only the first where i'm even remotely near to prepared properly! can't wait to see how I actually do?? life goal remains.... QUALIFY FOR BOSTON.
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Then last weekend we headed for The Seonudo Islands along with Adventure Korea - our righteous tour group that we've found over here. This was a trip primarily planned as a biking trip since there are only a handful of cars on the islands. The islands are tiny, touristy and connected to a whole string of beautiful islands that are accessible only by narrow bicycle bridges. true getaway feeling, extreme beauty, some light hiking and biking all for dirt cheap! :) actually, the weekend was a gift from my lovely girlfriend anyways so even a better deal for me than most! ;)
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Easily the most extreme tides i've ever seen! the shores draw back almost a mile to the point where you can walk to other islands! on the islands, they call this the 'Moses miracle'. Really a cool thing to witness though! you can see the boat landlocked by more than a hundred meters is anchored down. :)
.
.excuse us little guy... just passing through and want no trouble! 3 inch spider that looked like one mean S.O.B!!
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.A great little spot that we found as we ventured out to the little ports around the island. Was an awesome experience!
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What's next? tomorrow morning we leave for the Borean (spell check??) Mud Festival!! a giant party on the beach when the soils and clays turn into pure mud due to the raininess of the season. We are going with a group of about 60 foreigners on a bus that includes mainly everyone we know in Daejeon. it will no doubt be a complete and total RIOT! (but we'll be safe, Ma!) ;) tons of pics of mud wrestling and general mud-cakedness will be popping up on facebook in a few days, to be sure!
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after that, i have two more weeks of work and then our 1 week summer vacation the first week of August! not sure what yet, but pretty sure something incredible has to happen! will work with the budget on that one!! After vacation, BOTH of my coworkers are heading elsewhere so we're going to shuffle the chips and see how things land at work! i'm optimistic. ;)
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thanks for checkin in with me! miss you guys badly, particularly on the 4th of July! better drink SEVERAL up at Kilworry for me next month!!!!
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