running culture in korea.

4T2 in seoul.



in seoul we’re picked up by our dear friend and partner @useful_atelier_joony and basically dive straight into korean bbq dinner while going through our packed agenda for the coming days. 

sleep deprived but excited we wake up to do our first run from @fritz coffee with a lovely group of people and we get introduced to the korean way of group running; it’s very organised. still bianca manages to disrupt the order with her 'kimchi' tactic (more about that on the socials).

after the run we dive into work, going through the details of our plans for korea, together with our partners. no time is wasted so we continue to meet retailers during the rest of the day and after a quick bite we run into kaleg designer @yeti_yetiti sporting the o.g. get lost shoes; selfy is madatory.
friday is a big one with 2 social runs, starting at @district_hannam together with @lepont.seoul for an ‘easy’ uphill run to namsan park. wow, trees are turning red, brown and yellow: our timing is brilliant.
 
we fill up time in between runs with work, meetings and at night move to @gyeupsik, where we are welcomed by @incdonc and various crew members from @commune_d_seoul, @prrc and @privatetrail. we do the epic last (for some the first...) uphill run to the namsan tower to test the legs. all good! we return to gyeupsik where we carbo load and get som advise for what is to come on sunday….



saturday morning we kick it off with the social run from @useful_atelier into seoul forest park which ends up being an ad hoc shoot for something that is coming soon! the remainder of saturday is for retailer visits and going through our plans for korea with our teams. and then we get ready for sunday’s race.

'funrun.'

sunday morning and by now pretty much exhausted from the tour, the alarm goes of at 4.00am because we need to move to the @goodrunner_skyrace dadoon to enjoy a 22k trailrace with 1100m alt. the entire 4T2 team is running (@ebonynieuwenhuijse pretends to hate running so she only runs when we’re not around). 

it’s crisp but sunny and this will be a beautiful day. and so we hit the trails, our last run on the tour, and of course we go all out, pouring out the last bits of energy from the legs. with all the up and down we get what we asked for and more. the trail community in korea is all family and we are adopted like family. so the race turns out to be pretty heavy but lots of fun and chats and we all make it to the finish line in one piece. 



what stands out from running the race was the 'fun' element while still running for result. there's a level of lightness and camaraderie among the people on the course and above all, the volunteers are absolutely amazing. korean running culture feels like a healthy mix of style, performance and fun. we tried to blend in as much as we could.


this amazing event marks the end of our visit to korea and the entire tour and we find ourselves surrounded by an lovely group of people, who have been supporting us in this crazy schedule. a huge amount of hugs to everyone involved, especially to the following people: joony, han, hayan, lin, jurin.

 

← Older Post Newer Post →