Sunday, September 6, 2009

Let's go surfin' now, Everybody's learning how

This past weekend there was supposed to be a surf competition in Haeundae. Unfortunately there were no waves to be seen. The international surfing rules require a certain wave height and since nothing was topping about 1 foot, the competition was cancelled. The organizers ran a whole bunch of games and board paddling contests to keep the hundreds of foreigners who showed up entertained. It turned out to be a great beach weekend, and since "Korean beach season" is now over, the millions of umbrellas, chairs and people are gone. I like the beach so much better now!
Haeundae surfing competition

There were even paparazzi!!

George and I managed to do a bit of surfing at Haeundae on Sunday. The waves were tiny, but it was still a lot of fun. I managed to get up every time that I tried ... can't wait for some typhoon waves to roll in so I can have more of a challenge.
The waves picked up in the early evening, and
everyone jumped at the chance to do some surfing!

We also went to Seomyeon underground shopping on Friday night, it was amazing. We'd gone looking for it before, but had ended up in the bad wing that had all kinds of belly dancing and promo girl outfits, not what I was looking for! This time we wandered around some more and found the good shopping area - I'll definitely be returning next pay cheque.

In Korea there is no summer running season. The rainy season, and I guess perhaps the humidity prevents it. However, there is a big race coming up in October. Since I know about it so far ahead of time I will hopefully be able to get registered! I've emailed the organizers and am waiting for a response. The course takes the runners over the Gwangan bridge and back, which sounds awesome. Since my vacation time slacking has kept me from running much lately I think I'm going to do the 10km instead of half marathon. I'm hugely competitive, and don't think I can improve my time from my last half with only a month to train and the winds/height challenges of running across the Gwangan bridge and back. I'll be mad at myself if I don't improve my time, so doing my first 10km race ever will be a better idea. I'll train for a half later, when I have the time to do it properly and blow my old time away! Let's hope I can actually get registered for this race, I really want to do it.
Pictures of a previous race. Might have to
re-evaluate my goals ... it looks packed on that bridge!

The bridge!

**UPDATE: The registration deadline is the 13th, so it looks like I'm going to be doing my first race in Korea in October ... NICE-UH!

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