8th Sports Seoul Marathon

I PRed at my race today!  I ran the half mile course in 1:38.54 and got 5th out of all the women!  I was 14 seconds behind 4th place - darn!  If only I'd know - but she finished behind me so I didn't know (her clock time beat mine).  The morning was freezing and my teeth were chattering I was so cold, but once we got onto the course and started running it was a lot better.  The sun was shining and I felt great.  Unfortunately it got really windy on the way back.  But, I finished really strong and was able to keep my 5 min/km pace the entire race.

I got to stand on the podium, got a sweet (really cheap plastic) trophy, and won 70K won!!!

Before we started, there were these four girls on stage leading warm-up exercises and a choreographed warm-up dance that EVERYONE knew!  It's absolutely hilarious.  Here's the link to the video that my friend Kim took:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=459789392255&comments&ref=mf

When we were waiting at the start line everyone started giving each other massages, including me.  Everyone formed perfect lines and it was one big massage-fest.  And then the announcer said something and we all turned around and massaged the person who had just been massaging us.  So weird!  Plus, Koreans are really intense about helping each other get ready for races:

It was a fun, fast race and I was so happy to have Kim there to cheer me on!  I'm thinking about doing the Seoul Marathon in March/April....