Pyeongtaek Port-Silk Road 5k

This past weekend I participated in my first ever international 5k. Now, I haven't run competitively in. . . well, in a very long time and, even though I run a 5k three times a week, I found myself almost sick with nerves on the morning of the race. Luckily, however, a fabulous group of Lady Draggins (and about 500 Koreans) joined me for the race. This is the LD 5k team pre-race:

Heading for the start line. Yes, all the Koreans were wearing their light blue race shirts, and we were all proudly screaming 'AMERICAN' with our bright green 'PIL SUNG' shirts. Isn't there an AFN commercial about this type of behavior?

The race began like a nightmare: imagine yourself the midst of Korean rush-hour traffic. That's EXACTLY how Koreans run, too. Either really fast with sudden stops or extremely slow with no direction. All of it with absolutely NO situational awareness. Awful. Especially for someone who needs to get into a groove to run. But, eventually, the pack thinned out and I was able to finish. The race actually ended up being almost 6k instead of 5, but I finished it with a respectable 29 minutes, with the rest of the LD 5k team not far behind. This is all of post-race (and yes, we all got medals):

Signing up for the race, we were promised food. Little did we know that "food" meant the Korean staples of kimchi and rice. Not exactly what I crave after a race. Luckily, USFK came through with boxes of BK Whoppers. I love being a fat American.

Fantastic job, Lady Draggins! Can't wait for the next one!