July 23, 2010 – Friday

How time flies when you are having fun!  Indeed I have been having fun along with many other Seoul Flyers.  So much has happened since last time I wrote here that I didn’t update our site one iota during that time.

We had some races in May, June and July.  We had a club social each of those months with the last one on July 10^th as an outdoor barbecue in Yongsan where about 40 people enjoyed some fresh burgers, hot dogs, steak and much more among the SF members and families.

Many expressed how much they enjoyed the July barbecue event and my thought is that all the other previous socials held at Dave’s house, Sullivan School, Pierre’s house, Bernies’ house and various Itaewon establishments built the social/friendly environment and club members and families to gel so well together at the barbecue.    Well, of course the biggest contributor to the successful barbecue was my wife’s planning, preparation and cooking.  =)

Our next social will be held on May 7^th at Griff’s home which is near Namsan so we will run at Namsan in the morning and then party at Griff’s house the rest of the day… after that… Itaewon might call us to be there too.

The team has gotten much stronger and larger as many new runners joined the group during these typically transitional months for the US military and a good in-flow of members continue at near the end of July.  Word of mouth and other publicity medium seems to be reaching a much larger number of expats and Korean in and around Seoul/Korea.

Shira, our club secretary puts out an update email/newsletter twice a week typically and is very informative and up to date always and makes for following the clubs latest information a breeze.

Getting down to the business, I will talk about couple of things, 1. Training 2. Upcoming Marathons, and 3. Club Officers.

1.       Training:  Since Jim Bates arrived on the club scene (SF Running Club scene), he has been instrumental in taking on the Tuesday and Thursday training and current have active training on Tuedays at 6 p.m. for track workouts (intervals) and on Thursday 6 p.m. for hill workout on the back (North) side of Namsan on cushioned trail (rolling hills).  We continue to train on Saturdays at 7 a.m. for the 10Km group and 20Km group now meets at 6 a.m. – www.seoulflyers.com/training.html Location “A” is the map to the meeting location.  If you are training for a marathon and need advice or training plan, please email us at seoulflyers@gmail.com.

2.       Marathons:  Most of us will be doing the Chuncheon Marathon on Oct 24^th in Chuncheon.  Currently it looks like we will have about 50 for this event.  We are working on securing a charterd bus for this event.  Over 20,000 compete in this race every year and it is my favorite marathon in Korea that runs around a lake/river during the perfect weather Fall day in Chuncheon.  If you ran it last year, the new course was horrible so they are relooking the course to make it a better event/race.  Joongang Marathon on Nov 7^th is held in Seoul and starts at Jamshil Stadium and runs to Bundang area and back for the 26.2 mile course.  It is fairly flat but it is fairly boring also.  Both of these races can qualify you for Boston.

Registrations closes in about a week (on July 30^th) so hurry if you want to sign up.

3.       Club Officers:  If there are anyone interested in serving the club as an elected or appointed officers, please plan on attending future Officer’s meetings.  Next one is scheduled for August 5^th.  We plan to have an electronic ballot/election in November and to install them during our Annual Awards Banquet to be held in December.   Please talk to one of the current officers if you want to contribute more to the club even if not as an officer.  Thank you.

A bit for those of you requiring some motivation – It’s hot and muggy out there and very very unmotivating environment to run right now.  I have to tell you though, that these are the best days to train often and train smartly and not simply train hard.  The hot weather can be very dangerous.  But with careful precaution and planning, you can do a lot of running and stay very fit and energized.

I’ve been working on the 30 day (run) challenge for nearly the last 3 months and haven’t succeeded yet but I am getting very close.  I got to 14 days first try and took 4 days of rest.  2^nd try, I made it to 24 days and had to take 2 days of rest.  3^rd attempt started on 1 July and so far successful for 23 days and feeling very strong to complete the 30 days of running without skipping a day.  This time, I’ve run nearly every day of those 23 days early in the morning.  With all the heat and humidity, it’s difficult but can be tolerated if done early enough in a day.  Another option is to do it indoor in air conditioned environment at the house or a gym.  I’ve been getting up and first thing has been to get ready and run before anything else.  This also means that each evening you should sleep early and take care of necessary choirs or work duties early/on time so that you do not have to miss your day of running.

Having done this, I am able to spend more time with the family as my routine has become much more consistent and usually the body has developed the endurance/strength to have more energy each day even while running every day.

The training during the Summer days will immensely help you for completing the full training for the Fall marathon and similar the Winter months of training will help greatly for the Spring marathon.

Whether you want to just improve your fitness by running or improve your personal satisfaction of your competitiveness and/or simply drive to accomplish, running regularly/consistently following a plan is your answer.

Get with Jim Bates or anyone of our club experienced runners to get some tips on how to accomplish what you want to accomplish through running.

See you on the trails soon! 

- Jae  - Your hardworking leader, living with a passion!

Seoul Flyers Running Club

A Running Club Without Boundaries~

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Usual Group Runs:

Saturdays 7 or 8 a.m.: 10Km to 32Km slow run (LSD) - 10 to 12 min/mile pace

Tuesday/Thursdays 6:00 p.m. : 45 to 60 minute speed work (tempo/intervals) or hill work

Other Workouts : track/intervals/tempo runs/hills - time/days vary so contact us to join.

Upcoming Events:

Seoul International Marathon - March 21st

Seoul Open Marathon - March 21st

Jeju Ultramarathon - March 27 - 28th

Club Social - April 3rd or 4th

MBC Adidas Marathon - April 25th

Contact us to join the upcoming events and/or training runs.

Recent Past Events:

Anjoonggeun Peace Marathon - Mar 7

March Club Social - Mar 6

3.1 Independence Movement Day Marathon - Mar 1

Goyang-si Joongang Marathon - Feb 28

Koguryo Marathon - Feb 21

Yongsan 5K Fun Run - 9:30 a.m. Feb 6, 2010 - Saturday

7th Goguryo Marathon - Feb 21, 2010 - Sunday

Seoul International Marathon - Mar 21, 2010 - Sunday

2009 Annual SFRC Banquet - Jan 9, 2010 - Sunday

Yongsan New Years Eve Midnight Run - Dec 31, 2009 midnight, Thursday

Sports Seoul Marathon - Nov 15, Sunday

Thanksgiving Pot-Luck - Nov 22, Sunday (RSVP to Jae)

Son Ki Jung Peace Marathon - Nov 29, Sunday (Sign up by Nov 11 - Jae)

Childrens' Heart Disease Prevention Fundraiser Marathon - Dec 6, Sunday

Yongsan 5K - Dec 19, Saturday

1st Hangang Winter Marathon - Dec 20, Sunday

BBQ at Dave's - Sep 12, 4 p.m. Saturday

DMZ Run - Sep 13, Sunday

Yongsan 10K Road Race - Sep 19, 9:30 a.m. Saturday

Neck Tie Marathon 5K - Sep 26, Saturday

Hi Seoul Marathon - Oct 11, Sunday

Incheon New Bridge Opening Marathon - Oct 11, Sunday

Nike Human Race 10K - Oct 24, Saturday

Chuncheon Marathon - Oct 25, Sunday

JoongAng Marathon - Nov 1, Sunday

Cheolwon DMZ Marathon - Aug 23, Sunday

Brunch Social at Liz' House - July 12th, Sunday

6th Saebyuk GangByeon Marathon - July 5th, Sunday

4th of July 5K at Yongsan - July 4th, Saturday

5K at Yongsan Base - June 12th (Sat) 6:30 a.m.

Social at 3 Alley Pub in Itaewon - June 9th (Tues) 7 p.m. www.3alleypub.com

1st Hangang Seoul Marathon - June 6, Saturday

BBQ at Dave's - May 30, Saturday

1st Queens' Marathon - May 5th, Sunday

Visit Running in Korea

Links

Ohmyshoe.com - Choice running shoes

Smile Run - Another running club in Seoul

If you are interested in a link exchange or sponsoring our club, please contact us