Jeju Island

I spent the past weekend on Jeju island. This is a very small volcanic island in the East Sea just south of South Korea. Lonely Planet describes Jeju like this, "Hawaii, the Mediterranean, Disneyland, paradise....Jejudo has been compared to all four, and each is at least partly true." I probably would not have gone to Jeju this early into my time in Korea but, you guessed it, there was a marathon there!

I took off on Friday night, my flight was at 7:55 and I almost missed it thanks to my work but that's another story. Luckily, another runner from the Seoul Flyers went as well so I was not navigating this island by myself. We got into Jeju at about 9:00 or so, caught a cab and went to our hotel. We were both pooped when we got to the room so we crashed early and got rested up for the weekend.

Unfortunately, when we got up on Saturday morning it was raining, for once the Korean weather forecast was right! But we weren't going to let that stop us seeing the island. We were staying on the north end of the island, and we had heard the south end had some pretty amazing sights. Jeju is not that big so a bus ride from the north to the south will take about an hour. We found where to catch the bus, grabbed our umbrellas and we were on our way. For 5,000 WON (or about $4.50) we could take the bus from the airport to Seogwipo-si where we could see the Choenjiyeon and Jeongbang waterfalls.

We learned which stop we needed to get off at to see the waterfalls but once we reached our destination, we really had no idea where to go! So we just started walking around Seogwi-dong and hoped we would find what we were looking for. As luck would have it, we did! Although I am in a country in which I am completely illiterate, there are usually signs in English or someone around that can help you get to where you want to go. As we started walking we saw signs for the falls and just followed them. By this time, it was raining pretty hard and although we had umbrellas, we also thought it would be a good idea to get some rain coats or ponchos. We stopped at the Family Mart (much like a gas stating but without the gas) and got ourselves some classy ponchos. After that, we ventured to the first waterfall. The walk to the waterfall was just as pretty as the actual waterfall. Zu, the girl I was there with, and I just kept saying how much more wonderful the scenery would be if it would have been sunny, but regardless it was gorgeous. We made our way to the falls, admired it's beauty, snapped some pictures, and then we were on our way to the next fall.

We walked about 1km to our next waterfall (everything is in kilometers and meters here). It once again was a beautiful walk to the actual waterfall. In my opinion, this waterfall, Jeongbang Falls, was even more beautiful than the first. Once again we took some pictures, I took a video and admired the scenery, and once again we kept saying how much more beautiful it would have been if it had been sunny!

After we admired the view for a while, we headed back to where we started, caught a cab to the Hyatt to eat some lunch. After lunch, we got back on the bus to go back north to our hotel. By the time we got back to the airport and caught a cab back to the hotel, it was about 7pm and time to get ready to run in the morning! Whenever I run marathons in destination cities the race, is usually far from my mind. When we have gone to Boston to run, the marathon is always an after thought. It was no different in Jeju. As I was getting ready for bed, I was thinking to myself, "Oh man, I have to run a marathon tomorrow!!!" Even as I was going to bed, I wasn't thinking about the race. You see, Saturday night was also the first game for South Korea in the World Cup. They were playing Greece so Zu and I turned on the game as we were laying in bed. We watched most of the game and then we decided we should probably get some sleep!!

Race day brought cloudy sky's and muggy weather, but NO rain!! Thank goodness!! We got ready and made our way downstairs to get shuttled to the race. When I was looking into running the Jeju marathon I was looking at the winning times from years past. I had seen the winning times were not out of my reach so I had thought it might be possible to place in the top 3 or even win. But as the race was about to start, I began to have doubts. I had seen many of the female runners before and I thought some of them were pretty quick. I decided to just run my own race and do what I could do.

I felt great the first half of the race. I was in 3rd place and just before the half way point, I moved into 2nd. My legs were feeling okay and even though it was hot, I didn't feel like the heat was effecting me too much. That feeling soon faded! With about 10K to go, I started to die!! My stomach was cramping and I really started to feel crappy. I knew I had had a pretty sizable lead on the 3rd place girl but that gap started to close. I had to stop at every water stop, drink and stretch and with about 3km to go, I saw the 3rd place girl. I tried my best to keep my ever slowing pace from slowing too much but I just didn't have it in me. With 1km to go, the last water stop, she was very close! Lucky, I had some help from another runner. Him and I had been running next to each other for the past 5km and I just stayed next to him and let him "carry" me into the finish!

I had held on to my 2nd place by about 20 seconds. I finished in 3:17.27, not my best but great for how I had felt the last part of the race. The girl who won finished in 3:09, which is very close to my personal best. I was very happy with the race and even more happy for the 100,000 WON gift card I got to one of the department stores here.

Once I was done, I waited for Zu to finish and we headed back to the hotel. Both of us were feeling the effects from the heat. We were nauseous and feeling very sick, and wondering why we put ourselves through this torture. We showered and layed down for a bit before we had to make our way to the airport. We got some kimchi jigae, Korean soup, and some soft serve ice cream and we were both feeling better. The flight home was quick and painless and once we landed I caught my bus back home to Bundong.

It was a great weekend. I want to go back to Jeju to see it in full glory, when the sun is shinning! Regardless, it was beautiful. And to think, I probably would not have seen it if I didn't run marathons! They are good for something!