Greetings Flyers!

It was another beautiful weekend in Seoul!

On Saturday morning, a good-sized group of Seoul Flyers went for the usual 10Km loop along the Han.  As always, the group continued on to Paris Croissant for coffee and pastries.  These runs are a great place to meet other runners and a chance to socialize.

On Sunday morning, the Flyers headed out of the city for the Hwacheon Peace Marathon.  It was a hot day, but a beautiful course.  Congratulations to Shea on her 5th place finish in the 5Km and to Cheol on his 5th in the half.  Also congrats to Kerschyl and Anna on running their first half marathons!

If you are an official member but have not received a Seoul Flyers shirt yet, come out before or after our Saturday runs to pick up your shirt.  If you can't make it on Saturday mornings, please contact Sun to arrange pickup in the Ichon or Jamsil areas (suntbae@hotmail.com 010-4589-0825).

Join us this Saturday for the next Seoul Flyers Time Trial, this is from Jim:

Seoul Flyers Surpass the Human Race (by Jim Bates)

In a rivalry that goes all the way back to who-knows-when the Seoul Flyers Team narrowly defeated the Naver Human Race squad 61.56% to 58.27% during an Age-Graded road-race competition held in conjunction with Time Trial Number 6.

Sue Jorgensen (75.5%), Sun Tae Bae (67.8%), Hendrik Persson (64.4%), Jae Kim (63.6%) and Martin Cooke (62.6%) led the Flyers in scoring while Cheol Son (76.9%), Seokkyu Song (72.2%), Cheonsik Han (64%), Joohan Yoon (59.8%), and Jinyoung Kim (55%) led the Navers.

This was the second victory in a row for the Flyers, who defeated the 63 Rabbits, at Time Trial 5.  All three clubs are expected to compete during Time Trial Number 7, scheduled for June 4th at 0800 near the Tortoise Ship down by the river at Hangang Park.

Non-affiliated runners like Lou Shapiro (70.9%) and Peter Tuohy (70.3%) came out of nowhere to score above 70%, which is considered Regional Class.  Age Graded percentages are based on standards established by the World Association of Veteran Athletes; this group compiles world record level performances for both genders and all ages from 8 to 99.  The world record standard per age and gender (expressed in total seconds) is then divided by actual performance (also expressed in seconds).  For instance the world record 10K standard for a 48 year old woman is 33 minutes and 50 seconds, which equals 2030 seconds. This indicates the best ever performance for a 48 year old woman.  In comparison, if a 48 year old woman were to run a time of 44 minutes and 50 seconds (a total of 2690 seconds) her age graded performance would be 75.46% (2030 divided by 2690 = 75.46%).  Runner’s World Magazine (http://www.runnersworld.com/) includes an Age Graded tool on its web site (http://www.runnersworld.com/cda/agegradingcalculator/).  The best age-graded performances were awarded delicious pies in a ceremony appropriately held at Paris Croissant after the race.

Of particular note was the performance of Sun Tae Bae, the Seoul Flyers President.  In his debut time trial (he unselfishly had volunteered for the first six races) Sun almost broke the 70% barrier.  This was despite the fact that he had to wake up extra early to mark the running route with chalk.  Martin Cooke deserves special recognition as well.  He is the only person to have successfully completed all six time trials held to date, one per month beginning in December of last year.  No doubt Martin will be there at time trial number seven to continue his streak.

Why don’t you enter our next Age Graded race slated for June 4th at 8:00 a.m. near the 7-11 down by the river of the normal Seoul Flyer’s Saturday running route.  Race registration starts at 7:15 and ends at 7:45.  If you have any questions or comments contact me at JimBates1@cox.net.