I woke up naturally about 15 minutes before my alarm was set to go off, and I used that time to drink a bit of coffee and hit my daily Duolingo quota, which incidentally finished the Korean course, every lesson completely maxed out. So, I suppose there is a question of how to keep my 450 day Duolingo streak going now that I am “done” with Korean.
It was cold outside and windy. I was glad I decided to throw on a sweater at the last minute. I got off the public bus at the World Cup Stadium eMart and did not see the scheduled shuttle bus to the venue. As I was about to do a loop around to see if it was waiting off the main road, I saw it come barreling down the highway. We didn’t wait around long before taking off. It was nearly an hour to the Hallim Sports venue and as I got off the bus it seemed even colder than before, if that was possible. The swarms of student volunteers were in a panic as no one seemed to have predicted such unseasonably cold weather. I sheltered in a gymnasium for a moment before deciding to bite the bullet and grab my kit from the information table.
As I still had more than an hour to the beginning of the race I headed over to a convenience store to rustle up some breakfast. It was a smaller store so there were slim pickings, but I made due with a sugar boost and a hot coffee. I returned to the stadium to use the restroom, put on the free T-shirt as an extra layer, and throw my ticket in to the lucky draw. The sun was fully out, but it wasn’t enough to make up for the gusts of arctic wind. I was truly impressed by the number of runners committed to shorts and t-shirts as their running gear. A military marching band played the national anthem, and speeches were made with a full camera crew in operation (as a broadcasting station sponsored race, I wouldn’t expect less), and eventually the race began.
It was good. I probably made a fool of myself at times singing along to the chorus of various songs. The coastline course was amazing, the air was super clean, the sea sparkled in the sunlight as waves crashed upon black volcanic rock in a burst of spray. The route was mainly closed off to traffic with teams of volunteers controlling traffic at every intersection. I think I reached the runner’s high within the first 2km and despite some minor pain in some tendons never hit the wall.
Upon completing the race, I noticed that my running tracker on my phone quit a few minutes early, meaning I wouldn’t get “credit” for a half marathon, unless I wanted to run a couple extra laps around the track. Oh well. After rehydrating a bit and mulling around enjoying the glow of a successful run, I was back on the shuttle bus to return to the World Cup Stadium. I popped into the eMart to grab a salad, and while waiting in long lines for the Sunday family grocery shopping, the people in front of me let me slip through first.
I popped on the Airport bus (per navigation directions) to return to town, surprising the driver, but after assuring him I knew where I was going, I was on my way back. I went directly to another restaurant recommended by the hotel staff to nourish myself on some sort of seaweed stew, a local specialty of Jeju Island. The walls of the restaurant were decorated with handwritten notes from guests from around the world, so I guess I wasn’t exactly discovering a hidden treasure.
Back in the hotel, I threw some jeans on over my exercise shorts and prepared to head to the other side of the island, but got caught in a conversation with a Danish woman who had spent a few weeks on Jeju just walking all the trails. She was planning to travel until the summer of 2020. Another person in a handful of days in the middle of a long trip. I don’t think I am being ambitious enough. I recommended that she try the ferry to China.
It was a long, but easy ride to the airport adjacent guesthouse where I would spend my last night. It was a private apartment converted to a guesthouse with at least of the six floors involved. The proprietor had earned a bachelor’s at Peking University in the 90s so we chatted in Chinese, and her father, who was around helping out took a liking to me after she told him I had done the half marathon. Despite being in his 70s, he still regularly runs marathons, though missed the signup cutoff for this one. I finally got a chance to shower, and spread my stuff out in the male dorm that I would have all to myself that night.
I headed out into the gentle afternoon to grab a coffee and sit still for a while. I was glad that I chose to stay an extra night and not try to bring all my stuff to the venue and then directly go to the ferry, but it was still stressful running around all day. Though only a couple of blocks away from the main “downtown” strip of Jeju City, the “Yongmun” neighborhood was like its own small town out in the boonies, so I ended up walking almost all the way back to the main strip to find a coffee shop. I got caught up in some phone calls that kept me in the coffee shop until nearly 7 when I was both hungry and desperately needed to pee. The shop didn’t have its own restroom and I trudged back to the neighborhood in the now blistering cold.
There were a cluster of chicken shops at the intersection near the guesthouse and I had my heart set on some celebratory chicken and beer. I placed an order for chicken, then went over to a supermarket to pick up a big bottle of beer, and at nearly eight I was back in the guesthouse sitting down to eat a real feast. Not only did I have a salad, but a whole fried chicken served with fried potatoes. I did my best, but couldn’t eat it all. I watched a couple episodes of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” while eating, and passed out by 10.
The alcohol woke me back up at 2 am, and I had trouble getting back to sleep.
| GS Breakfast | 3000 |
| Mediterranean Salad | 2980 |
| Mumguk | 7000 |
| Tmoney Reload | 10000 |
| Marathon | 30000 (VISA: USD 27.54) |
| Guesthouse | RMB 124 |
| Coffee | 3500 |
| Fried Chicken (Tongdalk) | 16000 |
| Beer | 4500 |
| Total: | RMB 593 USD 88.35 |
Running Total: 17410 RMB (USD 2593.75)
Daily Average: 276.3 RMB (USD 41.17)