It all started a few weeks ago when I said I wanted to go to Daejeon to do this Barefoot Masai Marathon with my friend Amy and meet a few of her friends, too.
Then last Saturday, after stopping downtown first to buy a pair of sneakers (awesome Puma sneakers, by the way! Plus a very cool orange and blue backpack! GO GATORS!!!), I hailed a cab and told the driver I wanted to go to Gwangju Yok (Gwangju station). I got there and went up to the counter and bought my very first foreign train ticket. A few minutes later, they opened the doors to the platform and I boarded the train bound for Daejeon.
As it was the train's first 'stop' and the train originated in Gwangju, it was waiting at the platform for a good 15 minutes before departing the station. I had plenty of time to find my seat before departure at 7:30pm. I was in Seat 8D, a window seat, in car 16, on train number 516.
The train was a KTX train, meaning the Korean high speed rail, but the track isn't yet high speed so it took the full two hours to get to Daejeon (at SeoDaejeon Station). I brought my Kindle and read most of the way as it was dark and impossible to see the country out of the windows. With only a half an hour left, we made another stop along the way and I got a seat mate. She had a friend who sat down across the aisle and we didn't speak to each other.
I got into Daejeon at 9:27 on the dot (trains are funny like that!) and Amy was there waiting for me so I wouldn't get lost getting to her place! It was the first time I saw her since my first weekend, and it was really nice to see a friendly and familiar face!
That night we went out to this little burger place and had a REAL hamburger with real fries and real Dr. Pepper. If you've been to a foreign country where most of the food is foreign to you, you understand what it's like when you come across something that's just like home. And it was. Well, there was a fried slice of sweet potato on the hamburger, and butter on the fries instead of ketchup, but other than that, it was just like home. And it was the most delicious hamburger, fries and Dr. Pepper I think I've ever had.
Amy's apartment is great, too. It's got to be 3x the size of mine, at least, and she's in a great high rise right downtown next to everything. We stayed up talking and hanging out until about 2:30 or 3am, and then went to bed. The marathon was the next day so we had to get some sleep. Of course, I woke up an hour ahead of time (at 5am!) and watched some tv. I also don't have a tv, and you may say, "Why would you watch tv when you're living in a foreign country and can download stuff for free?" Let me tell you that there is no substitute for tv. I can't see the news. I can't see shows in Korean. I can't see commercials. I can't see what is going on in the world. I have no window except the one in my apartment. Television is a major aspect of life in developed countries, and without one, I feel like I'm cut off. Yes, I can download tv shows and movies online and watch them in English on my computer for free. But I can't see the news and what is going on in the world. I can't hear the language being spoken on tv shows and commercials and the news. And if you've gone abroad lately, you know what I mean. I don't really know how else to describe it. Hearing my own language on programming that I didn't choose would be nice, too.
So we got ready for the marathon and left the apartment about 7:45am. We stopped at the mini mart for some snacks (pringles, snickers, water - the essentials) and then headed off to take the subway to the other train station, which was the meeting point for the buses and all the other people who were taking the free bus to the marathon on Mt. Gyejok. There were three buses coming that morning, one at 8:10am, 8:20am, and 8:30am. Amy and I arrived about 8:25am and met Maggie, Amy's friend, along with about 40 other people who were waiting for the free bus, as well.
We waited. And waited. And then waited some more. Until about 9:05 when we decided that the bus was not going to come. So Amy, Maggie and I hailed a taxi and told the driver we wanted to go to Mt. Gyejok.
About 10 minutes later, we arrived at the mountain entrance. We saw a few stray people here and there, but as we were a little late and the marathon's opening ceremony was about to start, we figured we should continue up the mountain path and we would run into everyone else. We walked for a while up a steep path that was at about an 85 degree slope. (At least it felt like it. It was SO steep that I felt like I was walking horizontally.) When I felt like I couldn't go on anymore, Amy said she thought she heard people. We saw a man walking on the path and we tried to ask him where the Masai marathon was, and he said something like "up ahead" so we kept walking. A little while later, we saw another man and he said the same thing - just keep walking and we'll get to the marathon. "Up ahead a little ways." Ok. We kept walking.
About 3 kilometers later we reached a stopping point where there were bathrooms and a map of the mountain. A man there showed us where we were and where we needed to go. They were all right - if we just kept following the path, we would get there. However, we had already walked about 3 kilometers up an 85 degree incline, and we had another 4 or 5 to go to get 'there'! Out of breath, realizing that the taxi driver dropped us off on the wrong side of the mountain, hot, achy legs, a broken flip flop, and thirsty, all three of us had the determination to trudge and meet the other marathoners and see if we could really do it.
We continued on and eventually did make it. It took us 2 full hours to do the 7 or so kilometers that it took to get to the marathon half-way mark. The marathon participants had only been walking for an hour, and when they got to the half-way mark, there was a water station. After getting their fill of water, they turned around and walked back to the beginning.
As we entered the marathon at the half way mark (our three-quarters mark!), we got some water, sat down to eat some chips and the snickers bars, and waited for 2 more friends.
The hard part was over! The fun part was the walk back!
I didn't want to take my sneakers off at first, for fear of stepping on something and hurting my feet. But the path was covered in freshly packed dirt so no one would hurt their feet. Besides, walking barefoot has its many advantages! (Had we started the marathon in the correct spot, we would have heard all about them!)
I kept my shoes on until we got to this place on the side of the train that resembled a mud pit for our feet.
From that point on, I left my shoes off and walked the rest of the trail barefoot and had the best time I've had in a long time.
And just for kicks, here's a picture of the map of the mountain. If you can click on it and make it bigger, you'll see the note I made of where we started and where the actual marathon started.
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