Korean Race Adventures

Hubs and I have been casually training for a half marathon.  Really I've been training and he has just been keeping me company on the runs.  So basically I was trying to train him up for the race without him catching on.  I may have not been sneaky enough though because just a few days before the race he got an unexpected Army tasking to be gone for a few weeks.  I'm still a little suspicious that he volunteered for this to avoid the race but haven't been able to prove it yet!


I was a little bummed to run without my running buddy/cheering section but hated to see the training go to waste.  Plus I had been excited about this particular race for months because of it's unique SWAG.  And by SWAG (Stuff We All Get) I am referring to the free goody bags that are almost always passed out as part of a race expo.  I do like distance running.  But I also REALLY like SWAG, the more random the better!  Sometimes I'm not sure which is my motivation to keep signing up for races.  For example, once I ran a race sponsored by 3M and got us enough sticky notes and organizing tabs to last for years.  Seriously, that was 3 years ago and I go through sticky notes at an alarming rate yet we still have a decent stash left.  When we run out I'll probably be tempted to buy a plane ticket back to TX just to run in that race again and stock up. .


Anyway, all this build up may have you curious what the SWAG for the Pyeongteak Port Marathon of 2011 was?!  In case you can't tell from the below fuzzy cellphone picture, we are now the proud owners of a free 2kg bag of Super Owning (a rather prominent brand in our area of Korea) rice!

How awesomely Asian  is that?!  I also got a great bag of post race snacks that included a ramen bowl and a choco-pie, ( kind of like a moonpie but without much taste. . Koreans are pretty stingy with their sugar).  Oh and of course the standard T-shirt (nicer than most!) and finisher medal.  But did I mention the bag of rice?! :)


The race was a pretty nice, flat course and it was a great cool morning for a run!  Here is the race layout.  I was hoping to check out the "snake place" but never found it. . . .just some stupid bananas and stuff where they were supposed to be.  Go figure. :)

Usually the first thought I have when I am done with a long run is "Must. consume. massive. amounts. of. calories.  time. now."  A nice greasy Korean green onion pancake was the perfect thing to take the edge off!

 That is until I could get home and cook my bag of rice. .