If one of your New Years' Resolutions is to get back into running, there are lots of runs all over Korea, from 5Ks through ultra marathons. There's a website "Marathon Online" that lists a bunch of the runs, provided you can navigate Korean a little. As a foreigner you may or may not be able to register online for the races, though you can get a Korean's help you sign up and pay the nominal fee.
Not much has been released for 2009 yet, but in February there are races in Haenam and Jangheung----full, half, 10K, and 5K---and three runs set for the first half of the year in Gwangju, and as in years past there are likely to be runs in every county and city. There are runs in other parts of the country pretty much every weekend, including every weekend in January. Scroll down the page a little and select your region from the "지역" drop-down menu, then click "검색." Likewise you can click "대회일정" at the top of the page to see a list of all upcoming runs. Registration usually starts a couple months in advance.
* Update: Check the comments for some links added by Chris.
3 comments:
There's also the websites http://www.run1080.com/ and http://www.emarathon.or.kr/, although the latter's pop-up is not yet updated for this year. They provide a raft of smaller races, which are often more fun and have a great atmosphere.
For the three-race series including the Seoul International Marathon check http://marathon.donga.com/international.html.
Last year I also ran the Honam International Marathon in Gwangju, which was only international coz i was in it, as far as i could tell, but did have a very nice race t-shirt with the race name down the arms: http://marathon.jnilbo.com/
If you care mostly for the surroundings then Seoul is interesting, like a very very tiring city tour, while Gyeongju is pretty cool too. And, if your new year's resolve isn't all gone by October, then Chuncheon is the place to be: http://marathon.chosun.com/eng/
Thanks. I hadn't looked for such listing, but I'm glad you did - I'll be checking it out.
Now, anyone know about polar bear swims?
Thanks for those, Chris.
On January 4th there's a marathon in Yeosu that I didn't find out about until a couple weeks ago. Looks pretty scenic, starting from town and running all along the coast.
Brian, don't know, I'll have to look around. I do know there were swimmers at Haeundae on New Year's. I don't really get that . . . the beach is "closed" in the off-season, but I guess if you want to swim when it's cold you can, right?
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