Runners, take your mark

Chuncheon, a small city in the mountains north of Seoul, is an ideal setting for a marathon. As you can see from this photo taken seconds before the start, 21 000 runners fill up the stadium rather impressively. Runners line up in seeding groups from A-N. A-K are based on finish times in marathons within the last year, with A runners sub 3 hours and K runners 5+ hours. L-N are reserved for runners who haven't run a sanctioned marathon in the last year. Lee was in L. He crossed the start line 27 minutes after the first group left. After 30 minutes, all the runners were on the road. Fall leaves and a mountain lake make this Korea's most scenic and popular marathon. The mountains make it quite a challenge. Lee made us all proud, finishing in 4:26:54 with a big smile, already planning to run again next year.