ZuleAzul: Donga Seoul International Marathon

Seoul Flyers... Fighting!

Finally Donga Seoul International Marathon arrived to be received by a gloomy, rainy and cold Seoul. The heart of Seoul was crowded with runners wearing disposable raincoate and tons of energy to be left in the course. I arrived and was happy to see all the Seoul Flyers (or the majority of them) in one of the train exits avoiding the rain and cold. I also met with Bruce!!! I have not seen him since last year... yikes! He was as pleasant as always.

With friends

Pictures, pictures and more pictures then we headed to our respective corrals. I made sure to stay close to edge so I could wave hi to my Mom on the way out, it warmed my heart to see her standing under her umbrella waving back at me. I took it easy, but I wanted to take it REALLY easy so my intent was to listen to podcasts. As we took off, I was too excited to be running my first race of the year that I just decided to listen to music.

Killing time before the race

At mile 1, I felt a little twinge in my ankle... Nothing big and it went went away. I was feeling pretty good and was happy to be racing again. Love the energy of all the runners on the course. It was really nice to see Seoul Flyers along the course, I could not believe... It was very sweet of them.

With some of the Seoul Flyers!

Throughout the race I was feeling good, but at mile 18 my ankle began to bother me and after a couple a miles I knew I was going to be hurting big time.

When I grow up I want to be a Korean entertainer at marathons

Waiting for the race to begin

I cannot say that I hit a wall, because I wasn't tired or in physical pain (other than the ankle). But after mile 20 I slowed down considerably. In mile 24 I had to stop and stretch because my right quad was a bit tight. After that I was even slower.

Cute drummer girls in the back

More drummers... but these were more mature

I "ran" in and saw a couple of more Seoul Flyers and I tried to pick up the pace but I couldn't. Finished and was elated as always and as I changed in to warm and dry clothes, I remembered why I love running long distances... They are a journey of self reflection and a reminder of all that you can accomplish if you put your heart in to it.