DMZ Marathon

After months of study, I am sitting at my desk this morning completely unable to focus on another freaking math problem, so I figured I'd take a break and try catching up on my blog. Lately life has been coming at me faster than I can keep up with it, so I'll have to spend some time backtracking.

One of my best weekends in Korea thus far was September 3-4th when I caravaned up to Seoul with really great company and ran a marathon along the DMZ. For the sake of time, this entry is going to be a quick photo journal!

Pre-race carbo-loading at Chile's on the Osan Air Force Base. Bottomless chips and salsa is RARE treat when living in Korea! 

Food! All of these dishes were consumed by one person....

Jean-Paul!!

Mid-race snapshot. We're smiling, so maybe it was closer to the beginning of the race. This is my friend, Dave, who totally made this weekend happen. Not to mention he ran 13.1 miles, downed a Dr. Pepper and then came back to basically carry me through my last few miles. I couldn't have done it without him! 

The course was in a huge valley between some breath-taking mountains. It was absolutely beautiful. Although, there were a few moments where I was out in the middle of the DMZ, hot, tired, alone and even fearful to run to a bush to go to the bathroom because of the mine signs everywhere! Not necessarily a place I'd want to be stranded alone for a long period of time. 

Along the way there were Korean soldiers lined up, cheering, giving us high fives and encouraging us to keep, "fighting!". I naturally ran a little faster through and loved the attention. ^-^

Abandoned building at the boarder of the DMZ

Check point onto the DMZ. No pictures aloud beyond this point.

Exhausted!!!

Resting after too much running! I wasn't sure if I'd be able to stand up again at this point!

Change of clothes, momentary light headedness, sore muscles, but happily still fighting!!!

 I think I have a slight love affair with running!