Track Races

[James Johnson]

Hey Hey, im hoping to move to Korea in mid August, was just wondering how easy it is to enter tarck races during the summer, and whether these are largely based in Seoul. Im an 8:30 3k, 3.55 1500 runner but don't know what the standards are like for competition. Also are there many cross country races around or is it more a case of doing road races during the winter??

[Michael Davidson]

On a thread down the page I think I put a link the the Korean Athletic Federation. A simple google search (or better yet, through the IAAF website) will get you there if I didn't post it). Not sure how helpful that will be. I didn't really look that hard for track races (teaching is a hard job to do and still keep up solid training - which I guess you're probably familiar with). With your times (and if you're any good at 5's or 10's) you'd probably clean up in the road races. Generally the 10's are won in around 33 or so (sometimes faster). You can find loads of info on this site or from people here if you are interested. Often you can get cash or gift certificate prizes if you place in the top 5 or so.

I'm sure there are track races since the Korean records are at least respectable, though with what you run, you would probably be up there at their bigger races (as I think their strength is the longest races - marathon). There are at any rate several tracks where you could train, though the one I was doing intervals at (Seoul National University of Education) was often crowded with 20 somethings playing soccer half on the track (because a real game was going on on the infield) and I've actually had to run through their games to finish intervals.

If you know someone who speaks/writes Korean, you could probably get them to email the KAF and find out for you. You could try emailing them in English, but you might not get a comprehensible response. Good luck.