I got Lost in the Mountains!!!

Friday morning I got a crazy urge to to some mountain training for the marathon in Pusan on Oct 1st. Normally I don't bother with hill training in Regina. Who am I trying to kid, OK, there are no hills in Regina to train on, but I really don't know if there are any steep inclines or anything like that in Pusan. So initially I thought it was a good idea. I'm all geared up in my running gear and just giviner up this mountain (2 min walk away from my apartment, called Hamgi). All the Korean people are staring at me in disbelief. I'm sure they were saying in Korean"Hey Look! It's some giant white, sweaty dude and he's running up the mountain!!!" (remember I can only speculate because I don't know any Korean, but I'm sure they were saying something like that) I have never seen anyone in the 4 weeks I've been here run up the mountain... but for some strange reason i thought that it was a good idea!!!

The mountain trails were longer then I had estimated and soon I was getting really exhausted but still determined as ever to reach the top.... I ran and ran and ran...
but with about 10% of the climb left I ran out of gas... not only did I run out of gas... I ran out of fumes too... I felt like I was going to blackout... I got really dizzy and I had no water...
So, I stopped for a few minutes then decided that I should probably walk down the mountain at this point... so I accepted defeat and walked disorientingly down the mountain...

I soon realized that there were many pathways on Hamgi. I guess I was really "in the zone" and failed to realize this when I ran up. So I just followed some people in front of me for a while.... but then I got the feeling that I'm should be going a different way so I spilt up with them... MISTAKE...

... After a while I realized that I was lost!!! Well actually the path that I was taking started to take me up instead of down... THIS WAS NOT A GOOD SIGN!!!
What was I to do.... so I followed the path for a while until it reached a look out point where there were other people... Out of Breath and exhausted I went up to an older Korean Man and pointed and said "Chilgok?, Unamgi?" (the name of my hood and the name of the entrance to the park)... to my surprise the older Korean Man replied... "Go straight, then right" CHA-CHA-CHA-CHING!!! He spoke English!!! Yes!!!

I followed his directions and I guess I was not as lost as I thought because it only took me about 10 minutes to get back!!!

Next time... remember the path you take!!!
Next time... don't get lost!!!
Next time... at least get to the top!!!