Dream a little dream…
Imagine running under a gentle shower of snowy white and
pale pink petals in invigoratingly fresh air with the soft, cool wind blowing
through your hair and the Gyeongju Cherry Blossom Marathon instantly comes to
mind.
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| Cherry Blossom Trees ring Bomunho - Solo Travels in Gyeongju 2015 |
I could hardly believe my luck when, way back in 2014, I
first heard of such a race being held during peak flower season in spring from
a Japanese running friend I befriended in the park where I usually do my
routine runs. I don’t know of many races that hold their event slap bang in the
middle of peak flower or peak autumn foliage season for that matter.
The Gyeongju Cherry Marathon is usually held on the 1st or 2nd Saturday of April, just when the cherry blossoms reach their peak.
The Gyeongju Cherry Marathon is usually held on the 1st or 2nd Saturday of April, just when the cherry blossoms reach their peak.
Therefore, apparently, it’s not surprising that this race is
hugely popular not only with the Koreans but also with Taiwanese, Japanese,
Singaporeans, Hong Kong Chinese and even Mainland Chinese. The fact that it’s
also held in the beautiful Gyeongju countryside dotted with historic relics
from the Silla Kingdom era only adds to its appeal.
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| Running the Gyeongju Cherry Blossom Marathon - Photo courtesy of organiser |
Nonetheless, it was not until a couple of years later when
timing and a scheduled holiday enabled me to finally be able to participate in
this race scheduled for 9th April 2016. I decided to do the half-marathon category so it wouldn’t leave me
so tired that I could not enjoy the rest of my holiday.
Gyeongju – A city rich in historical and cultural heritage
I had been to Gyeongju the year before at the tail end of my
solo travels in the deep, far south of the South Korea Peninsula. Hence, the
place was familiar to me and I had befriended a friendly owner of a guesthouse
and her family during my last stay. Lee Soo Ji and her family had made me feel
warm and welcome during my stay at Coolzaam Guesthouse.
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| Cheomseongdae Observatory - used in ancient times for astronomy |
To those unfamiliar with Gyeongju, it is a small city, rich
in historical heritage, located on the south east coast of South Korea.
Gyeongju or “Seorobeol” as it was known then, was the capital of the ancient
Silla kingdom (which ruled about two thirds of the Korean Peninsula between the
7th and 9th centuries) for 1000 years from 57 BC to 935
AD.
The city was also the capital of Buddhism, Science, Art and Hwarang (Silla
Chiavalry). You can therefore imagine the number of historical relics dotted
around Gyeongju’s landscape, earning the city it’s nickname of “The Museum
Without Walls”.
Being a serious history buff, I simply adore this place. It
was easy to just book my accommodation with Sooji, purchase our flight tickets
and arrange my own travel itinerary.
However, registering for the race was not that simple.
Race Registration
Firstly, as a foreigner, I found that I was unable to do
online registration as certain mandatory fields on the required the applicant
to provide a Korean postal address, a Korean credit card and a Korean bank
account before registration could go through.
Hence, I was advised by the Marathon Secretariat to download
the registration form, fill it up and send a scanned copy over to them via
e-mail instead.
Secondly, the payment could only be done via bank transfer
from a Korean Bank account into the Marathon Secretariats account. So, I
contacted Soo Ji for help.
Thirdly, the race kit could only be couriered to a Korean
postal address and not outside the country. Fortunately, in this respect, I
also had Soo Ji to help, although I had to do quite a bit of convincing work to
the Marathon Secretariat before they agreed to send the race kit to a
guesthouse.
Any foreigner thinking to participate in this race without
going through a travel sports agent or running club, would have given up at
some point or other but not me. I wanted to run this beautiful race as part of
my first holiday in Gyeongju and overseas trip with How How. This was to be a
special race. So I persisted on and was rewarded with a successful registration
in the end. Anyway, I had come across more difficult things than these hurdles
so, I didn’t sweat the small stuff.
The Training
To be honest, I didn’t put in much training for this race
compared to other races. I had retired from local road racing of normal
distances in my home country and was in a chillax mood. I was looking to enjoy
the race experience in beautiful environs in a foreign country.
To add to the chillax feel, my training during the 2 final
weeks before we departed to Busan was interrupted with a nagging illness. So I
went for the race with below par training compared to other races I had done
before this.
No matter, as said, I was looking for a good race experience
instead. I just needed to make sure I could finish the half-marathon
injury-free within the cutoff time of 2.5 hours.
Arrival and our
Sightseeing began
How How and me were excited as we finally landed in Busan
after an overnight flight and immediately caught a direct limousine bus to
Gyeongju.
Sooji welcomed us to her home with her usual warmth. She
recommended we go immediately to see the cherry blossoms at Bomunho (Bomun Lake)
which was where the race was supposed to flag off and end at, a few days later.
Her concern was because rain had been forecasted for the
evening and the following morning.
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| Cycling around beautiful Bomunho |
We kick started our Gyeongju visit immediately by cycling to
and around Bomunho (Bomun Lake) The cherry blossom trees were in full bloom and
glorious against the blue sky. They looked good enough to “eat” to me! Every
branch was bursting with beautiful flowers and each gust of wind would bring a
shower of snowy white petals drifting around and about us. Such a romantic ride
we had on the cycling path towards Bomunho.
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The bright yellow canola flowers were also beginning to
bloom and Gyeongju was simply popping with pink, yellow, green and blue colors
everywhere, especially at the Tumuli Park! Yours truly, was
very happy to capture all the beauty onto her trusty camera.
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| Enjoying the canola flowers at Tumuli Park |
It was a good thing we listened to Sooji’s advice because,
sure enough, as evening came on and until the next morning, it rained steadily and
the strong winds that came with the rain, also blew down all the lovely petals
on the trees leaving just bare branches or barely there cherry blossoms still clinging
to the branches as though in desperation.
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| The Gyeongju National Museum |
The following morning, we took our time and waited till the
rain trickled down to a light drizzle, before venturing out to visit the
Gyeongju National Museum followed by Gwaneung Tombs and Bulguksa Temple.
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| A visit to Gwaneung Tombs |
At
Bulguksa, the cherry blossom grove was simply blooming and ripe with beautiful
white and pink flowers and so we made the most of our time capturing and
choreographing beautiful photos.
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| Enjoying our walk through the cherry blossom grove at Bulguksa Temple |
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| At Bulguksa |
After visiting the temple, How How and me decided to also do
a short hike from Bulguksa Temple to Seokguram Grotto through the mountain
forest trail.
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| Hiking the mountain forest trail from Bulguksa to Seokguram |
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| At Seokguram |
Unfortunately, we missed the last bus down from Seokguram Grotto
and had to hike back the same way we had come before catching a bus back to
Gyeongju town making us very late for dinner with Sooji and her mum and baby
daughter at a Vegetarian Temple Food restaurant.
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| Korean Vegetarian Temple Food |
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| Korean Vegetarian Temple Food |
The Korean Vegetarian Temple Food was very nice and it would
be the first time I tried such cuisine. The flavours were amazing. How How
however, was more of a carnivore and needed his meat so he could not get used
to this type of food! Anyhow, it was a very pleasant dinner.
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| Beautiful columnar joints at the East Sea Area |
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| At Bonggil Beach |
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| At Haeseo-Hang |
The following day, we visited the East Sea Area of Gyeongju
where we walked the coastral trail named : Pado-Sori-Gil from Eupcheon-ri to
Haseo-hang viewing the spectacularly formed columnar joints and rocky cliffs
along the coast. This was followed by a visit to Bonggil Beach to view the
Underwater Tomb of King Munmu the Great, and then on to the lovely Igyeondae
Pavilion for an overall view of the Sea of Japan and the rocky underwater tomb.
We dropped by the Gameunsaji Temple site before catching the bus back to
Gyeongju.
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| At Gameunsaji Temple site |
As it was still early, we thought we could alight the bus en
route and visit a cave temple name Golgulsa, so we rang the bell buzzer
signaling to stop the bus. However, much to our chagrin, the bus driver either
ignored us or was so busy chatting / complaining to a fellow passenger of his
various woes, that he didn’t notice the bell had rung and so we passed our stop
to the temple.
Oh well, given the circumstances, seeing that this
was also race eve, we might as well return to the town, have lunch, do a bit of
shopping, rest have a good carbo-loading dinner and retire early to bed.
After dinner that evening, I put on the event tee that came
with my race pack just to try it on for size. It looked good and I was in a
relaxed mood, finally looking forward to the race.
In retrospect, being in too relaxed a mood did not really
bode well because I did not pay attention to what I ate for dinner on race eve
that might trigger my allergies.
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| Wearing the race tee |
Uh Oh! Big-time Allergic Reaction on Race Day
The next morning, I woke with puffy eyes (in fact, I could
barely open my eyelids at first) and a swollen face. A sure sign that I had
eaten something wrong to trigger this allergic reaction. My head felt very
heavy and to be honest, I wanted to forego the race and carry on sleeping in my
bed.
However, I reminded myself that having come all the way here
from Malaysia, going through all that hassle to register myself, the show must
go on despite this nonsense allergy. The only cure I knew for this allergy,
through past experience, was to sweat out all the toxins and the puffiness and
swelling would automatically disappear.
So alright, it was getting dressed, having some breakfast
and then, while idling about waiting for the time to step out into the chilly
morning air to head for the race venue, I got to know some other guests from
Hong Kong and Taiwan, who were also staying in Sooji’s guesthouse and
participating in the race. We chatted briefly before leaving for Gyeongju
Station together to catch the free shuttle bus to the race venue.
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| With new friends made at the guesthouse before leaving to catch the shuttle bus on race day |
The race organizers had arranged free shuttle buses to ferry
all participants and their supporters as well between 6:00am to 7:00am once
every 10 minutes to the race venue. On the return, there were also shuttle
buses scheduled to depart back to Gyeongju town from 10:30am to 2:30pm.
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| With my #1 supporter before the start of the race |
The shuttle bus was packed with excited participants from
different nationalities. Each one was chatting excitedly to each other in their
own language. We reached the race venue early without much ado.
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| The race arch |
Fun aplenty at the Race venue
As there was still plenty of time before my race flagged
off, How How and me diverted to the surround park and I had so much fun, momentarily
forgetting my puffy eyes and swollen face, instead, thoroughly enjoying myself
posing for photos at the Gyeongju World Culture Expo Center and in front of the
stage area.
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| At the Gyeongju World Expo Center |
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| Dancers performing on stage |
There was a huge crowd gathering and cheering on the enthusiastic
performers on stage in the chilly morning. Costumed characters were also making
their rounds in the venue.
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| Having fun before the race |
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| At the race venue |
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| Hugging a cute costumed character |
The race atmosphere was electric with a very enthusiastic
emcee holding the fort. There were traditional drummers and musicians and a
band as well. Everyone was in very high spirits. There was a band playing and
lots of K-pop music too. Running groups had pitched tents around the race venue
where cooking was in full swing to prepare food for their running team members
before and after the race.
It was chilly… Bitingly chilly to the bone but all of a
sudden, just before the gun went off signaling the start of the race, the sun
came out from behind the clouds and began to shine brightly.
A special march with guards adorned in Silla traditional
costume and carrying flags was held before the Full Marathoners were flagged
off.
Once the Full Marathon category was flagged off, it was the
Half Marathon category’s turn a few minutes later and then the 10km and lastly
the 5km.
Race Flagoff
Each category was flagged off with a loud bang and with lots
of confetti and fanfare. What fun! My category – the Half Marathon was no
different. We also had our confetti and band. The clouds in the sky suddenly thinned
and drifted away, revealing a clear blue sky with hardly a cloud in sight.
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| Race flagoff |
The Sights, The Route, The Cutoff Time, The Race Support
I was enjoying the sights and distractedly observed people
of different nationalities running in their colorful trendy outfits. Koreans
and Japanese especially, are very trendy people. I was blissfully aware of a
sea of pink and white cherry blossoms dreamily drifting away in the overhead
branches on trees lining both sides of the streets.
The course was mildly challenging with some slopes but for
the most part, relatively flat. It was good that I had recce’d the route on my
first day at Gyeongju so I knew what to expect.
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| The race course for the Half Marathon |
I was running a 4-min plus pace
for the first 10km but slowed down to a 5min plus pace the 2nd half
of the race mainly because my mind was wandering and I found myself thinking
what would be next on my travel itinerary that day, after I finished my race,
and what I would eat for lunch etc.. Talk about distraction! Good grief!
This was however, a very fast course with a strict 2.5 hour
cutoff time for the half-marathon, a 1.5 hour cutoff time for the 10km and 5km
and a 5 hour cutoff time for the full marathon. Hence, I could not afford to
daydream too long!
This race had it’s fair share of enthusiastic supporters as
well. Everywhere we ran, every corner we took, I could see and hear school
children, Ahjummas (aunties), Ahjushis (uncles), Hermonies (grandmas) and
Harabojees (grandpas) waving tiny Korean flags and who cheered us with shouts
of “Fighting! Fighting!”.
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| Running with joy - photo courtesy of Photosports.co.kr |
It was so encouraging and morally uplifting that as a
result, one would naturally be able to run faster and increase the pace without
much effort.
Plenty of water stations with ample water, food and wet sponges
were available and this race was one event where I witnessed the best traffic
control I had ever experienced. It was so safe to run the roads of Gyeongju.
Policemen were very good at directing and controlling traffic. Never once, did
the traffic break the flow and rhythm of running for me.
Km markers were also placed at every 1km and were so accurate that my GPS watch beeped the moment I passed each one!
The Heat and Picking Up The Pace to Stay Focused
After taking the u-turn at the 12km mark, the bright sun
immediately shone straight into our faces and eyes. I was grateful for the
visor I had chosen to wear before the race but immediately began to regret
having my arm warmers on. However, stopping to take them off would prove
difficult as I my armband had been tied tightly onto them. So I ran on and on.
It began to feel uncomfortably warm and hot, though
thankfully, not humid. I started to feel really overdressed and began
questioning my sanity in swapping my shorts for long pants instead that
morning.
Oh, and my arm warmers again! I just wanted to tear them
off! There was barely any wind blowing that day, or at least during the time I
was running and I felt so warm, my cheeks were on fire and steam was literally
coming out of my ears! I was worried I would overheat like a car engine! I
heard later that the temperatures soared to their highest that day at 24
degrees Celsius. It almost felt like Malaysian weather!
At some point, the sun rays got so hot that the skin on the
topside of my hands started to feel a burning sensation and it was only
slightly past 9am in the morning. That was when I just wanted the race to end there
and then. My mind started drifting again to what I would do next after the
race.
Thank god for the 1:40 pacers as they ran pass me at that
time jolting me back to reality. A crowd of guys stripped down to their waist
and complaining about the heat as they ran followed closely behind the 1:40
pacer. I decided that in order to stay focused on the race, I had to follow the
pacer too.
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| Crossing the Finish Line at last! |
The Finish
The finish line finally loomed into sight and I kicked up a
final sprint to cross the finish in 1 hour 41 min.
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| I did it! Finished with no cramps nor injury well within cutoff time |
Thanks to all that hilarious dreaming, I didn’t expect to do a
good finishing time but then again, I wasn’t expecting to do a personal best having being
in a poor condition and lack of serious training. Furthermore, I was in holiday
mode rather than race mode.
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| Finishing medal |
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| Finishing medal |
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| At the rest area after the race |
As no one else I asked at the race finish, could explain
what the placard in Korean letters meant, I returned the ChampionChip in
exchange for my finisher medal and food, changed into my dry clothing in the
female changing tent and then I left the race venue with How How to return to
Gyeongju town.
The queue for the shuttle bus back to town was very long and
furthermore we had to wait for the bus was under the fiercely hot sun. Judging
from the bad traffic around the area due to the road closures, the next shuttle
bus would be late in arriving.
So, we finally decided to fork out the bus fare
and ride the public bus instead back to town. Even this option, also took us a
good part of an hour to finally arrive in town and grab some lunch before
heading back to the guesthouse.
An Unexpected Surprise and My Decision
Sooji was surprised when shown the placard and exclaimed
that I had won something. This was so unexpected and I was very surprised.
My
first reaction to myself was “You gotta be kidding right? I won something? Is
this by fluke? No way! I thought this was just another special timing badge
given for the top 30 participants!” Ha! So much for my poor Korean.
Sooji so kindly helped to call the Marathon Secretariat and
it was then that she found out that prizes would be couriered to the winners to
the Korean postal address stated in the original registration, although the person at the other end 6f the line could not tell her at that point in time, what position I had obtained.. She would forward the prize to me once she received it.
Immediately, I felt that I would not keep the prize but
would give it to Sooji instead as a gift as without her kind hospitality, I
would not have had multiple nights of good rest and enjoyed my stay in
Gyeongju. I told her to keep the prize and not send it to me instead.
After
all, I had run this race with the mindset of not expecting to win anything in
the first place. So if God chose to bless me now, it is only right for me to
bless someone else in return.
The rest of our Wonderful Holidays
We wrapped up the remainder of our holidays in Gyeongju with
a visit to the Oreung Tombs, Poksijeong Pavilion, a climb up Mt. Namsan to
Chilburam Hermitage and Sinseonam Hermitage and then enjoy the night lightup of
Anapji Pond on the final night of our stay.
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| Resting after our climb up Namsan |
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| Anapji Pond lightup |
And the weather strangely returned
to very chilly and extremely cold for the remainder of our stay.
The Good News
Upon returning to Malaysia, the moment our plane touched
down, I received news from Sooji that she had checked the website and the
online results showed I had won 7th place in the Women’s Half
Marathon category (there is no age group category for this race).
Furthermore, the prize was KRW 50,000 worth of vouchers. I again
told Sooji to keep it as per my earlier decision. I felt happy with that
decision.
It had been an honour running the same race with top national runners
from Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan and Mainland China and making it to the
Top 10. Even more memorable was to be the 1st Malaysian woman to
cross the finishing line in the Half Marathon category.
This was what money and
materials simply cannot buy and will be something I will always treasure with
me, enriching my running experience. What more could I possibly ask for?
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| Before the start of the race |
Conclusion
This race has proven to be one of the best race experiences
I have ever had. Other than the initial hassle with the registration and the
obvious language problem, the race is very well-organized, scenic and fun.
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| Enjoying a day out at the East Sea area |
Now, I believe I have left my heart in Gyeongju as per when
I visited it last, the year before. I already miss Sooji, Chae Yeon – her baby
girl and her family, especially Sooji’s mum. It was nice giving Ahjumma a warm,
good bye hug before we checked out early in the morning. You bet I will return
again. =)
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| Admiring the cherry blossoms at Bulguksa |
Anyeongkaseyo!
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