seattle marathon 2007

seattle vs chiang mai vs seoul

I'm getting anxious to get going with three and a half days remaining. The visa thing hasn't totally worked itself out yet and tomorrow is my last shot at getting one while I am stateside. Otherwise I will have to figure it out via international post or the visa office in Seoul. So out of boredom and curiosity I've compared these three cities.

As the crow flies...
Seattle --> Seoul (8,329 kilometers, 5176 miles)
Seattle --> Chiang Mai (11,573 kilometers, 7192 miles)
Chiang Mai will be the furthest distance away from home. I've been to Tbilisi which took me 10,014 kilometers (6223 miles) from home.

i ran the seattle marathon in 3hrs 57mins 36.4secs

Sunday was extremely cold but dry. Praise God it was dry, otherwise the 26.2 miles (42.195 kilometers) would have been that much more painful. It's a good thing I only glanced at the marathon course map, otherwise I may not have run the Seattle Marathon. The first 19 miles are about as smooth as 19 miles could ever be, but from mile 20 to the end...hills, hills, and hills. And no, not The Hills (MTV), but the hills they made you run in grade school just to make you puke. Except these hills are much longer, much much longer, try 4+ miles long. Below is the down and dirty on how I trained; and yes, it is possible for a 5'8" 190 pound short-legged Korean to finish a marathon.

I ran 09:31/mile for the first half and ran almost a minute faster at 08:37/mile for the second half (02:04:38.7 split & 03:57:36.4). Registration for the Seoul International Marathon starts November 30th!! ^^

i'll miss you charlie

So to inform the uninformed, I can't stand our family dog, Lily. Lily is an overfed, lazy, do nothing, attention whore dachshund. However, our cousin's dog Charlie is a well behaved, loyal, diligent labrador mix rescued from the animal shelter. Anyway, I'm going to miss those runs/walks through dash point park Charlie.

last day at kentwood

As Ruth would put it, today was my last getup at Kentwood High School. It was a good time and like everything else, there was a lot I learned and experienced. Here are a few last minute pictures I took at the school of the Conquerors.

marathon training

nothing too exciting has happened since i bought the plane ticket. while i have ideas of what will occupy my time while i am in korea, nothing concrete has been determined. what i do know is there are 3 weeks left until the seattle marathon. in case you were wondering, my exciting life has been defined by an excel file for the last two months.

online journal

facebook is to networking as blogging is to venting, or so me thinks that if blogging is therapeutic for everyone else, i'm gonna give it a shot.

the general story is i have no idea what i'm doing. right when i think i'm reaching a point of clarity, some clear vision of where i'm headed with all the right confirmations that i'm on the right track, i realize i was so wrong that i led myself to believe that i was right.

to combat these feelings and my quenchless thirst for adventure, i'm setting off towards seoul, korea. from december until the beginning of june-ish i'll explore the underbelly of seoul. if you can suggest any reputable organizations that serve seoul's homeless youth or connect me with parents or students wanting a private english tutor, throw me a line.

anyway - after buying the airplane tickets, i'm itching with anticipation to leave. however, i know that i'll be busy tieing up loose ends; i.e. completing grad school apps, last few weeks at my two jobs, putting to gether an esl curriculum.

until next time.