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...