Sunday, January 19, 2014

Another (half) Naked Race in Korea!


 As I said in my last post I am trying to live everyday I have left here in Korea to the fullest, so last weekend I ventured up north to Pyeongchang with some fellow hashers to run in the annual Naked Race. I've run this one once before, two years ago with some of the Seoul Flyers, and I guess I was crazy enough to do it again. The race organizers gave us a bus to transport us up there so we all met bright and early at 6am to begin the trek. 

The race is labelled a "Naked" race but participants actually need to wear a little something. Men were allowed to wear shorts only and women shorts and a sports bra or t-shirt. It was a chilly -5C with a windchill of around -8/9C. It was not the warmest! But crazy as we are, we stripped down and prepared ourselves for 5km of cold!! The Koreans at the race were fascinated with us crazy Waegooks (foreigners) so they were interviewing us and taking lots of pictures. We definitely felt like celebrities! 

Posing for pictures

One of the hashers in his running attire for the day!

At the start line getting ready to run! 
At the start line I was prepping myself for a slow run, I wasn't planning on breaking any of my records or anything like that, but once I began running I realized I was running at a good pace and was feeling pretty good. After the first 2km I stepped it up and decided I was going to try to beat my best 5km time which was 25:56. As I approached the turn around I realized I was relatively close to the front of the group, so I kept on pushing. I caught up with a Korean woman who was running at a good pace so I tried my best to stick with her. It was clear she didn't want me there as she kept trying to lose me but I pushed on. When we got down to the last 150m she stepped it into over drive and out sprinted me to cross the finish line about seconds before me. I crossed with a time of 25:12, my fastest yet! And to my surprise the woman in front of me was actually disqualified for her clothing(she wasn't wearing shorts) so I placed 5th in the women's 5km. I was joined on the finishers board by my friend Damien, who got 3rd overall and my friend Leigh who was 4th in ladies. We even got a special foreigners ceremony because we missed the actually prize ceremony. 

Just about to cross the finish line 

Who says hashers can't run fast?! Winning!
We had a great time and everyone who came along enjoyed it! I'm glad I decided to run it again and this time with my hash family!


Some of the crew after the race

Warming up around the heater after the race







1 comment:

  1. The Koreans must think you are all crazy although I guess there were some of them too. We would consider -5 pretty balmy here. Maybe not shorts and t-shirt weather though!
    Good for you!

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