South Korea Marathon Weekend

This past weekend Daniel and I went to Seoul, South Korea so he could participate in the marathon there. We had a wonderful weekend and the race was a huge success.

We arrived in Korea late Saturday afternoon, picked up his race number, and finally settled at our hotel, the stunning Imperial Palace.  We were looking for Italian food for dinner because it is all about the carbs the night before a marathon. Since the Italian restaurant at the hotel was booked up, we stopped by the "Guest Relations"  (hee hee) desk to ask for advice on where to go. The woman working at the desk spoke fluent English and Korean, which was very helpful when she called to book us a table at Antonio's restaurant. We asked her where she was from originally and the conversation went like this:

Kelly: Where are you from originally?
Her:  New York
Kelly: Cool, so are we. Where in New York?
Her: Long Island
Daniel: No kidding, so am I. Which town?
Her: Oyster Bay

Small world I tell you. I find it so random we are visiting South Korea and run into someone who grew up just miles from Daniel. Anyway, she was very nice and friendly and helped us out during our entire stay at the hotel.

The next morning started very early at 6 am as we made our way towards the starting line. Lucky for us, we keep some warm winter clothing in storage in Hong Kong because it was FREEZING. I don't know how the runners stood around in shorts. Daniel took off his warm clothes at the last minute and gave them to me to hold on to, but there were guys standing for an hour in shorts. Meanwhile I was cold in this jacket!

Here is Daniel warming up for his run and trying to stay warm until the start at 8 am.

Feeling the energy of the crowd as they get ready to start the race. It was very exciting!

After the race started and the runners took off, I left to find a spot to cheer them on as they ran by. After a quick stop in a coffee shop to get some tea and the feeling back in my fingers, I found the 17K mark and hung out until Daniel ran by. I chose a great spot to spectate. There were women drumming and tigers dancing. I found Daniel in the crowd when he came by and he looked great!

After this, I had some time to explore while the runners finished another 25K so I decided to check out the Gyeongbokgung Palace (try saying that five times fast!).  It was beautiful and I arrived just in time to see the changing of the guard.

This outfit is pretty awesome, no?

After exploring the palace, I made my way to the finish line to cheer Daniel on in the final stretch. The last part of the race was a lap around Olympic Stadium, which is a pretty cool way to end the race in my opinion.

Soooooo... How did he do? Daniel did an amazing job in the marathon! He ran a great time and he felt good the whole way. He even picked up his pace at the end of the race and flew past thousands of people to the finish line. Yay!

What better way to reward yourself for a marathon well run than Korean BBQ and raspberry wine? Delicious. And cheers to a fabulous weekend!

Moving to the Valley

Happy Valley that is! At the end of April, we'll be packing up our apartment in Discovery Bay and moving to Hong Kong island. There are many fabulous things about our new neighborhood:

1. We will be right next to the Happy Valley racetrack. When the horses aren't racing on Wednesday nights, it becomes a running track. YES!

2. We get to ride a tram to get to work.

3. Shorter commutes for both of us. Daniel will be home in half the time. He can even run home now!

4. California Pizza Kitchen delivers to the new place. This is both very good and very dangerous.

5. Living on Hong Kong island is more convenient for almost everything. 

6. It is called Happy Valley.

We are very excited. We found a great new apartment and if all goes well we'll move in sometime between April 15th and May 1st.

Running and Running...

We woke up very very early Sunday, February 28th. Like 4 am early. And stood waiting for the bus to take us from Discovery Bay to Hong Kong Island.

We rode on the subway, where the only other people with us at this time also had race numbers pinned to their shirts. 

We were so excited and nervous for race day! I was running a 10K and Daniel was running the full marathon. Daniel had been training since December, including running laps around the ship on our cruise to Australia and New Zealand. We had to get off at different stops because our races had different starting points in Hong Kong. We waved goodbye and said "See you at the finish line!"

My race started at 7 am. The course took us along a major highway in Hong Kong with a beautiful view of the water and Kowloon. Unfortunately, the view was somewhat obscured by the humid weather conditions. It wasn't quite as bad as this photo taken a few days before, but it was definitely not a clear day.

I made it to the finish line in one hour and thirty-four minutes. Since my "training" runs never really exceeded two miles or so, I was pretty pleased with the results. I was even more excited when I checked the results a few days later and saw that I was in the middle of the pack! When I finished the half marathon in NYC I think I was literally one of the last ten people to finish so I was happy with this race. :-)

Once my race was over, I was very excited to make my way back to the finish line and cheer on Daniel when he finished the marathon. I found a great spot very close to the finish and had a clear view of the runners as they turned the final corner. 

I had a great time watching the runners finish - including a guy in a shark costume protesting shark fin soup (how he wore that in this humidity I'll never know).

I saw Daniel come around the corner and screamed and cheered! After training for so many months and working so hard, it was amazing to see him run across the finish line. I was so so proud of him!

So you would think now that he finished he would be taking a rest for a few months. Nope! We are headed to Korea so he can run in the Seoul Marathon on March 21st. We'll have to see how recovery goes from this marathon but he will at least participate in the event, which is going to be very exciting.