An Early Payday :)

10 Oct 2010- Pyeongtaek Port Half Marathon South Korea-

With the big Marathon only two weeks ago I had talked to some people on how to run this race. The "smart" thing to do would have been to run it at marathon pace and not tear the legs up too bad. Well come to find out the race had prize money for the top 6. The new plan became to see where I stood at the half way point and if I was within 2 minutes of the money to push hard and catch them. Well at the half way point I had only counted 6 people ahead of me, so I decided to run hard. It was a beautiful day out with great weather and I wish this race would of been further out from the marathon because dang my legs felt good. When I started pushing hard I was running high 5 min/miles and it was not hurting that bad. I ended up catching what I thought was the 6th place guy with 4K to go and once I caught him I slowed down to his pace.

I sat on his heels for 1K and he was hurting pretty bad just running along at 7min/mil. That was a nice little break on the legs and then at 3K to go right after a water stop I made my move by him and he didn't try to follow. Coming across the finish line they gave me a card thing that went around my neck and it said 5th, so I was kind of shocked by that. 5th/6th actually paid out the same amount so it wasn't that big of a deal. It is just nice to say I finished in the top 5 of a decent size half marathon. I still don't know how many people were in the race but if I were to take a guess I would assume between 1,000-1,400.

The funniest part about crossing the line was that a guy came up to me and told me I had been selected as a nominee for "best dressed". I was just wearing my running gear, but I think it was the awesome tri top that got me the nomination. I am not sure if I have mentioned it before, but at WF I met some awesome Canadians and they were all on the same tri team. The team name is Critical Speed Racing and they had an extra tri top that they gave to me. I have been showing off my cool jersey in Turkey and Korea and it has brought me some great results. Thanks CSR for hooking it up! I didn't end up winning but it was still pretty funny how just wearing some running gear that matched could get a "best dressed" nomination.

I ended up running 1:20:05 and finished 5th overall. Below are the results of the top 15, 7th-15th got a 3kg bag of rice. The other american is an older guy, I think in his late 50's early 60's and we ran the first 8K together. Pretty impressive to see someone that lets say "experienced" still running so fast.

Rank		Name		Back No.				Net-Time
1		여흥구		3086				1:14:04.19
2		박창하		3788				1:14:35.61
3		Osamu Tada		3961				1:16:03.58
4		김회묵		3757				1:16:28.28
5		Williams Brad		3642				1:20:05.48
6		장성준		3866				1:20:57.96
7		김동호		3420				1:22:03.22
8		유영대		3823				1:23:29.33
9		이용승		3431				1:23:29.80
10		Elger Dave		3650				1:24:13.27
11		정호현		3884				1:24:48.98
12		이한석		3588				1:24:57.80
13		김정동		3410				1:25:50.82
14		김명호		3720				1:26:24.36
15		오상수		3176				1:27:41.32

Here are some pictures from the awards ceremony:

The pre-awards show.....

Receiving my gifts.

The top 5 with some important Korean. The third place guy was flown in from Japan with his wife. Not a bad pay day of 300,000Won and a free trip to Korea.

The trophy and my "best dressed" nomination award.

My first pay check in Korea! I won a gift certificate while home on leave, but cash is so much nicer! 100,000Won is around $95USD, the exchange rate is not that great right now :(

Headed down to Tongeyong this weekend for an Olympic Distance Tri; it will be my first race as Age Group Elite :) Getting to watch the Pro's race on Saturday and going to be rooting for Timothy O'Donnell to tear it up and represent for the USA!!