Gyeongju Cherry Blossom Marathon

About a month ago now, my friends and I were discussing the then-upcoming Daegu Marathon. A bunch of us ran the 10K in that race last year. We all came to the conclusion that, instead of running the same race again, we would run in another race: the Gyeongju Marathon. This time we chose to do the 5K. We had all been meaning to go back to Gyeongju since our day trip last year when we rented bikes to see the sights in the very historical city. Gyeongju was the capital of Korea during the Silla dynasty, and there are some very old buildings that have been preserved. A lot of the old buildings in Korea were destroyed during various Japanese invasions and other wars, but some things in Gyeongju are still original. Also, Gyeongju is famous for its many cherry blossoms in the spring. Last year, we visited at the end of the cherry blossom season, so things weren't as stunning as we had hoped. The Gyeongju Marathon killed two birds with one stone: a race and a trip back to Gyeongju during the peak of cherry blossom season.

Sian, Thomas, Matthew, and I signed up to run the race, but Maria, Gianni, Ben, and Marie all came for the weekend trip. Matthew, Sian, and I did 4 practice runs before the race--even though I know a 5K is a fairly short distance that you don't really need to train for. We left on Good Friday after school and went back to Daegu on Easter Sunday in the afternoon. The hostel we chose was just a few minutes walk from the train station, so it was really convenient. It was really clean and comfortable. It was kind of funny because this hostel doesn't have mixed gender rooms, so we ended up booking 1 room for the boys and 1 for the girls. It was actually kind of nice to get some girl bonding time. We normally do things as a big group (except that the girls did go see Cinderella together recently). On our first night in Gyeongju, we didn't do anything except get snacks at the convenience store and chat. We wanted to get an early night because we had to get up super early to catch the shuttle to the race start. 

The shuttle stop near the train station was not marked in our guide map, so we went to the train station and just followed some Koreans who we thought knew what was going on. Turns out that they also had no idea. A shuttle completely drove by the massive group of people and stopped down the street on the other side of the road from us. We didn't have enough time to cross and make the shuttle before it drove off, but at least we then found out where the stop was! No big deal because the next shuttle came in just a few minutes. Before the race, we got our race packets in the mail with our numbers (and a pretty nice little duffel bag), but, unfortunately, no chips. I thought maybe we'd get one on the race day, but no such luck. Our race was too short and insignificant to give us an official time! We probably should have just run the 10K again...but I don't know if I would have felt like it in that case. The start/finish line was right near this really cool buildings that was modern looking but had a cutout in the center of a pagoda, so the shape of it was really interesting. We had quite a long time to wait before our race was to start. At the start of each race, they shot off small fireworks and confetti. Finally, they called the 5K, the second to last race (the last race was "Janpanese Walking"--I'm sure they mean't Japanese, but what is that even!). It was kind of chaotic because we didn't really know if we were supposed to start when we did. I heard that some people for the 10K race accidentally started at the marathon start time and was finished about the same time that the 10K race actually started. All the people for whatever race just kind of crowded at the starting line, and they definitely didn't care about their pace. The first 2K of the race was just weaving around everyone who was walking. People brought their kids and just took the race as a nice opportunity to walk. The race took place around Bomun Lake, and the streets were lined with beautiful cherry blossom trees. It was a really nice run with hardly any incline. People with race numbers would just completely stop in the middle of the road to take pictures! I understand if people want to walk...I can even sort of understand wanting to take pictures (it was beautiful), but there was no respect for those actually trying to run. People didn't care at all if they got in the way. If you want to walk around the lake and take pictures of the blossoms, just do that at another time, not during a race. It was very chaotic and not really organized. Also, since the race is kind of outside the main downtown area of Gyeongju, there were almost zero spectators. There were people at the finish line who came with specific runners, but no one spread out on the race course. Maybe it was better for the marathon runners because part of that race is in the downtown section, but the 10K was only around the lake, which would have been terrible with no cheering. The Daegu Marathon had tons of cheerers last year. For the 5K, we just ran up and turned around to finish at the same place. All of us wanted to finish the race in under 30 minutes. Thomas finished first, then Sian, then Matthew, then me. I clocked myself at 30:37, but I'm going to give myself a bit of leeway because of the 2K of dodging stupid people registered for a race they weren't actually running. Anyway, it was a nice race and we got a medal and some snacks afterward, which is really the only reason I wanted to run it. But the Daegu Marathon was much better organized and, overall, a more fun race. 

It took us a while to get back to the hostel because the shuttles only began running at 10am, and the traffic made a 15 minute ride take an hour. We all showered and rested for a bit. We went to lunch at the Chinese food restaurant near the hostel. I have to say that I don't really like a lot of the Korean Chinese food, but this place was the best I've had so far. We got some delicious fried mandu (dumplings), fried rice, and the tang su yuk (fried pork with sweet/sour sauce and fruit) was amazing. We decided to split up after lunch since Gianni, Marie, and Ben had already seen the very famous temple in Gyeongju and didn't feel like going back. They, along with Sian and Thomas, went to Love Castle (a sex museum similar to Love Land in Jeju) and to check out some good spots with lots of cherry blossoms while Maria, Matthew, and I went to Bulguksa Temple. 

awesome dragon heads

Bulguksa Temple was completed in 774 and was the center of Silla Buddhism. The sign outside the temple gate said that people were meant to pray for the country's protection from foreign invasion there. In the very next sentence, it said "the entire temple was burnt down by Japanese invaders in 1593." Sad but very ironic. Some of the temple was rebuilt following this, but it was entirely restored between 1969 and 1973.  All the buildings at the temple were marked with signs, so you could see which ones were actually the original buildings. Some were still very old, like 1700's era. I really enjoyed the beautiful paint on the buildings as well 

as all the dragon heads popping out from under the roofs. There was a raised platform with a big drum on it, and the sign said that the stone columns holding up the platform were actually from the original 774 temple! Amazing! There is also a pagoda outside of the main temple buildings that is very famous. It was built around 751 and is still preserved today. The temple is built into the base of a mountain, and the many buildings of the complex are built at varying levels, so you have to walk up and down hills a lot to see everything. It was probably one of my favorite temples in Korea. It just feels very historically important and not at 

all modern. There was another area, next to one of the smaller temple buildings, where people had erected small towers of rocks everywhere! They had built them on the walls around the building and all over the ground. I'm not sure the significance, but it was really cool. Before we left, we stopped at the temple gift shop. Usually, we don't bother stopped at those kinds of shops because they just sell Buddhist bracelets and statues. This one, though, was superb! They had all kinds of handmade Korean souvenirs. Maria and Matthew bought a few things, and I bought two hand-painted images of people painted on hanji (Korean paper). One is of an old man carrying a sack on his back and walking with a walking stick. The other is of a beautiful woman wearing hanbok (traditional Korean clothing). They can hang on a wall beside each other because the colors in each are similar. We had a great time at the temple. 

The Seokguram Grotto is near the temple, but we decided to forgo a visit, even though it is very historically important. The Grotto was built in 742, and it contains a fine example of Buddhist art, a Buddha statue on a lotus pedestal. Marie visited it before and told us that they have constructed a very ugly building around the Grotto and Buddha statue in order to preserve it further. To see the Buddha, you have to peek inside a little window, and you can't even stop to take pictures. Although I am kind of disappointed because I wanted to see it, it probably wouldn't have been worth a bus ride and hassle to get back to the hostel, especially considering it was about to rain. 

If you're going to go to the temple or Buddha, be aware that the buses might be packed if it is a busy weekend (like cherry blossom festival/marathon weekend!), so you might want to consider a taxi. We took one to the temple and back from the train station, and it cost about 20,000 won. The cost might also be lower if there had been less traffic. It took forever to get back to the hostel because of traffic. We all met back up at the hostel after our outings. We got back hours before the other group, who told us that the Love Castle was not really worth the 11,000 won entrance fee and the 2 hour bus ride that they had because of the traffic and the rain. They weren't entirely upset though because they did find a cherry blossom forest and got some nice pictures before any of the rain started.

The guys at the hostel helped us order some pizza for dinner, which we ate while playing board games in the lounge area. Sian and Thomas headed back to Daegu early in the morning to catch Easter church service, and the rest of us hung around because Ben's college, Wisconin, were playing in the finals of March Madness. We watched the game while playing games. The train on the way back had no seats, so we bought standing tickets and got seats in the cafe train. For nearly the entire ride back to Daegu, we played a game Maria and Matthew play to waste time, saying an actor's name and listing the movies they have been in. 

It was a really fun weekend with friends that was only slightly impeded by rain. I always enjoy when all of us can get together. Since we couldn't celebrate Easter last weekend, we decided that we would celebrate it properly this coming weekend. I guess we're celebrating Orthodox Easter this year :)

We are all going to Marie's and bringing some other foods to share. We might even get to do an Easter Egg hunt!