JTBC Seoul Marathon

I always wanted to participate in a marathon held in Korea, and after hearing that the course of the JTBC Seoul Marathon was good, I made up my mind and applied for the 2023 race. As a result, unfortunately it rained, but overall it was a great memory. But rain or shine, the race goes on. The course was memorable and it was great to be able to see famous places in Korea. I will definitely apply for this year’s competition as well.

Спасибо организаторам за хорошую гонку! Понравился стартовый пакет: беговой лонгслив, бутылка, наклейки! Сервис и волонтеры - отличные! Маршрут красивый! На пунктах питания есть всё необходимое: вода, изотоник, бананы, энергетические гели и chocopie :) После финиша дали пакет с едой! Хотелось бы узнать свой результат: какое место я занял? И где взять фото с финиша?

It was cold in the morning 1º C at 5:30 and only managed to warm to around 17º by mid day. But back to the start, I was early, before the sun rose. It was quite when I got to the stadium and they were still setting up parts of the event. The bag drop was well organized, and the crowd seemed to hang out there. I guess as I couldn't understand any announcements they might have mention it was time to go to the start line. So I ended up rushing to the start line managed to get there with a few mins to spare but again with zero Korean language skills it was only the small fireworks going off that alerted me to the actual start. The start was good with people actually running, unlike many where the crowd forces you to walk the first bit. There was space and it never felt crowded. The course was made up a long relative straight sections so it was quite easy to know where you were. It seemed like every second aid station had sponges only and with it being so cold I never went near them but I guess if you lived there maybe they were helpful. But I did use the water, Pocari Sweat and gels that were on course. While I was told this was a flat marathon, it's not! Sure most of it is level there are quite a few 'bumps' that require a change in stride or pace to overcome. The map on WorldsMarathon is not quite right as there is a little kink out for a 2/3km section on the way back around the 33km mark. I did see the leaders coming back as I was going down South and they just looked so comfortable as they strode past in a small group. I would recommend this race as an event to do if you're visiting Korea, the timing worked for me so I was very happy to spend half the day running 42km. The fact that I walked 20k the day before and 10km each day after was not ideal but it was family holiday so we had things to see and do.

I booked the holiday months before and the marathon was the only distance I could signup at that time. There was also a 10k but I didn't know when that would open for registration so went with the longer option. The race was 3 weeks after doing the Melbourne Marathon so not ideal but actually worked out well with the Korean marathon being 15 mins faster than Melbourne.