Half-Marathon in December

안녕!

I think I'm going to sign up for this half marathon in December. It's about 8 weeks away, which gives me about two solid months of training. But with my schedule, I don't have much time to run on the weekends, especially with Chuseok coming up, my cousin visiting, and my trip to Hong Kong. But I think I'll make up for it on the weekdays. Hopefully...

The 5th People’s Health Marathon to Help Child Hunger
Host: Federation of People’s Health Running
Date: Saturday, 5th December 2:00 PM
Events: 5km, 10km, Half Course
Location: Hangang Park Jamsil District
Cost: 40,000 won
Application: Until 11/25
Website: www.kmmarathon.com
Note: This is an annual event to help children suffering from hunger

Well since I started this whole thing about what I miss about home... another thing I really miss is being active. In college, I went to the gym almost everyday. After college, I joined a bunch of running clubs and ran my first half-marathon under two hours. Woot woot! After coming to Korea, there weren't that many opportunities to run or play sports. I tried running around Central Park in Bucheon. That was all right, until the temperature started to drop below zero! As a girl, I was ignored when I wanted to play basketball. I tried running up the twenty flights of stairs, but the janitors always seemed to be in there. Joining a gym was too expensive. And so the pounds piled on...

This time around, I made it my mission to be more active. I do play volleyball in Bucheon when I get the chance, and I did take dance classes. I went hiking once (pictures below). I also plan to borrow a friend's bike and try to bike all the way to Seoul one day. I want my friend to add air to his basketball so I can shoot around a few nights a week; the basketball courts are right by my place. And once it gets colder, I'm going to join this gym right by my work. It's a mad deal, only 80,000 won for three months. The gym is pretty small, but their treadmills have TVs, plus I saw a cute guy in there. Haha. I might join the gym in November just so I can see exactly how many miles I'm actually running. Or just wing it, like I did last time! But, I really hope that signing up for this half will motivate me even more to run.

Well, here are some of the photos from a hike at Dobong Mountain in Northern Seoul.

We had an awesome view overlooking Seoul.

The first vista point we reached. We were so happy to get a good view of the city!

Higher...

The descent was a little scary. There weren't many people around and we were zooming down pretty fast. There were also times when we lost the path. We were so happy when we actually saw people!

Now, I'm 90% sure I'm going to sign up for the half. My last run was a few days ago, about three miles. So I'll probably head out for a 4-5 mile run now. Yay!

Take care!