4:38:05

Season End Marathon in Seoul (42195 Race)

Fueled by granola bars, glucose tablets and the desire to make my three and a half months of training pay off, this past weekend, in fact, on Sunday the 27th, I completed my first marathon.

With a time of 4:38:05 I was by no means breaking any records, but I completed the entire 26.2 miles or 42.195 km, and that was exactly what I intended to do.

The course paralleled the Han River in Seoul. After running for 13.1 miles in one direction, the course simply turned right back around and retraced itself for another 13.1. From the entire course I remember seeing the North Seoul Tower, many bridge pylons (the course crossed under a bunch of bridges) and some canola flowers that were in full yellow bloom due to the uncharacteristically warm weather that we've been experiencing. The weather on the race day was a bit chilly and overcast. For running it was perfect.

The entire run was pretty uneventful. The hardest part of the course was the last 10km stretch. I could feel pre-cramp "twitches" in my left quad and my right hamstring, so it took all my mental energy to will my legs to keep from cramping, but all said and done, it worked, and I finished the race.

In the last few km I could feel my body running out of energy, so I was popping glucose tablets (the ones diabetics take) and I could feel my blood sugar rising. Specifically, I could feel the tiredness and tingling feeling disappear from my body w/ each of the tablets. It was very strange, but I was very glad I had them with me.

I finally crossed the finish line. I felt like I was in a bit of a daze, and it was almost hard to stand up. I also was having a bit of trouble balancing.

In any case, I did it and I feel really proud of myself.

I just re-read this and realized the post is somewhat hazy in the way it recounts the details of the race, but that's exactly how the race is in my mind. It's a bit hazy.

Well, that's all for now.

There's another marathon in March. I'm thinking about that one too!