your lows will have their compliment of highs

Number four marathon completed in the race to finish five before I turn 25 (in June)!!!

But first: Yellow dust in Korea!! The night before my marathon I got a text from a Korean friend warning me to wear my mask (uh, I don't have one... or should I say I didn't have one yet! picture way below as your reward for reading) because Korea was/is experiencing the worst yellow dust, ever!!! Yellow dust, wha-huh? You might say... read more, here. (My friend, Lorna - who also ran the race, and I were commenting on how strange the sky looked on Saturday and how many people were wearing masks, but didn't think much of it.)

(So cold pre-race with my friend, Jordan, also from Chi City!)

The race! The race! I raced in the race! My clock stopped at 4 hours 19 minutes and 31 seconds, but I did fumble around with it for a few seconds at the start... we'll let that slide, because it's better than my last marathon's time and that makes me happy. ^^

For all the worries of how Saturday's weather would affect Sunday, I couldn't have asked for a better day for the race; the sun was shining, the breeze was nice, light and cool, and the runners were smiling (and it was cool, mind you; I was worried I'd be too warm in my running jacket, but my clothing was just right: 2008 Chicago marathon shirt, 2007 STL marathon shirt, running jacket and tights. THERE WERE PEOPLE IN TANK TOPS AND SHORTS!! and not just the elite runners who finished in 2 hours and 6ish minutes!). About 30,000 in all, I was surprised with the lack of crowd attendance for the duration, especially being in a city as big as Seoul. But, then again, Koreans don't seem to be big morning people on the weekends.

I felt like a celebrity, because in addition to all the "Whi-ting!" chants (it's like their "Go! Fight!") and fist raising/pumping going on, there were a lot of excited "Hello!"s shouted my way - I didn't hear any "Annyong haseyo!"ing going on! My friend, Jordan, said school girls would scream as if he were the fifth Beatle when he strode by. Good times. And, even though the crowd was small, I loved every minute of them, and my smiles of appreciation in return pushed me on.

(I saw my friend, Sarah, 9km in!! So exciting!! I stayed a few seconds for jumping, cheering and hugging!)

I saw my friends! While I was running!! Sarah, Rachel, Andrea, Jennie, Kat and Annie all came out to cheer! I saw Sarah multiple times, and every time I saw anyone there was a frog in my throat. They helped me more than I can say, especially since my left hip and right knee started acting up around kilometer 32 or so.

In addition to the pain in my body, there was a pain in my heart; on Friday I received the devastating news that my dear Aunt Sandy passed away. There's no good time to get this news, or give it. I am so incredibly sad, and the wound is still so fresh that I'm not sure how to deal with it... I was talking to Alex and he said that  it's been so long since someone he knew died and he had forgotten how much it hurt. Going through the stages of grief has been difficult, and I think right now I'm stuck in the angry category. I'm really sad that I didn't get to say "good-bye" but more than that I'm mad that I even have/had to say "good-bye", and I miss her already; telling her funny stories about my kids or getting advice about how to deal with them and "bribe" them, in a sense, into good behavior. She gave the best advice, and she had the best laugh, and always made me so happy to talk with her. I'm trying to comprehend all this still, and it's hard, but I am so grateful for the time I got to share with her, and in addition to the memories I'll keep of her, she gave me the gift of Lasik surgery, so every time I see the world clearly I can smile and think of her. And another thing, her kids (she was an elementary teacher in sunny CA) used to call her "Mommy" when she first started and my kids called me "Mommy" today, and in addition to how weirded out I was by that, it also made me smile and think of her. I'm so sad that I won't be able to share of these things with her, but I am happy to know she isn't in pain any more, and that I'm left with so many good memories. Where I was going with all that is that I ran for her, because she thought I was so crazy for doing it, but proud of me at the same time.

Because my mind kept wandering into sad thoughts, I turned to Yeasayer's "Odd Blood" to get me through the last 45ish minutes. I'm pretty sure I listened to "Ambling Alp" at least five times, for sure.


I talked to a guy named Charlie (I can't remember his Korean name, but he gave me the go ahead on "Charlie"), who crazily enough is from Youngtong, too! There was a man running in a thong loin cloth with crazy hair, and that was about it. I said "Oh my! What is he wearing?" and laughed to myself. I saw Charlie tilt his head in recognition out of the corner of my eye, strides later he struck up a conversation in pretty good English. We talked about our pace goals, number of marathons under our belt (his second, my fourth), living in YT, and wished each other well as he split off to use the facilities - that was at 32-ish km, iPod went in soon after.

(Almost done!!)

There was also a man in the beginning who was jump rope-running!! I was shocked! There was a Canadian next to me at the time (I know this because of the flags tattooed all over his face and clothes ^^) and we wondered whether or not he would keep it up the whole distance - he had a pretty good pace to him. Jordan also said he saw a man stretching and smoking a cigarette around 34km. Korea!

As with most races, there were men relieving themselves all over the sides of the course - lucky ducks, going wherever they please!

And we finished in the Olympic Stadium!! So, that was fun.

(Stretching it out with Lorna; laughing about life, pain and love! So important to do[!] - stretching and laughing.)

(Lorna, Jordan and me as Seoul Marathon finishers!!)

And as I promised - POW!! Annyong Haseyo!

(I bought this yesterday! I wanted to jump on the cute mask bandwagon - only 2,500 won!! So cute, so cute... and creeeeeeeeeepy - I think my face is too pointy because the elastic ear bands[?] pull my ears forward. I asked my Korean friend if she thought people would think I was mocking them, but she said that they'd just think, "Cute!" and appreciate my safety efforts! ^^ Oh, Korea! I <3 you!)