Sunday, October 11, 2015

Post 10k reflection

It was a beautiful morning for a run!
This past weekend I completed my first 10k race. I have done a couple 5ks in the past year (one was for charity and the other was a free for all), but this was the first race where my time was recorded.  It's also my first race in another country, which is exciting in and of itself.

This race was incredibly challenging.  Sooooo hard.  I questioned at one point whether I would finish or not.  I also thought that I might faint from muscle fatigue. Luckily both of those thoughts were wrong.

I had a few goals going in:

  1. Finish.  Number one goal: finish the race. (I suppose it's a given that I can check that one off my list).
  2. Try and finish in an hour and a half. I've done 10k in about an hour before and thought I was giving myself lots of time for the added hills.
  3. Try and run/jog the whole way.
With hindsight, those goals are a tad naive.  I didn't know what I was getting myself into and when it came time to run, I was not fully prepared.  The main reason being was that I didn't know the course.  I signed up for the race without understanding what type of terrain I would be running.  There was a flat stretch through the woods, but then a large portion of the race was up a giant hill, down the other side, run another couple k, and then go up a taller hill and down again.  And when I say hill, I mean a ~400+ meter HILL.  The Korean word for these particular hills is 오름 (pronounced similar to oh-rem) which translates directly to rise, ascension or climb.  Climb.  Yes.  Very different from running.

While I still think I did well, I did not achieve the full results I wanted.
  1. Check. I finished.
  2. Close.  I finished in 1h 33 minutes, which considering what happened with goal number 3, is really not bad.  And now it can serve me as my time to beat!
  3. Not even close.  I think I walked almost half the race.  At least 4k.  The moment we hit the first set of stairs for the first orem my legs were done.  I didn't have the strength to run up those inclines.
I learned a lot from the experience, and while it was really hard, I do not regret signing up.  It was a stunning day and the course itself was beautiful.  I ran with my phone (so that I could map my route), and even snagged a couple pictures along the way.  Plus, they gave us noodles at the end of the race which made it all the more worthwhile. 

I got to the top of the first orem and was in awe of the view.  So pretty!
Across the top of the first orem--you can see the runners running along the other side and down the back.
Mount Halla in the back left and the next Orem that we climbed in the back right.
Finished. La Fin.
Love and Hugs.

Things I've learned about France (or at least Normandy)

Well there we go, my second European country. In some ways, very similar to England (a lot of meat and potatoes, fancy churches, pay toilets...