MARATHON TEAM PICS FROM MY HALF MARATHON ON SATURDAY!!
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Matthew's Body Pays the Price for Personal Best Half Marathon Record!!!!
The week leading up to the Jeonmahyup Half Marathon was not my typical pre-marathon week. Usually I abstain from alcohol and caffeine in an attempt to purify my body and mind. This week I lifted my personal rule I made for myself in Korea- "no drinking during the weekday". It was my friend Jamie's birthday on Thursday (Jamie is one of the Korean English teachers at my school) and I promised her a few months back that I would come out and get really drunk with her crew on her birthday. I made this promise before I even registered for the half marathon, so being a man of my word, I went out and got as drunk as a skunk Thursday---
(Do skunks really get seamed??? Maybe they distill some kinda food found in the forest and when its perfectly fermented they call their skunk friends over to their skunk den and get just frickin sacked off their homemade skunk moonshine!!! But of course no human could ever prove that this actually happens because nobody wants to get close enough to smell the alcohol on their breath, and even if someone was brave enough to get close enough to the skunk to smell their breath, the overwhelming stinky skunk stench would overpower the smell of the alcohol.... so I guess we'll never know!!!)
I cabed down to the university district (Kang Day Buk Moon) to meet them, we went to two pubs and had a fun time. Because I had already lifted the weekday drinking ban this week, I also accepted a spontaneous invitation to go out with my "Korean Tea, Art, and Culture" friends for some soju at a nearby Korean restaurant on Wednesday (I'll give you the deets on this circle of Korean friends in an upcoming blog). It was also a drunkily fun, late night kinda night! So much for purity of the body!
Anyways... My marathon team was meeting at the prison school 8:00 Saturday morning. When the whole team arrived on this cool clear morning, we packed into a few cars and we were off to Gawmi. Gawmi is located about 30 minutes north of Daegu. It is a small town, nestled between short, rolling hills. When we got there I was quite surprised, I saw no buildings taller then 2 stories, the small, old traditional Korean houses were scattered freely and spaciously around the village. The air smelt like what one would expect in a rural farming community in autumn- fresh, clean, and containing hints of farm animals and decomposing autumn leaves. It really had the feeling of traditional rural Korea, it was really beautiful- like nothing I've experienced so far in Korea, and the best part of all... I was going to get to run through it!!!
When we got out of the cars my team congregated at the large tent we rented. The marathon grounds were lively and had a party atmosphere with many tents that were filled with different local groups trying to promote their business. There were also many tents giving away free crap from food to acupuncture to pamphlets.
My teammates and I stretched, and changed into our cool new team uniforms that we just received Friday afternoon. They are made out of silver wicking material, are super soft, and have our team name in white Korean lettering on the front. It says phonetically "Daegu Runnersa Highe". My team decided on a name at a team meeting I was unable to attend, the next day they told me that they had a team name picked out - "Running High". I told them that "running high" is what a small group of health conscious potheads do in Canada, and I suggested an amendment to the name. They agreed that the name should be "Runner's High".
When the race started, I felt great. Conditions were, in my opinion, perfect for racing (it was partly cloudy, and maybe 6 degrees above zero). The course first took me through the small town, the old traditional architecture was really a sight to see. The houses that lined the street were unfenced and the sound of mooing and cock-a-doddle-doing echoed throughout the town. The police that were helping to patrol the course had their work cut out for them- they were doing more to chase the large, fat roosters off the road rather than stopping the non-existent, on coming traffic. Outside the town the marathon course slowly and gently traversed the side of a small, hilly mountain range. The mountains seemed so easy for me to climb... maybe because at the top of every peak their were old Korean ladies dressed in colorful local traditional celebration clothes. They were pounding out an intoxicating, almost hypnotic rhythm on traditional Korean percussion instruments that seemed to penetrate and liberate every aching muscle in my body. The course even weaved beside an old Buddhist temple. It was by far the most beautiful course I have raced on.
As I crossed the finish line with a time of 1:43 I felt great. I waited for and cheered on my other teammates that crossed the finish line, and when everybody finished we went back to our tent, ate some pig head soup, and finished off a whole case of mocklee (undistilled Korean rice wine that looks like milk and tastes kinda like nothing I've ever tried in Canada). After my teammates got a little drunk they proudly stole several boxes of bottle water (see picture) that was apparently left by someone.
The celebrating continued late into the night as we hit up a restaurant in Chilgok, drank more, went to a Noribang (Karaokee Room), drank more, then I went downtown for more partying after my loaded teammates all stumbled home.
The next day I woke up at 2:00 PM, and was surprised at what I saw...
Because my uniform was brand new, and I have never had a chance to run in it, I didn't know where it would chafe or where I should lube. I applied some lube to some areas where I thought it would chafe, but apparently I missed some very important areas!!! (It is a common practice for marathon runners to apply lubrication to all areas of the body that rub or make contact with the fabric of the uniform. The friction created by the fabric rubbing the body over such a long period of time causes painful rashing and can even break the skin).
I had two small rashes under my arms, two giant blisters on my feet, both my nipples had very minor cuts, and to my astonishment...
THE TIP OF MY PENIS HAD A CUT ON IT... OUCH!!!
...
I'm blaming the RUNNER'S HIGH.....
The week leading up to the Jeonmahyup Half Marathon was not my typical pre-marathon week. Usually I abstain from alcohol and caffeine in an attempt to purify my body and mind. This week I lifted my personal rule I made for myself in Korea- "no drinking during the weekday". It was my friend Jamie's birthday on Thursday (Jamie is one of the Korean English teachers at my school) and I promised her a few months back that I would come out and get really drunk with her crew on her birthday. I made this promise before I even registered for the half marathon, so being a man of my word, I went out and got as drunk as a skunk Thursday---
(Do skunks really get seamed??? Maybe they distill some kinda food found in the forest and when its perfectly fermented they call their skunk friends over to their skunk den and get just frickin sacked off their homemade skunk moonshine!!! But of course no human could ever prove that this actually happens because nobody wants to get close enough to smell the alcohol on their breath, and even if someone was brave enough to get close enough to the skunk to smell their breath, the overwhelming stinky skunk stench would overpower the smell of the alcohol.... so I guess we'll never know!!!)
I cabed down to the university district (Kang Day Buk Moon) to meet them, we went to two pubs and had a fun time. Because I had already lifted the weekday drinking ban this week, I also accepted a spontaneous invitation to go out with my "Korean Tea, Art, and Culture" friends for some soju at a nearby Korean restaurant on Wednesday (I'll give you the deets on this circle of Korean friends in an upcoming blog). It was also a drunkily fun, late night kinda night! So much for purity of the body!
Anyways... My marathon team was meeting at the prison school 8:00 Saturday morning. When the whole team arrived on this cool clear morning, we packed into a few cars and we were off to Gawmi. Gawmi is located about 30 minutes north of Daegu. It is a small town, nestled between short, rolling hills. When we got there I was quite surprised, I saw no buildings taller then 2 stories, the small, old traditional Korean houses were scattered freely and spaciously around the village. The air smelt like what one would expect in a rural farming community in autumn- fresh, clean, and containing hints of farm animals and decomposing autumn leaves. It really had the feeling of traditional rural Korea, it was really beautiful- like nothing I've experienced so far in Korea, and the best part of all... I was going to get to run through it!!!
When we got out of the cars my team congregated at the large tent we rented. The marathon grounds were lively and had a party atmosphere with many tents that were filled with different local groups trying to promote their business. There were also many tents giving away free crap from food to acupuncture to pamphlets.
My teammates and I stretched, and changed into our cool new team uniforms that we just received Friday afternoon. They are made out of silver wicking material, are super soft, and have our team name in white Korean lettering on the front. It says phonetically "Daegu Runnersa Highe". My team decided on a name at a team meeting I was unable to attend, the next day they told me that they had a team name picked out - "Running High". I told them that "running high" is what a small group of health conscious potheads do in Canada, and I suggested an amendment to the name. They agreed that the name should be "Runner's High".
When the race started, I felt great. Conditions were, in my opinion, perfect for racing (it was partly cloudy, and maybe 6 degrees above zero). The course first took me through the small town, the old traditional architecture was really a sight to see. The houses that lined the street were unfenced and the sound of mooing and cock-a-doddle-doing echoed throughout the town. The police that were helping to patrol the course had their work cut out for them- they were doing more to chase the large, fat roosters off the road rather than stopping the non-existent, on coming traffic. Outside the town the marathon course slowly and gently traversed the side of a small, hilly mountain range. The mountains seemed so easy for me to climb... maybe because at the top of every peak their were old Korean ladies dressed in colorful local traditional celebration clothes. They were pounding out an intoxicating, almost hypnotic rhythm on traditional Korean percussion instruments that seemed to penetrate and liberate every aching muscle in my body. The course even weaved beside an old Buddhist temple. It was by far the most beautiful course I have raced on.
As I crossed the finish line with a time of 1:43 I felt great. I waited for and cheered on my other teammates that crossed the finish line, and when everybody finished we went back to our tent, ate some pig head soup, and finished off a whole case of mocklee (undistilled Korean rice wine that looks like milk and tastes kinda like nothing I've ever tried in Canada). After my teammates got a little drunk they proudly stole several boxes of bottle water (see picture) that was apparently left by someone.
The celebrating continued late into the night as we hit up a restaurant in Chilgok, drank more, went to a Noribang (Karaokee Room), drank more, then I went downtown for more partying after my loaded teammates all stumbled home.
The next day I woke up at 2:00 PM, and was surprised at what I saw...
Because my uniform was brand new, and I have never had a chance to run in it, I didn't know where it would chafe or where I should lube. I applied some lube to some areas where I thought it would chafe, but apparently I missed some very important areas!!! (It is a common practice for marathon runners to apply lubrication to all areas of the body that rub or make contact with the fabric of the uniform. The friction created by the fabric rubbing the body over such a long period of time causes painful rashing and can even break the skin).
I had two small rashes under my arms, two giant blisters on my feet, both my nipples had very minor cuts, and to my astonishment...
THE TIP OF MY PENIS HAD A CUT ON IT... OUCH!!!
...
I'm blaming the RUNNER'S HIGH.....
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Palgong Mountain
I climbed to the top of Palgong Mountain on Sunday with Jamie (a Korean English teacher at my school) and one of her university friends. It is located a short distance out of town and is accessible by a city bus.
I try to climb a mountain once a week ...
It keeps my mind clear,
and my spirit alive and full of energy...
Plus, it's rad, and totally cool dude!!!
Cowabunga!!!!
Friday, November 17, 2006
ON SATURDAY NIGHT (AFTER I ALMOST DIED), I HAD AN EVEN CRAZIER ADVENTURE!!!!!!!!!!!!
After we got back to my pad at about 4 or 5 AM Erin and Mark vanished into thin air (just like Bruce).
But the night was not over. Ronnie and I were on a mission of drunken proportions....
I was going to blog about it but I feel my friend Ronnie did such damn good job on his blog ( www.ronniea.blogspot.com ) I feel that I could hardly add to such a concise retelling so...
1- You must visit Ronnie's blog (link above) if you want to know about my crazy all night adventure.
2- You must visit Ronnie's flicker site ( www.flickr.com/photos/ronniea/ ). To check out a pictorial retelling of the adventure (Daegu). While you're at it you might as well check out the pics of our Pusan adventure last month (Busan)!!!
3- Because I can't leave out my wonderful, party-hardy, friend Erin check out her blog ( www.myspace.com/levylady ) on the goings on that night (she reveals a secret about my dancing)!
Above are some pictures of my late night drunken adventure!!!
Sunday, November 12, 2006
I ALMOST DIED... AGAIN!
Last night my friends Ron from Chanon, and Erin from Pusan converged on Daegu with one thing in mind... HAVING FUN... These are a few fun points from the night of
doin Daegu up right...
Point #1
Aurthur, Mark (my Chillin Chilgok buddies), Ron, and I had a few "gettin juiced up before we hit the town hard" beers while waiting for Erin's train to get into town. The train station is below the biggest, most famous department store in Daegu, The Lotte Department Store. We drank beer on the big stairway that leads up to the posh department store(in Korea you can drink beer anywhere... besides, we have rockstar status in Korea). After we consumed a few beers, a random, old Korean man approached us. This old dude stood beside us for a long time. He didn't really talk to us, he couldn't speak English, he just laughed uncontrollably any time we started to laugh... this would, in turn, cause us to laugh uncontrollably at this laughing dude... and this would trigger an even louder, more out of control laugh from the laughing dude... this crazy, over the top laugh would then cause us to just loose it... and the cycle would continue until our guts hurt. We had lots of fun with this guy...
Point #2
The Monkey... It's the name of the Dance Club we went to. We did it up crazy at this place!
Point #3
The Thunderbird... It's a lounge that's located on the third floor of a downtown building owned by a White Canadian guy that everybody calls "Moose". The lounge is small but if feels like any other bar in Canada... It's a popular hang out for foreigners... and it's my favorite pub to kick it. It even has a foosball table. The beer on tap is Red Rock, a Korean made red ale... it's by far the best beer I've found in Korea but its really hard to find... we hung out there for a while to cap off the night downtown (bars close at like 5:00 AM... pretty much just when everybody leaves).
Before leaving the Thunderbird I felt the needed to pee. I had consumed such large amounts of my favorite brew and I really had to go. Since you can pee anywhere in Korea (I've witnessed a drunk Korean dude, just drop trow and make yellow in the middle of a busy street), since my friends were a little bit a head of me, and since I live so intensely all the time, I decided that it would be fun and "in the moment" to pee out the third floor stairwell window... BAD CALL MATTY!!!
Although, it initially felt so wonderfully relieving, and liberating to dispense such large amounts of urine out a third floor window... the end result wasn't good. Why? Well unbenounced to me, my friends had walked all the way downstairs and were exiting the premises (it was a monster piss OK) through the door that was directly beneath the open window I was defiling! Ohh NO!
Not only did I end up peeing all over my friends that had walked down the stairwell and, inconspicuously, walked into my streaming yellow fountain of liberation... BUT I also ended up peeing over some Bruce Lee, I-can-probably-rip-your-beating-heart-out-of-your-body, Korean Dude... sadly enough, all this occurred as I was completely oblivious to everything that was going on below. A ledge that was extending out from the wall was completely impeding my view... and of course I was completely, absolutely inebriated at this point!
So I finish peeing, zip up, and drunkenly stager down the stairs... When I got to the bottom, my sopping friends are severely pissed off (pardon the pun). But their anger paled in comparison to the red hot fury of "Bruce Lee"... Ohhhhhhhhhhhh SHIT!
Before my drunken ass could even understand why the hell everybody was so mad, I was being put in a "dragon death hold" by Bitter Bruce! He held me with his "fists of fury" and motioned to punch my head off with his "dragon punch of death". But before He could strike, my urine soaked friends intervened and pleaded to Bruce in their best broken Korean to spare my ridiculously drunken ass!
Their skills of broken Korean, and improv acting were quite impressive because they managed to convince "the Dragon" that it was all just a stupid accident. He let me go and disappeared into the night...
The lesson of this story...
Everything you do,
Every decision you make,
Even the seemingly harmless little things,
Effects something or somebody
Remember this wise advice next time you need to pee REALLY bad and there's no bathrooms around!
Last night my friends Ron from Chanon, and Erin from Pusan converged on Daegu with one thing in mind... HAVING FUN... These are a few fun points from the night of
doin Daegu up right...
Point #1
Aurthur, Mark (my Chillin Chilgok buddies), Ron, and I had a few "gettin juiced up before we hit the town hard" beers while waiting for Erin's train to get into town. The train station is below the biggest, most famous department store in Daegu, The Lotte Department Store. We drank beer on the big stairway that leads up to the posh department store(in Korea you can drink beer anywhere... besides, we have rockstar status in Korea). After we consumed a few beers, a random, old Korean man approached us. This old dude stood beside us for a long time. He didn't really talk to us, he couldn't speak English, he just laughed uncontrollably any time we started to laugh... this would, in turn, cause us to laugh uncontrollably at this laughing dude... and this would trigger an even louder, more out of control laugh from the laughing dude... this crazy, over the top laugh would then cause us to just loose it... and the cycle would continue until our guts hurt. We had lots of fun with this guy...
Point #2
The Monkey... It's the name of the Dance Club we went to. We did it up crazy at this place!
Point #3
The Thunderbird... It's a lounge that's located on the third floor of a downtown building owned by a White Canadian guy that everybody calls "Moose". The lounge is small but if feels like any other bar in Canada... It's a popular hang out for foreigners... and it's my favorite pub to kick it. It even has a foosball table. The beer on tap is Red Rock, a Korean made red ale... it's by far the best beer I've found in Korea but its really hard to find... we hung out there for a while to cap off the night downtown (bars close at like 5:00 AM... pretty much just when everybody leaves).
Before leaving the Thunderbird I felt the needed to pee. I had consumed such large amounts of my favorite brew and I really had to go. Since you can pee anywhere in Korea (I've witnessed a drunk Korean dude, just drop trow and make yellow in the middle of a busy street), since my friends were a little bit a head of me, and since I live so intensely all the time, I decided that it would be fun and "in the moment" to pee out the third floor stairwell window... BAD CALL MATTY!!!
Although, it initially felt so wonderfully relieving, and liberating to dispense such large amounts of urine out a third floor window... the end result wasn't good. Why? Well unbenounced to me, my friends had walked all the way downstairs and were exiting the premises (it was a monster piss OK) through the door that was directly beneath the open window I was defiling! Ohh NO!
Not only did I end up peeing all over my friends that had walked down the stairwell and, inconspicuously, walked into my streaming yellow fountain of liberation... BUT I also ended up peeing over some Bruce Lee, I-can-probably-rip-your-beating-heart-out-of-your-body, Korean Dude... sadly enough, all this occurred as I was completely oblivious to everything that was going on below. A ledge that was extending out from the wall was completely impeding my view... and of course I was completely, absolutely inebriated at this point!
So I finish peeing, zip up, and drunkenly stager down the stairs... When I got to the bottom, my sopping friends are severely pissed off (pardon the pun). But their anger paled in comparison to the red hot fury of "Bruce Lee"... Ohhhhhhhhhhhh SHIT!
Before my drunken ass could even understand why the hell everybody was so mad, I was being put in a "dragon death hold" by Bitter Bruce! He held me with his "fists of fury" and motioned to punch my head off with his "dragon punch of death". But before He could strike, my urine soaked friends intervened and pleaded to Bruce in their best broken Korean to spare my ridiculously drunken ass!
Their skills of broken Korean, and improv acting were quite impressive because they managed to convince "the Dragon" that it was all just a stupid accident. He let me go and disappeared into the night...
The lesson of this story...
Everything you do,
Every decision you make,
Even the seemingly harmless little things,
Effects something or somebody
Remember this wise advice next time you need to pee REALLY bad and there's no bathrooms around!
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
IT'S A HUGE, GET DOWN, AND GET FUNKY, MONKY PARTY!!!
Then it happens, the monks crack open their instruments and start droppin some mean, bumpin jams!!! They totally rock the place out. The monks start B-boy dancing... (O.K. I just made that last one up). They start their parade down the temple to where there is a grave... thousands and thousands of people join in on the parade... rockin out, chanting, and praying... When they get to the grave of the deceased monks the large crowd starts to go into a peaced out frenzy... everybody is trying to rush the stage so they can bow in front of the graves (RESPECT)... the monks are fighting to control the mop... some of them even had walkie-talkies on and were like bodyguard monks (don't mess with these guys)... the monks did some kinda ritual and offering, then a wave of people flooded the alter... bowing like it was going out of style....
We ended jamming out early because my director had an appointment in town... We had to follow an ambulance just to get out of the jam-packed temple... what a day!
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Monday, November 06, 2006
SOME OTHER HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE TRIP TO HAEINSA...
1- Seeing the freaky-freaky oldest tree in Korea... scientist say its over 1000 years old... It's growing right next to the temple... Coincidence... I think not!
2- Free eats with the monks at the temple. You do this at most temples... It's pretty cool... I think... (check out the pic of the monks that are scoping out the food line. I bet the one on the left is thinking he needs to bring out more kimchi, the one on right is thinking he just ate too much kimchi!)
3- Walkin the Crazy-Mindful lotus labyrinth (see pic)
4- Hanging with granny, who is like Buddha on a sugar rush!
5- Waiting in suspense for what is to come...
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Back to Haeinsa...
The biggest draw at Haeinsa is the collection of more than 80 thousand ancient wood printing blocks. These blocks are regarded as one of the oldest and most complete sets of ancient Buddhist teachings in the world. Their kinda like the Dead Sea Scrolls of Buddhism (see picture above). It took those dedicated monks 16 years to carve these things by hand. Not one block has any grammar, sloppy writing, or spelling errors (coming from such a bad speller, I really can't get over it).
I was in awe at the sight of the library of these 70 X 22 cm wooden blocks.
This wasn't the kicker... the most amazing thing was the unpainted, wood buildings that these bad boys are located in. The buildings were built hundreds and hundreds of years ago, but were solely designed to preserve the condition of the blocky-blocks from humidity and extreme temperatures using completely natural means. The buildings were built over beds of clay, powdered lime, and charcoal and have different sized lattice windows so the wind naturally controls ventilation.
Everyone is so paranoid that these dry wooden buildings will burn to the ground, that there is literally a fire extinguisher like every 10 feet (check the pics for proof)!
The monks claim that the buildings are so sacred that they have never found a spider web or birds nest in the buildings... I think the crazy self-ventilation might have something to do with it!
Saturday, November 04, 2006
10 KM RACE FROM OUTER SPACE!!!!
It was my second road race in Korea... It was being held at a stadium in my hood... This is how it went down...
I got to the stadium early (cuse I never really know what the hell is happening in Korea) to meet the other members of my marathon team.
That's right.... MARATHON TEAM.
In Korea they see the marathon race kinda as a team sport.
The team is like a support group and social club (drinking team).
You still get timed individually but you train, drink, and hang out before and after with your team... It's really fun! My team is composed of about 10 of the teachers from the prison school. Most of them are in their mid 30s and speak about as much English as I speak Korean but we still manage to Fuck it up hard and have a lot of fun! Since I teach at the other school when they train, I just meet them for drinks... that's my role on the team.
Anyways...
When I got there it was NOT like the marathon in Pusan (see Blog in Oct Archives). They only had a few tents, no Catholic services, and no Oriental Medicine Men... Just one big stage with like 10 Korean Politicians (It was a government sponsored event). But they did have Korea's answer to N'SYNC...
I almost crapped my tinny-tiny, barely covering my ass, marathon shorts went these guys started to busta move... it was so funny...
Picture it... about 4000, mostly mid-30s, Korean men were standing in an outdoor stadium all geared up and ready to run and there was like some cheap, Teeny-Bop, singing group givin it their all...
ONLY IN KOREA!
When the race started it was beautiful- the mountains in the near distance were covered in mist from the sun trying to break through the heavy morning fog.
The first 5 KMs were a painful as I spent about 3 hours yesterday sitting cross legged on the floor of the temples (my back was having a bad back, marathon attack, foo!). Also my right hamstring cramped up and I had to stop and rub it out! I thought I might have my worst run to date and then it happened...
Almost without warning the sky turned from grey, to dark grey, to black...
And it downpoured.... I mean it REALLY downpoured, thunder, lightening, wind, the works. It came down "like Lions and Timberwolfs" (this is just a more extreme version of the simile "raining like cats and dogs" that I just made up on the spot... feel free to use it)!!! And all of a sudden all the pain disappeared and I was filled with unexplainable (probably cosmic) energy!
I crazy-man sprinted the last 4 KMs...
When I finished the race I huddled up in one of the few tents, with complete strangers, as the torrential downpour continued. Since you can drink anywhere in Korea, the strangers did what all good Koreans do- offered me a shot. So, soaked from head to toe, I shot Mockelee (undistilled Korean rice wine, white in colour and thick in texture like milk) with a bunch of soaked, and freezing Korean dudes.
When the rains calmed and when I was a little bit cut from the Mockelee shots I managed to run into my homeboys... we went out for more Mockelee and soju shots and ate some lunch. When I looked at the clock it was not even noon and I was sopping wet and wasted...
It was my second road race in Korea... It was being held at a stadium in my hood... This is how it went down...
I got to the stadium early (cuse I never really know what the hell is happening in Korea) to meet the other members of my marathon team.
That's right.... MARATHON TEAM.
In Korea they see the marathon race kinda as a team sport.
The team is like a support group and social club (drinking team).
You still get timed individually but you train, drink, and hang out before and after with your team... It's really fun! My team is composed of about 10 of the teachers from the prison school. Most of them are in their mid 30s and speak about as much English as I speak Korean but we still manage to Fuck it up hard and have a lot of fun! Since I teach at the other school when they train, I just meet them for drinks... that's my role on the team.
Anyways...
When I got there it was NOT like the marathon in Pusan (see Blog in Oct Archives). They only had a few tents, no Catholic services, and no Oriental Medicine Men... Just one big stage with like 10 Korean Politicians (It was a government sponsored event). But they did have Korea's answer to N'SYNC...
I almost crapped my tinny-tiny, barely covering my ass, marathon shorts went these guys started to busta move... it was so funny...
Picture it... about 4000, mostly mid-30s, Korean men were standing in an outdoor stadium all geared up and ready to run and there was like some cheap, Teeny-Bop, singing group givin it their all...
ONLY IN KOREA!
When the race started it was beautiful- the mountains in the near distance were covered in mist from the sun trying to break through the heavy morning fog.
The first 5 KMs were a painful as I spent about 3 hours yesterday sitting cross legged on the floor of the temples (my back was having a bad back, marathon attack, foo!). Also my right hamstring cramped up and I had to stop and rub it out! I thought I might have my worst run to date and then it happened...
Almost without warning the sky turned from grey, to dark grey, to black...
And it downpoured.... I mean it REALLY downpoured, thunder, lightening, wind, the works. It came down "like Lions and Timberwolfs" (this is just a more extreme version of the simile "raining like cats and dogs" that I just made up on the spot... feel free to use it)!!! And all of a sudden all the pain disappeared and I was filled with unexplainable (probably cosmic) energy!
I crazy-man sprinted the last 4 KMs...
When I finished the race I huddled up in one of the few tents, with complete strangers, as the torrential downpour continued. Since you can drink anywhere in Korea, the strangers did what all good Koreans do- offered me a shot. So, soaked from head to toe, I shot Mockelee (undistilled Korean rice wine, white in colour and thick in texture like milk) with a bunch of soaked, and freezing Korean dudes.
When the rains calmed and when I was a little bit cut from the Mockelee shots I managed to run into my homeboys... we went out for more Mockelee and soju shots and ate some lunch. When I looked at the clock it was not even noon and I was sopping wet and wasted...
JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT I COULDN'T GET MORE FREAKISHLY PEACED OUT..... I visit Haeinsa.
Over then next few days I'm going to be flooding my blog with majestic, breathtaking, and mindblowing photos and stories about my incredible visit to the most famous Buddhist temple in Korea... I hope to teach you loyal readers a little somethin too (Remember: Ignorance leads to Suffering!!!)
Background:
The Temple-
- built around 809 AD
- is one of three major temples in South Korea
- is a UNESCO protected site (United Nations Heritage site)
- is really big
The Trip-
- going with my directors
- about 1 hour out of Daegu
- picking up the grandmother on the way
- really pumped about it!!!
What I didn't know till I got there-
- that it was to be a full moon that night
- that they have a really big ass, crazy, intense, party-like-a-peaced-out-Korean-Zen-monk party on this day!!!
- and that my mind would be blown!!!!
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