Maintenance Practice

So maintaining wasn't exactly my plan for the month of May, but it's what ended up happening. And I maintained, even lost a pound and a half actually, somehow miraculously without doing a single thing right.

That's not entirely true, I guess. Let's begin at the beginning, then. I guess first I should say I'm sorry that I disappeared, and proved to be a bad cheering-on buddy for roughly the past 28 days. I had a semi-big project at work, and was just really exhausted most of the time. I made some big decisions about my future (My contract was supposed to be up in July, but now I'm staying in Korea until early January), and mostly, I just felt too distracted in my head to face an empty page. I'm back now, though. It's t-minus ~37 days before I'm on the beach at home, and time to get back on track.

My one major accomplishment for the month of May was running the 5k I'd signed up for. In a surprising and unprecedented (ill-advised?) move, I started by carbo-loading and pre-race rest a little early. (Read: I ate pretty much only sugar for the week leading up to the race, and also stopped running.) It was an interesting decision on my part, and I still can't quite pinpoint why I did it, but anyway, I woke up early on that Saturday determined to do this thing that I'd been training for for 2 months.

My friend and I actually were up late the night before making our t-shirts. We bought super-bright hot green t-shirts and permanent markered "Team Foreigner" on them, along with various other decorations. Some people found them humorous anyway. It was as stressful as I imagined, finding the registration tent amongst the vast number of tents labelled in Korean, getting my number pinned on straight, but finally, after much nervousness, I was crushed at the starting line and then we were off. There was also a 20k and an 11k that started before us, which was, I discovered, where the really serious runners were... I think I was mostly running with children, middle-aged people, and the elderly, but whatever. I felt right at home.

It was a little hotter day than any I'd run in this year, but still not too bad. My running buddy Meghan lost me quickly, but that was okay, 'cause she's super-fast and fit. The "festival" area was on a track, and the race actually started on the track, so the first part was half a lap on the way out to the street. I felt compelled to run at a preternaturally fast speed to keep up appearances until we got out of sight of the spectators, then I slowed down to my preferred crawl, although I certainly wasn't the slowest person on the road. The race consisted of a flat stretch, then a slightly uphill jaunt on the way up to a temple, and then another flat (and beautifully tree-lined!) brief stretch next to the temple until we got to the turn-around point. As you might remember, a few weeks before the race I tried running what I thought might be the track, but then found it was suspiciously too short, so I was surprised when I was directed to turn around at almost exactly the point I'd chosen on my practice run.

The second half was wonderful, because then I knew I was half done, and I knew exactly how much longer I had to go. The uphill jaunt magically became downhill, some girls gave me a cup of water (which I mostly just spilled all over myself--I knew if I stopped, even for a second, I wouldn't keep going), and I passed all the people who were behind me (yes!). It was a confidence booster. I wanted to quit a little, sure, but this was special, this was what I'd been waiting for all these weeks... that's what I kept telling myself, anyway. I was sweating profusely, but I felt awesome, and then almost suddenly, I could see the turn in to the university track where I'd started. Victory was within my grasp!

There were traditional Korean drummers lining the path onto the track, which was a little exhausting, though I'm sure I didn't hear them over the beating of my own heart. I continued at my steady snail's pace until I was about a quarter of the track's length from the finish line, then I did it--I just sprinted as fast as I could, feeling awesome and inspiring some amused cheering from the spectators. I didn't feel sick the whole time I was running, though I felt like puking for the first minute after my finish-line sprint. But then some nice girls gave me a bottle of water and a bag with a banana and some yoghurt in it, and all was right with the world again. Then someone else gave me a necklace with a number 18 on it, and I went looking for Meghan on shaky legs. We plopped down in the grass, she sporting her awesome number 8 badge, and I discovered that we had, in fact, placed among women. Excitement. This meant I received a box of semi-delicious 참외 (it tastes like canteloupe, sort of) as a prize, and that, ladies and gentlemen, was my moment of zen.

No, it got better. As were just leaving the university to walk home, we ran into two of my adorable students, who had come (though tardily) to cheer me on. We gave them our free beef-soup lunch, drank our own rice wine, then conveniently they carried our big boxes of fruit home for us. I was exhausted walking home, but the adrenaline got me there, and then after a glorious shower, we had Chinese food for lunch. I couldn't believe it was over.

Shucks, time to lesson plan. Tonight, the rest of May, and some race photos. I hope you're all doing well! I'll see you at your blogs soon. :)