The Short Version
A unique ultra which starts in downtown Seoul, South Korea and goes up into the mountains. Total elevation gain for the 50K is 3260m. A tough race with many sets of stairs. Well organized, well marked and one of the hardest events I have ever done. Finish time 10 hours 17 minutes 20th out of 52 women and 124 out of 248 finishers.
The Long Version
When I go on a trip I always look for a race. I mean doesn’t everyone do that?
I was offered the opportunity to go cycling in South Korea for a week. Obviously, I said yes, and then I started looking for a race. I discovered the Seoul 100K. It’s a unique trail ultra which starts in downtown Seoul and goes up into the mountains. They have a 100K, a 50K and a 10K. The website is in Korean, but if you click on the English tab some of the site is translated into English and you can sign up in English through Worlds Marathons.
The 10K looked less exciting so I decided to sign-up for the 50K, which looked tough: 3048m of elevation over 50 km with a 14 hour cut off. The course was 52.2 km long which was odd, but once I ran it I understood. It was not going to be easy, but if I had 14 hours I could probably finish it. This was all last minute, so I was going to have to rely on the training I had already done for the Chicago Marathon. A sort of hiking tour around Seoul!
I found a hotel 500m from the start, booked it and signed up. A week before I left home, I received an email saying I needed a finishers certificate from a trail run over 40 km in the last year or a doctor’s certificate. Getting a doctor’s certificate in a week in Canada is a stretch. I sent them results from the Bad Ass where I ran 37 km in the snow, the GPS files from crewing the last 55km at UTMB Canyons Endurance and a result which was more than a year old from a 50K. I asked them to confirm that it was Okay, but I did not hear back. I left Canada with all my gear still not sure if I was going to use it.
Asian races generally send out the race kit before the race by mail. The website said I would have to pick mine up before the race at the venue. The race started at 5:00 am and I did not see anything about a bag check. I had visions of me running 50K carrying my race kit!
The Monday before the race I received an email saying I should pick up my race kit at their office, Chungjeong-ro 3-ga 139, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul [Dong-A Ilbo building] 16F, before the race. On the plus side it confirmed that the documents I sent were acceptable, but I was not sure how I was going to find the office. I confessed my weekend plans to the group I was cycling with and our ever helpful driver Mr. Kim, translated the address into Korean for me. He also offered to help if needed and he meant it.
We arrived in Seoul after the cycling trip at 4:00pm on Wednesday. The office was open until 5:00 pm. I put the address into Apple maps (Google maps does not work in South Korea). It looked like it was 1.5 km from the hotel. I dumped my bags and went to find it. I arrived at the spot maps sent me to. I found the street. I even found 137, but no 139 and nothing with 16 floors. I knew it was a long shot, so I went home. As I was leaving I saw a tall skinny guy who looked like he could be an ultra-runner get out of a taxi looking confused. I am sure he too was searching for the mysterious 139.
The next day I took a subway to the station the email said was close to the office. I spent over an hour looking for 139. I did not find it. I found a 29 which had a similar name and looked like it had 16 floors. I was running out of ideas so went inside. It was a secure office building with gates you had to badge into. The guy at the desk did not speak much English, but he sort of indicated I was in the right place. I went through the security gate and up to the 16th floor. I could not get into the offices on the floor without a badge and there were no signs about races. I assumed the language barrier lead to miscommunication and I went back downstairs.
I spent another hour looking for 139. It did not exist. I sent an email to the address I had asking for help. Then I checked the website which said pick up is at 29 Chungjeong-ro, the same building I had already been to. I went back, there was a new guy at the desk who spoke better English I showed him the race website on my phone he said I had to go up to the 16th floor. He took my ID and gave me a visitors badge to get onto the floor. I went back up and used the badge to get in. I was on a office floor full of people working in cubicles. No signs, just me wandering through the office looking confused. A minor note here I really stand out in Korea, you just don’t see many Koreas with blonde curly hair! Eventually someone got up and I told them what I was looking for. He took me into an office and gave me a box with my name on it!
I knew the race started at Seoul Plaza and I was pretty sure there was only one Seoul Plaza, but with a 5:00 am race start I wanted to be sure. I waited until Friday afternoon thinking there would be some sign of a race at 5:00 am the next morning and I found Seoul Plaza. There is a large library building and the Plaza is a free outdoor public library. There were chairs, mats, bean bags and boxes of books to read. There was relaxing music, and you could rent yoga mats for free. It was really cool but there was no sign of a race and the library was open on Saturday. The only sign there might be an event was some kids stuffing what looked like they could be post-race food bags.
The race started at 5:00 am so I set my alarm and hoped for the best. I wandered into the street at 4:15 am and saw the most wonderful thing, other people with bibs heading in the same direction!
Sure enough, Seoul Plazza now looked like a race start. There were even some announcements in English. There was a change tent, bathrooms, and a bag check.
They had pre-race stretching and a warmup Gangnam style, lead by women in short skirts.
There were probably 400 runners most of whom were men. The low ration of women was a real bonus pre-race because there were separate men’s and women’s bathrooms so no line!
I was a bit concerned about getting lost on the trails. The race had made the GPX files available so I had the course in my Garmin, but it was the 2022 course. Garmin maps are “disabled” for South Korea so all you get is a line to follow. Once again, a fellow cyclist, Andre, saved me when he found a third party map that would work on Garmin. The Korean government does not allow mapping data to be stored on servers outside South Korea and Garmin and Google maps have not agreed to place servers in South Korea.
The gun went off and we started running though the streets of Seoul. The police stopped the traffic for us. There were volunteers at the turns and the first km was basically flat. After that it went uphill. Into the mountains in the dark. We soon hit the first of many, many sets of stairs.
It was early so we were in one big, long line going up, and up the stairs. Once we got to the top we went straight back down a combination of stairs and granite rock faces a couple of which had ropes on them for climbing. There were official race photographers and volunteers at the top of some of the peaks which was impressive as I did not see an obvious way to get to the top without climbing up on foot. That puts marathon photo to shame!
I went the wrong way with a few other runners once, but we figured out our mistake and got back on course. There was zero chance of rain in the forecast, so of course it rained, and it was cold, but it cleared up after the first 15 km.
There were 4 checkpoints 10 km apart and each one had a cut off. There was an elevation gain of 604m between the start and the first checkpoint. I reached the first checkpoint (7:30am cut off) at 6:49 am, just as it was getting light. The checkpoints were well stocked with bananas, water, Sweat (which is an Asian brand of sports drink- honest) coke, energy bars, candies and something similar to a twinkie.
The second section of the run had us back on the trails. There were less stairs and elevation, and it was easier to run in the light.
The trails were technical, rocks, roots and pretty overgrown in some places. I had a very close call on a steep section of a narrow trail. A man in front of me knocked a rotten log about 2 meters wide off its resting place and it came rolling down. I was able to get out of the way, but only just. If it had knocked me over I would have gone tumbling down the rock face and I would have been in big trouble with my husband, Harold, who was a bit concerned about me running a 50K trail run half way across the world by myself. I did have health insurance.
I made it to the second checkpoint( (9:30 am cutoff) at 8:13 am. Total distance 19.1 km. Total elevation gain 971m and 367m from the previous checkpoint They had a mandatory gear check where I was asked to produce long pants and an emergency blanket. I read and re-read the gear list, I dragged a first aid kit and emergency blanket from Canada. I had the blanket, but there were no long pants on the English list. I assume it was a translation issue. I produced the blanket and told them the long pants were not on the list. They did not say anything, but I may get DQed later (as of writting I have not been DQed).
The third section of the race was one of the hardest. There was a 750m climb which was more of less straight up, a brief section along a rocky trail, and then straight down again. The cut off times allowed for 3 hours to complete 10 km. It was more like climbing a mountain than running a race. A wise man once said “run when you can” and that’s what I did, I could hold my own going up the hills, but I got passed by the youngsters going down. They were pounding down those stairs! I was using poles. There is no way my little old lady knees can take that kind of punishment anymore! On the plus side once it was light, we could see the views from the top and the autumn leaves which were stunning. On the minus side the leaves falling on the rocks made it that bit more slippery.
I made it to the third checkpoint (12:30 pm cut off) at 10:43 am. Total distance 29.1 km. Total elevation 1765m, 794m from the previous checkpoint in the next section the sun was out and although we went up and down a lot it was not as bad as the previous section so I felt like we were over the hump. This section did have a new hazard. It was now 11:00 am on a sunny Saturday morning so the hikers were out and we had to get around groups of locals out for a hike. The Koreas called something out to get people to let them by and people generally let us by and called out encouragement ( at least I think it was encouragement in Korean), The only Korean I know is “come ca me da”, which means thank you so I had to wait for a Korean runner or for the people to notice I was trying to pass. I then used my one phase and ran by.
I made it to the fourth check point ( 3:30pm cutoff) at 12:44 am. The checkpoint was at 39.4 km. Total elevation gain 2329m, 564 from the previous checkpoint. The signs said it was 10.4 km from the finish. My Garmin said I had 12.6 km to go. I was happy to stop earlier, but although it was a 50 km race the course was 52.2 km long according to Garmin and the course map. The last section did not have one big 750m climb, but it did have two 350m climbs. It was brutal. Stairs and more stairs up and down on tired legs. Every time we reached a fork in the road I knew which way were going, up!
Someone once said you don’t race on stairs so don’t train on stairs. If you ever plan to do this race. Train on stairs, a lot!
It was also getting more crowded with hikers. There was one section which included a granite rock face with a rail to help with getting up and down. It was narrow and could only take oneway traffic. I had to wait in line to get down it through the hikers. Standing still on an open rock face when your legs are done is challenging. I saw one runner going down the stairs backward with a good 7 km left to go.
We saw all the great mountain lookouts! At 50 km there was a timing mat which I crossed at 3:17pm. Elevation from the start 3042m, 713m from the previous checkpoint and I was told the race was done! But we still had 2 km left to get to the finish line, I thought that was odd until I started running. About 500m down the road we found ourselves running through the crowds in an outdoor art market, We had to dodge huge crowds of people and the police were no longer controlling the traffic so we had to wait for the lights. The last light was across the street from the finish line and I missed the light so I stood on the other side of the road looking at the finish line.
A few minutes later I ran through it.
There was a photographer I got a medal, a North Face hoodie which does not have the race name on it and a food voucher. The women who gave it too me kindly explained in English that I could use it at a local restaurant which was just around the corner. The address was in Korean and I was not very hungry so I staggered back to the hotel via the 7-11 where I bought what I was guessing was a chocolate milk.
Overall. Other than the confusion which I expect was due to language about the race kit. This was a great event. Well run, lots of helpful volunteers, the course was well marked ,and the aid stations were well stocked. I knew it was going to be hard, but it was a lot harder than I expected. To be fair I did not train properly for it but even if I had it was tough. I can not even imagine running the 100K. Those runners are a whole different level of runner.
Put it on your list and start running up and down stairs now.
Final time 10:17:05 for 50k 10:32 to the finish line
20th women out of 52 and 124 of 248 finishers
Gear: 2XU shorts, Hoka TectonX2 shoes-I am not normally a Hoka runner but I love these shoes, Ultimate direction Ultra 10.3L pack, Black Diamond distance FLZ poles.
Nutrition: I used Nuun and I brought maple sryup gels and skatch bars from Canada but I ended up eating bananas, dried mango and the little chocolate cake things from the aid stations.
Run K2J 
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