Signing up for races?

[Catherine Melton]

I just moved to Seoul and am hoping to enter some races...but a lot of the links I've found are for sites that are only in Korean, which I can't read. How do you sign up for races? Also...I'm looking for a group to run with on the weekends...can anyone help me with that? Thanks!

[Adeel]

You can ask a friend or Korean co-worker to do it for you. Failing that, just try muddling around the site yourself.

The two groups I'm aware of are the Seoul Flyers and Smile Run.

[Catherine Melton]

Thanks!

[chuck hohenstein]

oh yeah and be aware some of the race sites havent set up their registration system to accept foreigner arc#'s. I had to get my TA to call the Dokdo marathon people to get that worked out.

most sites though are pretty easy to figure out on registering, you only really need a computer that can type korean and internet explorer. The process is pretty straight forward, you can easily type your address in from your arc or a bill etc. you can pay by bank transfer which is easy too.

regarding groups, i met a woman at indigos in haebongchon who said there is a group that runs at noon (???) Sundays (noon given this weather would seem a little hard imho) from Noksapyeong station.

[Adeel]

Yeah, races that don't accept foreigners are the bane of my existence. I've had Korean coworkers take care of that for me in the past, but it's annoying. I won't bother with supposedly international races that don't accept foreigners.

Also, it's worth it to patronize races that take the time to accommodate a dozen foreigners out of 5,000 runners by putting a little notice that says "check here if a foreigner". Why you need to give the equivalent of an American social security number just to run a road race is beyond me, but it's a topic for another day.

[Mark]

We may have a solution to both of your problems:

www.seoulflyers.com

We have been signing up our members/non-members for races in and around Seoul. By running as a group there are several benefits such as extra "goodies" from the race organizer for group registration, your own cheering squad, team photo, etc.

Please click the link below to go to an online spreadsheet with the races we are participating in. (You can use the tabs below to look at different upcoming race info.)

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=re-xoMcueFO3ewa6lpgmObw

I understand your frustration in lack of English registration system for many of the races. I think that's partially due to the lack of resource and also profit driven motive of many of the race organizers. As for requiring resident #, I am told that it is for medical insurance reason - because national medical insurance system is linked to that number. Still, by contacting them directly I haven't had problem signing up foreigners without the resident #.

There is a race on 6/6 Hangang Seoul Marathon (5k, 10k, 1/2, full). If you are interested you need to sign up NOW.

Please contact us at SeoulFlyers [AT] gmail [DOT] com


Cheers,
Mark

[Catherine Melton]

Thanks Mark, I'm definitely interested in training with the group!