Cherry Blossom Run!

Today we ran the Gyeongju Cherry Blossom 10K! This is a 10K I'll surely never forget. The race had a marathon, half marathon, 10K and 5K with over 13,000 participants. We headed to Gyenongju Friday night, as the race was at 8am Saturday morning. We headed to the park at 6:45am with a fog so dense I could not see what was out the window. We were super bummed as the course was supposed to be gorgeous and lined with cherry blossom trees. Nevertheless, pre race jitters and excitement creeped up and we were roaring to go.
We had no clue what to expect, as we haven't ran any races in Korea yet and we can not read or speak Korean- so little details that can make or break you in a race had me a bit worried. Where do we check our bags? Will there even be a place to do so? Where is the start? How will we know we are on the 10K course and not marathon course? Will there be english signs? All those fun questions swirling through my head and all along I had not a thing to worry about. The fog lifted, the sun came out shining, we actually were a bit too warm rather than too cold (which I wasn't mad about), people were friendly, there were a handful of foreigners running AND there was free beer after!  :) Brendan had a cup, I passed. I like to relish in my feel good running tingles after a race.
So many things were the same as racing at home, with exception to the blaring korean music and dancers on a stage in the middle of the hoopla, I almost forgot I was in Korea. Running is such a universal sport. Everyone pretty much does it the same everywhere you go, and there is a great comfort and camaraderie in that. One large difference from racing at home was the men to women ratio. There we a ton more men than women running. It doesn't surprise me, as Korea is still very old fashioned in many ways. This was the first time at a race the men's line was considerably longer than the women's. I passed up all the guys thinking, " boo-yah!!!" Ha.
Anyway, we got in our starting places and something really fun and moving happened before we started. Before each race (marathon, then 1/2, then 10, then 5) the man on the loud speaker screamed something in Korean-probably something like, "You guys are a bunch of badasses and I know you're going to kill it!" And then fireworks went off and they released a zillion balloons. Red for the marathon, yellow for the half, and blue for ours. There was something about the fireworks and watching the balloons float away that gave me butterflies and made my heart tighten up a bit. I thought of my family and running races with my dad, then going home and mom being there and asking how it went. This was a great way to start and the course unfolded to be the most beautiful one I've run. Both Brendan and I had a strong race and crossed the finish line together. The whole time I was thinking, "I can't believe I'm running a race in Korea right now."
Unfortunately, we didn't take pictures on the road, the camera was too bulky. But there are actually a bunch of huge cherry blossom trees by our apartment and I promise to post photos soon.

After the race.

Free beer.

Brendan enjoying the refreshing post race treat.

Oh it's 119 here, not 911.