An interesting start to
a race weekend. I had pretty much written off that I was going to
get to do the Pyeongtaek race, as I hadn't realized it was a Saturday
when I signed up for it. Well the stars aligned, and I managed to
get my Saturday class covered for me and so I was cleared for the
race. Another issue that arose was how was I going to get to the
race. There weren't any trains that went to Pyeongtaek after my
class got out at 10 Friday night. So I decided that I would go as
far as Daejeon. Got into Daejeon at 2 and checked into a motel. Got
some shut-eye, then awoke to catch a 6:30 train to get into
Pyeongtaek at 7:30. 8:30 race time I thought I'd be good, as I had
printed off a map to show the taxi driver and it looked as if it was
a straight shot on a highway to get there.
However, it was more of
a rural Texas highway with stops and stuff so it wasn't as smooth
sailing as it should've been. At 8:15 I'm still in the cab trying to
get loose and stretched. I can only imagine what the cabbie was
thinking when I started getting out of my clothes in the back seat.
Luckily though I already had my race gear on under my warmups so it
was a PG show instead of an adult “tips are appreciated” show.
8:27 I'm still in the cab and I look ahead and we're like
ridiculously close, but there's still a ton of traffic so I pay and
hop out with my bag. I notice that there are other people still
walking up so I'm appreciative that I'm not doing the longest race of
the day as those start first. Left my bag in some bushes did a quick
warmup and some stretches and took a much needed pre-race pee and I
was set. There were a TON of people doing the 10k. I also haven't
done a race in Korea yet where the freebee was a t-shirt. It seems
like EVERYONE was wearing their free tshirt for the race. The cool
thing was that you could tell the difference between different
distances as the half marathoners wore blue and the 10kers wore
orange and the 5kers wore lime green. I didn't get as good of a
warmup as I would've liked so I planned to use the first 2k as a
warmup up type workout. Just start in the very back and use the
massive amounts of people to keep my pace down and keep my heart rate
low.
Well that worked really
well as I really enjoy weaving and passing people, so starting slow
and consistent in the back allowed me the opportunity to do that for
an entire race. A fair amount of wind coming into our faces during
the middle 4k. Ran a 43:16 so that was over a minute off of my
previous Korean 10k time that I shaved. I think with my training
becoming more consistent, my races the next two months will have
similar results. I know that I'm capable right now of doing the leap
to sub-40 if I adjust my training, but I also know if I rush it, that
I'll have to stop at some point because of my knee or ankle. I'd
rather take it slow and not have to take a break from racing.
SIDE NOTE: There was
the whole spectrum at this race. Lots of Army people from the base.
Lots of tall tall Koreans (I don't see many of them down in our
town). Shorter Koreans, that make me feel tall (much like what I'm
used to in Suncheon). There were 7 Koreans wearing cheetah print
running jerseys with Tarzan like sarong shorts, very interesting.
One of the half-marathons was wearing a chipmunk costume. There was
a Korean marching band that played the opening ceremonies. And then
after the race there was a decent band that I would describe as being
Korean jazz/blues. Really good sound. I liked listening to them.
The guy that played the guitar for their group was really good.
At the finish line they
put a 3rd place marker around the lady runner that I
passed with about a kilometer to go. That means I got beaten by two
female runners, both of which were Korean as I had seen them when we
hit the turn around point. It made me think of the 4th of
July run that was down in Austin one year right before the Willie
Nelson picnic. Dad and I had gone down after leaving the 405 ice
cream as they were starting the run at 5 o'clock in the evening so
that people could stay for the concert. During the run I remember
throwing up multiple times and there were ambulances and EMTs
everywhere to assist runners that were as I imagine dropping like
flies that day. At the finish line I was feeling like death warmed
over and Dad comes up and looks at me and says “You know you got
beaten by a girl.” It made me laugh and now even still I remember
that more than I remember all the miserable hell that was that
retarded race.
--Went online yesterday
and found out that I placed 20th overall, 18th
if you subtract the two ladies. --
After the race I started
to walk out of the port as it would've been a complete mess for Heana
to come pick me up down there. Walked probably a half a mile to a
mile away when I found a gas station that I could score some juice at
and also sit under an umbrella and watch movies on my computer as I
cooled down. Found some police officers that were standing around
eating snacks and had one of them tell Heana in Korean the address of
where I was at so that it'd be easier for her to come pick me up than
for me to try to describe it. She got there and wanted to eat lunch
at the place that was right next to where I was waiting and so I had
a dosirak (I'll explain in a future post) and she had a noodle soup.
Mine came with a warning to her for the white guy that it was spicy,
unfortunately it wasn't really. This dosirak however was the biggest
portion that I had ever seen. Her portion wasn't that bad either,
and so we were thinking that since it so close to the port that these
are sailor portions. Hers wasn't spicy like either one of us thought
it would be, more of a sesame oil flavor. They were both tasty, just
not what either one of us was expecting.
That night after a nap,
we hit up Oktoberfest on the base. It was kind of a bummer when we
got there that they were out of steins, but we had a few cups of a
Honey Weiss that was very tasty and had a good flavor too it. Had a
pulled pork sandwich with a barbecue sauce on it that could strip
paint (quite tasty but could've used a scoop of cole slaw to complete
the sandwich flavor). Then had some nachos, and a chili dog.
Completing the spectrum of stadium foods missed, haha :-P.
After leaving the fest
we hit up the indian casino (not owned by actual indians, but had the
same feel as the one right by OSU that James, Erin and I went to that
one time) on base for some penny slot fun. We all made a little,
lost more, and had fun.
Then we went for tacos
and beers at various bars around the strip.
During the course of the
night when Scott would introduce me as his younger brother, his
buddies would look at us and be like “really?!” And then they'd
ask to see id and then they'd still be skeptical. They were like
“So, if my last name was Smith I could find another Smith and claim
to be brothers too. Davis is a pretty common name.” 6th
most common last name in the US to be exact, so he does have a point.
Nevertheless it was a fun night.
Made me miss similar
nights with James. Now his friends either know we're brothers, or
some of his friends just don't ask for id like Scott's friends.:-)
Rode the train home
Monday morning, there was another nun on the train with me [what is
the deal here?] This time I wasn't watching 2 and a Half Men so it
wasn't any big thing, haha.
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