One Dreamy Tour of Seoul

Never been to Seoul? Would you like to see it in the most unique way? Here is some crazy idea. What about running a marathon through this amazing city!

I was very surprised when I was signing up for Seoul Marathon and discovered that the cut-off time is 5 hours! Well, it was not because I couldn’t finish within that time, but because I thought it’s very restrictive. On Sunday 19 March 2017 I’ve found out and understood why, and guess what? I was very happy about it.

Everyone who tried, knows the truth, running marathon is hard, it will test your body and mind. It is also very tricky to prepare to - any sickness, injury or just life happenings can impact your training - and even on the day there are many factors that can affect your performance. Yet, there are many people that love this kind of challenge. Some are fast, and some are slow... and here it is, that 5 hours cut-off time... why?

Start was scheduled at 8 am, so as usual, I set up my alarm clock (hahaha, I mean all my devices; a sports watch, iPad and iPhone... just in case) for 5.30 am. I really need that time; to eat at least 2 hours before, check everything to take etc. But of course, I couldn’t sleep. Usual case, I am so excited before the races, I just can’t. In the end I was up before 5 am and left my hotel at 6.30 am. “OMG” - I said to myself leaving the lobby - “It’s cold, cold, cold!” Checked on my phone - 1C - yes, that could be right, it felt even colder though.

After 15 minutes walk I reached start village at one of the biggest tourist attractions in Seoul, Gwanghwamun Plaza. It is an enormous square in front of Gyeongbokgung Palace and Gwanghwamun Gate, with statues of King Sejong and Admiral Yi Sun-Sin in the middle. Morning mist, Bukhansan Nation Park mountains in the background behind the palace, thousands of people wandering around and shaking from cold. It was dreamy. All streets around the square were blocked, with one, set up to be our start line. I was nicely surprised how well it was all organised. There were change rooms in special tents, separate for men and women, small trucks for baggage drop off, clearly marked with numbers corresponding with those on the bibs, and toilets, that for the first time ever I saw without a long queue (at least to female ones)!!! Not even one person. It was unreal. Went inside, they were actually not any ordinary portaloos, but big units containing 4 toilets each. Very nice and clean, and spacious, and empty. Yes, I was happy about it.

Soon, there was time to shed some clothes and send them to the finish line and you had to do that by 7.30 am. My heart sank, I thought I would freeze in that temperature, around 2C now. After reading a weather forecast the day before, predicting top of 17C in the afternoon, I decided to run in my 3/4 shorts and thin long sleeve top with front zipper - to cool down if I get too hot. Well, let me tell you, I didn’t feel hot in that very moment, but hey, organisers though about that too. Suddenly a group warm-up started, with music and trainers showing the moves on the stage, and the only option to stop shiver was to move.

Then came 8 am, quite long official part and... the gun goes off! It wasn’t until 8.21 am that finally our wave E crossed the start line. Together with local slower runners, most foreigners were assigned to the last wave E as they’ve obviously couldn’t figure out how and where to provide their previous race records. Surely, I was there too... don’t even get me started again on that website and difficulties of just registering.

We started running. The air was cold, the sun raising, the streets - the biggest and most important arteries in the downtown - closed to traffic. Not really many people cheering on the sides at this point. The roads were big and wide and we could spread freely, so I got into my pace and started overtaking. In almost no time we reached Namdaemun Gate - finally restored in 2013 after arson attack 5 years earlier - then straight through downtown to an alien ship, well not really, it’s actually Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP), amazing shiny and curvy building designed by Zaha Hadid - back the same road to the city, turn north, turn east and... “Oh! really!” - I said to myself - “the creek!”. It was Cheonggyecheon, quite unusual creek running in the middle of Seoul’s downtown, beautifully landscaped and with walking/running paths along. I was just dreaming the other day to run there sometime, and here I was, running 5 km on one side and 5 km on the other. I really loved that part and there the crowds started to gather and we got cheered up and greeted... I couldn’t stop smiling.

Well, at least until I felt some pressure in my bladder! Kill me, but I couldn’t spot any toilets on the course. Apparently there were some green portaloos hiding somewhere - I saw them later collected from the course - but where? I had no idea. However, when running, I saw many people queuing to metro station toilets or restaurants or... just jumping into laneways... I decided to hold, and fortunately the pressure soon went away.

There were water stations every 5 km that I've found sufficient, given the temperature. Very well organised and each one spreading for about 50 meters so there were no crowds at the tables. There were also 3 food stations along the course, with bananas and chocolate cookies(?!) and something that I though was weird in 1C - 10C temperatures - water sponges. But hey! locals used them a lot.

Another turn around 17 km took us on the way to one more beautiful gate - Dongdaemun Gate, then there were big streets again, kilometers passing by, more people cheering on, drums, flags, high fives, up to the bridge through Jungnangcheon river with Yongmasan Mountain in the background. We turned south, next to the Children’s Park and west, along Jungnangcheon river until 30 km, then south again and east, parallel to Han river, through more wide roads towards Jamsil Bridge. What a view from the bridge! What a day! The sun was up and yes, I felt hot and had to unzip my top. Soon after we left the bridge and turned right towards Jamsil Olympic Stadium we joined with 10K runners coming from the Olympic Park. There were many people cheering us now; more high fives, more music, more flags and signs, food and drinks. I think we all felt uplifted by that joyful atmosphere, surely I did, and despite being totally exhausted now, charged through the last 2 km up to the olympic stadium. When I ultimately got there, I was on my last legs but hey, there was the final round inside the stadium and... the finish line!!! I did it again!

After crossing the line it was all in order. First we got water and energy drinks, then a plastic bag containing the finisher’s medal, one sweet bun, a chocolate cookie, widely advertised Oronamin C Drink, and a banana. Quite a bit of walking - in some pain - and baggage pick up, well organised again by bib numbers. Then food stalls, expo - with long queues and big crowds to everything now - and metro back to the hotel, to rest.
It wasn’t easy but it wasn’t super hard either. The weather was perfect, the course flat, roads wide, enough water stations, energy drink stations with Pocari Sweat, sponge stations, bananas and chocolate cookies?! although impossibly hard to find toilets. Now, I also knew why the cut-off time was 5 hours. To allow us runners to see the most interesting places in Seoul, organisers had to block some of the biggest and busiest roads in the city. But it was so worth it!

The run was awesome! It was the best tour of Seoul ever!