10th - 12th of November - Gyeongji & Busan

Leaving Golgulsa temple we drove for a short while towards Gyeongju before arriving at the Yangdong Folk village - a small town never found by the Japanese when under attack by them which meant that it had never been burnt down and the buildings there were original 4-500 year old constructions. They were all inhabited as any other normal residential area, but two families had opened their doors so that people could have a look inside in parts of the houses - mainly inner courtyards; we never got inside any buildings. It was a very nice village, nice and serene, but it was also quite remote so any practical tasks would require at least half an hours' drive (and there was no info on the quality of their internet). 

 

 

 

After having lunch we continued to Cheomseonge Observatory and the nearby Royal Tombs. The Observatory is Asia's oldest observatory (built between 632 and 647) and obviously not in use anymore, but it seems largely whole despite its age - though it has started slanting around 5 degrees since getting hit by an earthquake some years ago. Following we had a walk around nearby tombs of past kings - I couldn't help compare them with the numerous burial mounds from the Stone age we have in Denmark, though these were significantly larger. They had excavated only one, mainly - as I understood it - because that superstition prevented them from disturbing their ancestors. The one they opened up had thousands of various precious objects, but not a single body. The conclusion was that it had been setup as a decoy and the body wasn't there (my theory is that the excavation did disturb the ancestor and he walked out without them noticing). It was possible to go inside this tomb and see a few of the things that was found. Lots of gold and intricate designs on jewelry and armor. Basically what you'd expect in such a place. 

 

 Cheomseonge observatory.

 

Royal tombs. 

 

We left for the hotel where we checked in in the afternoon. Unfortunately the hotel - with other hotels - was located a bit remote from the rest of the town so there wasn't much to do outside except a few restaurants. Therefore, 1½ hour's later the bus was ready to take those who wanted out to a Korean barbecue place where we had thick slabs of pork and plenty of side dishes - exactly as it should be. It was followed up by a drive to the Anapji Pond - an artificial pond at the former Donggung Palace. The 20 minute drive there brought us through almost empty roads - until we reached the parking lot of the pond which was absolutely teeming with activity. We got our tickets and did the 40 minute walk around. This was clearly a very popular destination to go to at night and understandable (to a certain degree); the completely still water and the lighting made the area incredibly pleasant to look at and if it hadn't been for the huge number of people it could have been a very nice evening walk. 

 

The following day we left at 0840 in an attempt to get to Bulguksa temple before too many arrived; we got there around 0900 and we managed to have a bit of time before the arrival of the big crowds. It is the biggest temple in South Korea and compared to the others we saw it was definitely significantly more expansive. Many more gates and courtyards, various buildings and multiple pagodas. 

 

 

 

We drove for 1½ hours to reach Busan where we started off by visiting Gamcehon Culture village, a part of Busan which has been kept in its original form; numerous colorful buildings set close together up along a hill side in a half-circular fashion. It reminded me a lot of Namche Bazar in Nepal, and people apparently compare it to Santorini in Greece. Especially with today's sunlight shining directly onto the buildings it was a very pretty view and the village was very photogenic. Unfortunately we only had 50 minutes before we had to continue so there was no time to explore any of the narrow streets that cut through the entire area, something we easily could have spent hours on. 

 

Gamcehon Culture village.

  

 

From here we drove to the Jagalchi fish market in town; a market where you can buy almost any kind of fish whether you want it filleted, dried or still fresh - in the indoor part of the market all the stalls had aquariums where the fish/shellfish/other sea creature was swimming around and ready to be sold. To be honest many of the fish seemed stressed to their eyeballs being packed in the small aquariums and while very interesting I did leave with a slight sour taste in my mouth. From here we had some free time to roam the nearby food and traditional market to get lunch and if we wanted to get souvenirs. 

 

After lunch we drove to the east side of Busan (until then we had only been on the west side) to Haeundae where we visited another temple, smaller than the previous, which overlooked the sea. It was nice, but it was "just" a temple with the view being its uniqueness. We left for our hotel to check in, and fortunately, as opposed to last night we weren't particularly isolated as there was plenty of dinner possibilities only a few minutes' walk from the hotel. 

 

 

The following morning we met to leave at 0900. It turned out that a few people had been down to the beach in the late afternoon after arriving and seen the sunset - something I hadn't considered at all. Based on the photos taken it had been quite wonderful and I was a bit bummed out that I had missed that. Oh, well - instead I got to enjoy zoning out in the hotel room for a bit before dinner. 

 

We left for Dongbaek Island, a small patch of land barely a bridge from the main land, a small island with a small circumference of app. 1km. The island is known for the APEC House - the building built for the first APEC summit in South Korea in 2005. Since then it is used to be shown for tourists and rented out for the occasional conference. A rounded building of glass and steel overlooking the sea. Continuing the walk around the island you got a nice view of Haeundae and the beach in front. There was also a statue of a mermaid though it had no connection to the Danish one in Copenhagen (it was also significantly larger). 

 

APEC House.

We continued on to Yongdusan Park and Busan tower getting a very nice view of the city. It was quite small at the top but there were only a few others than us around so it was never crowded. With clear air (not clear sky) you could see the entire city that wasn't hidden behind hills. I must admit, based on the Seoul tower the view here was more interesting and I would have loved to see the city from the tower at night. From here we went to the train station, had lunch and at 1303 we departed on a 2½ hour train ride back to Seoul. 

 

 

9th - 10th of November - Temple stay

We left the hotel at app. 0830, and as we would only be gone for 3 nights before returning to the same hotel we had the option of leaving our big bags at the hotel and just bringing a small bag with enough for the 3 nights. I managed to have room in my carry-on to leave my main bag, making it much easier to transport me and myself around. We took the subway to Seoul station where we transferred to the KTX Bullet train towards Busan, getting off at Gyeongju after 2 hours.

 

Seoul station - it's one large screen going the entire length and width of the hall. 

The train is referred to as a bullet train and it is easy to get associations to the Japanese bullet train with the long sleek noses and very smooth operation. It turned out that while these trains are much faster than the subway trains, and less blocky than the subway trains, they turned out to be fairly ordinary trains that took us out of the city. 

 

On arrival in Gyeongju we had an hour for lunch before getting picked up by bus and driven to the temple where we would spend the night. We checked in at 1400, got assigned our rooms and given vest and pants to wear. Luckily the pants were long and very comfortable, and you were allowed to wear what you wanted underneath the vest so you didn't freeze. As it was a "functioning" temple there were rules about how to dress when you visited with a nightly stay, and the pants and vest were said uniform. 

People living at this temple were practicing the martial art of Seonmudo which basically is a sort of martial art which combines mindfulness, yoga-like approach and slow and precise movements. And at 1500 we were given an presentation of this by some of the practitioners at the temple - together with a ton of other people who only showed up for this (and maybe staying for a few hours so they could have walk around and e.g. see the temple at the top of the hill). 

 

 

 

At 1600 we were introduced to the temple etiquette and the concepts of Seonmudo, and this was followed by an hour of training in what basically was a gym hall where we were around 40-50 people. It involved a lot of stretching exercises combined with exercises that tested your agility and flexibility (some of them were walking on all fours with stretched arms/legs - forward and backwards, low, mid and high kicks - the trainers mid kicks were my highest kicks...). While it was fun to try much of this was surprisingly difficult, especially as I am as limber as a steel rod. We finished off with 108 Prostrations; a gesture used in Buddhist practice to show reverence to the Buddha, his teachings, and the spiritual community - from standing position you sit down on your knees, put your forehead down with your hands palms down next to you head, turn hands around bring them up to your ears, turn them palms down again and bring them down and stand up. 108 times. And you had around 5-7 seconds for each. I stopped counting at around 3, but I believe I ended giving around the 30s or 40s. The distance from sitting to standing position got further and further for each Prostration. At least I was not the first one giving up along the way, and as we sat and relaxed waiting for the rest - and instructor - to finish, you could see how people slowly but steadily dropped out one by one. Still, there were around 30% left still going at the end which I thought was quite impressive. 

Having finished we left - me with slightly wobbly legs - and it was almost perfect timing for when dinner was served at 1800. After this it was free time until 2100 when everyone were supposed to be back in their rooms. At the outskirts of the temple area there was a café where some of us headed to after dinner and sat until it closed at 2000 before we returned to our rooms. 

Out travel group consists of 16 people where 3 are men. As the rooms at the temple had room for up to 3 people we were all put into the same room. Mattresses on the floor (they were surprisingly good, and wider than the beds at our hotel in Seoul) with a cover and quite nice pillow. With heating in the floor the room was nice and warm, and the following morning quite.... musky. Looking forward to a good night's sleep I quickly realized I was sharing a room with two people who seemed to be engaged in a snoring competition. 

The plan was to be woken up at 0500 by Buddhist calls so we could join the morning chanting service at 0530 (which was near the top of the hill at the other end of the area which meant you only had a few minutes to get out of the bed if you wanted to make it in time) and while I am not a fan of early mornings - especially when I'm on vacation - I thought I might as well participate in in (all these activities were voluntary, but if you didn't partake you'd have to entertain yourself in the mean time as there was nothing else to do and you couldn't leave the area (and there was nothing for miles)). I was woken up for the 4th or 5th time at around 0315 and thought it would be no problem getting up at 0500. The next time I woke up it was 0638 - double trouble: not only did I miss the morning schedule, it was 8 minutes into the 30 minute breakfast! One of the others was already awake so I quickly nudged the third and gave him a quick update before I tossed on some clothes and went to get breakfast. 

 

Buddha at the top of the hill

 

The view from the top.

There was another training session at 0900, and while I considered skipping it as I expected it would be mostly the same as yesterday, I ended up participating anyway. Only 2 from our group showed up so there was more room today. Yesterday it was a sole instructor who had instructed us, today it was one of the main instructors (I believe) together with a French woman who had been training here for quite a while and assisted along the way. Another 20 minutes of warmup but afterwards we went outside and utilized the road up to the temple; a fairly steep pavement road which added another challenge to the activities. Walking on all fours backwards UP the hill was.... interesting. As the instructor reminded us: "careful with your teeth!". While it felt much harder, the two of them clearly had a lot of fun together which resulted in it feel much more lighthearted despite being harder than yesterday. It seemed like she had trained under him - at least for some of her time here - and he seemed very proud of her progress which when stated clearly flustered her. 

Cutting it close to our departure time, on finishing I rushed back to our accommodation and got changed to my normal clothes, tossed a bit of water around and got packed in around 5 minutes to be at the bus at 1030 when we left for Gyeongju city, a short drive away. 

8th of November - On guard duty

At 0900 we met in the reception and mounted a bus that took us took us to the Blue House - the president's residence. It can be discussed long and wide the reasoning behind why it was named as such, as the building was really white with a teal roof. Apparently it was more blue in evening. Hm.

From there we drove to the Gyeongbok Palace where we started off seeing the change of guards. Today it's solely purely theater to recreate how it was done back in the days, it has no practical use today (apart from attracting tourists). Arriving 10 minutes early there was already a plenty of people waiting around the roped off changing area, so it was hard to get a clear view of the action. 

But what could be seen were very serious-looking people in fancy uniforms (and hats) waving their flags (instead of insignias on uniforms) doing some very serious marching around with serious looking (glued on) mustaches and beards, accompanied by a small orchestra with bells, drums and horns. Overall quite the sight. 

Our tour guide led us around the palace grounds for an hour or so introducing us to the buildings, their purpose and the overall construction and reasoning behind why the buildings were where and how the were. Most of the palace had been burned down multiple times during wars, though leaving the stone foundations every time, so even if not everything has been rebuilt (I got the impression only a fraction of the original buildings had been rebuilt to this day) it was still fairly well known where the original buildings had been located. The structure was similar to what you'd see in e.g. China with several outer walls with gates in before reaching the center where the - in this case - king had his residence. Parks, a pagoda for parties, buildings for the king's mother etc.

 

Leaving the area we entered the National Folk Museum which we got 45 minutes to see. This meant largely rushing through; only reading the main signs and quickly continuing not spending too much time anywhere. One could easily have spend a few hours inside to see it all, but due to our tight schedule we didn't have more time. Following this we got an introduction to the Bukchon Hanok Village; again a place I had been to previously so it wasn't much new. 

After this we were brought to Insadong Alley which I hadn't seen before; basically a street with plenty of restaurants and souvenir shops. Nothing much interesting so I - together with two others - went to the Gwangjang Market to get lunch, before traveling to the Coex Mall so they could see the fancy library and Gangnam statue, before returning to the hotel. Both trips with the subway took around 45 minutes so it was a bit of a travel for what in the end was not much. But we didn't really have anything in mind so it was nice to just spend our time on something. 

The weather had changed compared to the previous days (pretty much my entire stay) and it was overcast and chilly. We did get the occasional 3-4 droplets at times but nothing that made you worry about being outside. While it was still possible to be outside and enjoy yourself I did feel the turn in the weather put a slight damper on the overall impression. It also meant that you didn't get the same bright light lighting up the library as the last time I was there - but being late-ish afternoon and overcast it was dark enough for the installed lights to make an impression. 

For dinner we were 4 who went together to the night market across the hotel and sampled the food stalls. 

3rd - 7th of November - Seoul pt. 2

Having completed the marathon Monday started off sore and slow. Generally, with nothing really planned other than wanting to go out and have a walk around, my morning were generally quite slow and I would rarely leave the hotel until after 11. 

The daily schedule was basically to leave the hotel, find a place for lunch, have a walk around until dinner time where I'd find something to eat, and then gradually return to the hotel. 

On the Monday I aimed for the Gwangjang Market - a large market with lots of shops and not lacking a large number of food stalls, too. Having had a bowl of noodle soup I aimed for Changdeokgung, a castle nearby, but finding the area closed I decided to walk around the walled area. It turned out that in doing so I found myself going through the huge campus of Sungkyunkwan University, the oldest university in South Korea. Apparently they have also preserved a 700 year old building which I didn't see on my way through, though. Leaving on the other side I passed through Bukchon Hanok Village, a small area where the old buildings have been preserved and are in use today, whether for small shops or residential houses. The place is intensely visited by tourists so there are signs everywhere indicating that they are only welcome 1000-1700; clearly in an attempt to let the people living there have some privacy in the evenings. 

 

 Gwangjang Market.

 

 

Tuesday I left for Gangnam - the district made known to the entire world by Psy's megahit Gangnam Style back in 2012 (which also forced YouTube to change how they showed number of views as it passed the limit of integers). Coex Mall was more than just that; among other things it also had Starfield library with plenty of natural light and shelving from floor to (almost) ceiling. I can understand why it is so photographed but overall it seemed quite impractical as a library as many of the shelves were just for looks and it didn't seem particularly big from what I could see. One would suspect it was built for views, not for actual library-ism. After having a walk around - including lunch - I spent most of the afternoon walking the area. It is pretty clear that Gangnam is a nicer (i.e.: more expensive) part of Seoul; buildings are generally bigger, newer and nicer looking, but I also realized that I during those few hours saw more golf stores than I had during the rest of my stay. I also managed to get a quick look of the Bongeunsa Temple near by with the many small Buddha statues. 

 

 

Starfield library. 

 

Gangnam Style statue.

 

 Bongeunsa Temple.

Wednesday I had to move hotel to the one where I'll be staying at for the start of my tour in Myeongdong. So I checked out, got the train to Seoul station and another to my destination. While I was mid-day and therefore not during rush hour there were still plenty of people on the second train. I did feel quite a bit in the way with my bag, but luckily they - and I - didn't have to suffer for long. Checking in I was happy to find out that my room was already ready for me, despite showing up more than 2 hours before the official check-in time. Entering the room I was faced with the reality of a... different hotel. Overall it was fine (twin narrow beds instead of a large double is manageable) but I went from a nice view from 24th floor to a 7th floor view into the wall of the neighboring building less than 2 meters away. The horror!

Cheonggyecheon.

 

From there I had a short walk along the western end of Cheonggyecheon, a small 7-8km long stream going through parts of Seoul before running out in the Han River. It was actually really nice as you were fairly shielded from the city around you (the stream is 5-10m below street level) and it is - everything considered - quite nice and quiet. From here I did a bit of roaming before heading south towards the river when it started getting a bit dark. My goal was to try to get to the other side, follow the river and get some nighttime skyline shots of the city. While I did get across and followed the river, there was not much of a skyline to speak of. There is not one central place where all the tall buildings are centered around, and it seems like buildings are rarely much taller than 25-30 stories, which means you never really get that impressive light show that you'd otherwise get in similar large cities. But I went along, ending up in Yeouido Hangang Park which apparently is a destination for quite a few people to go picnicking in the evening. The area seemed very casual despite being in Yeouido, the main financial district in Seoul. 

 

 

Thursday I decided to walk the rest of Cheonggyecheon, so start around the same place as yesterday but instead go east and end up at the river. I never made it that far, though, as the longer you got the less calm it was as the isolation from the surrounding traffic was lessened and it opened more up. So at one point I veered off and found a market where I got a bit of snacks before slowly heading in a loose western direction through the streets. Walking around - especially in the market - it's clear that this is definitely not a place where tourists usually show up. Barely any signs in English and the market felt VERY local. I reached a bridge that crossed one of the side streams to Cheonggyecheon so I went down and followed it to the end before once again returning to the streets and past Changdeokgung, aiming for the N Tower. 

The tower resides on top of a hill overlooking most of the city, and you can get there either by walking or taking a cable car. Because I have no sense I obviously took the path way that was mostly stairs. A 20 minute hike later, with a few breaks along the way at view points, I made it to the top where I got a ticket and took the elevator to the top. It wasn't perfectly dark yet so I wandered a bit around in the circular building among the crowds. I realized it may not have been the perfect evening as visibility wasn't perfect; it was misty in the distance. I did notice when staying at my first hotel a certain mist in the distance when looking out all days, so I wonder if it would have made a difference what day I came up here. In any case it got dark and I got to see the progress the city change it's looks going from dusk to dark with lights coming on - or at least getting more clear - throughout, on both buildings, vehicles and billboards. Coming down again the start of the walk up was only maybe 100m from my hotel so getting back was easy. 

 

 

 

An advantage this hotel has over the first one is the fact there is a huge night market with loads of shops, restaurants and stalls on the other side of the street that really comes to life in the evening. There are plenty of food options throughout and lots to look at. Plenty of people know of this, which means it's borderline chaos at times tying to navigate. 

 

On the Friday I ended up on Seoul's (old) city wall cutting through central parts of the city. From here, after starting with a fairly sharp ascent, it was possible to get a decent view oft the in a mainly east and northern direction. The weather was nice so the walk ended up similar. Unfortunately at one point you were diverted off the wall and supposed to follow it before getting on it again, but due to bad signage (or my lack of orientation) I didn't manage to find the point where I could continue my walk on it. I had planned to try and do the entire walk before getting back to the hotel but clearly that wasn't to be. Instead I ended up at Cheonggyecheon and walked to the western end before returning to the hotel. Trying to get some shots of the roaming herons and egrets I didn't return to the hotel until around 1745, 15 minutes before the meeting with the tour group. 

 

View from the wall.

 

The meeting was as they usually are; we get to see each other, the tour leader introduces himself and the itinerary for the trip and we are all happy (and I don't remember a single name). For dinner he took us to a restaurant near the night market, and from there he introduced us to Cheonggyecheon and how to get there from the hotel. For most people it was new knowledge; I was just happy to get to see it in the dark when they had light shows going on in the tunnels/under the bridges. 

 

2nd of November - Seoul JTBC marathon

With the race starting at 0800 and the bag drops closing at 0730 today was going to be an early start. I had set the alarm for 0530 (yes, surprisingly I do this voluntarily) but woke up around 0500 and didn't have the guts to go back to sleep worrying I would miss the alarm. I used the opportunity to make it a slow start of the day and left around 0615 out into the still dark city to take the subway 15 minutes to the World Cup Stadium. Along the way runners piled into the train and reaching the destination we were certainly stuffed together. 

Getting to the right place proved a bit challenging as there was a different area for the 10k runners and the few signs that were present were all in Korean. But with a bit of asking around and following the correct flow of people I ended up in the marathon area and the bag drop off. You just chose one of the 40 vehicles to drop off the bag and you got a sticker on your bib with the corresponding number given to your bag. 

I had dragged the drop-off as long as possible, but a bit past 0700 I was on my way to the starting area. The morning was cold - 5-6 degrees with a breeze so handing in my bag also meant I had to say goodbye to my warm shirt and jacket. I had intentionally dressed in a long-sleeved shirt due to the forecast temps but after some time my built-up warmth had gone and it got chilly standing around and waiting. At least the starting area was not directly affected by the wind which helped keeping the comfort level relatively acceptable despite the low temps. 

I ha been put in starting group B - with G being the last. Despite registering my expected finish time as 03:50 I got put in the group with 3:00-3:30 pacers, whereas group C would consist of the 3:40-4:10 pacers, seemingly more suitable for me. I ended up moving into group C instead, but even then it seemed chaotic; the pacers seemingly placed themselves where ever they wanted so the were no rhyme or reason in which one was in front or the rear, despite it should have been logical based on their finish times. One of the 3:40s even jumped into group B. 

But after all that we started off as scheduled and around 8:10 I crossed the starting line with the rest of group C. Heading east we soon turned south and crossed the Han river for the first time across Yanghwa Bridge before going back north across the Mapo Bridge. Here we went north past Gongdeok (and therefore straight past my hotel) and simply stayed on Saemunan-ro street turning us straight east onto Jong-ro and kept going until reaching Sinseol-dong station. Here we headed south-east along Cheonho-daero all the way across Gunjagyo bridge, making a turn at Gunja station down Neungdong-ro, down Achasan-ro and finally down Jayang-ro before crossing Jamsil bridge, our third and last crossing of the Han river. Here we practically circled the area surrounding Seogchon station before turning down Wiryeseong-daero and crossing the finish line, alongside the Olympic Park.

Especially in the beginning it felt very crowded despite running on broad streets, and it also took longer than usual to loosen things up - my heel still got stepped on around 5km. Passing 10km things were getting easier but even then you still have to pay close attention to those around you for a while. With that said it was quickly evident that Korean runners seem to have no qualms to shoulder check you if they want to pass you and they deem you're in the way. It got pretty frustrating at times, but as things eased up it also helped giving room for the more aggressive runners. The water stations, though quite long, were not announced in advance on the course so if you didn't pay attention (or remember that the information given in the race pack said there would be one every 5km (which wasn't super accurate either)) you would have to make desperate move to get in before it was too late - I almost missed the first one because of this, and I believe it was only one place where they had water on both sides of the streets. At 7,5km and every 5km after that there would be sponge stations - slightly less necessary when the weather wasn't warmer than it was, but it was a nice relief the few times I utilized the offer. There were also barely any toilets along the way - I saw people using toilets at gas stations we passed by; I think I saw 4-5 groups of 3 portapotties along the way, and also barely any in the finish area. And peeing in bushes didn't seem to be a thing. Luckily I was sufficiently dehydrated I didn't need to pee until almost an hour after returning to the hotel (which, I know, is not necessarily a good thing, but from a practical viewpoint it was pretty nice). 

The course wasn't flat - app. 250m up and down - but while the inclines weren't particular steep they kept going for a while, effectively draining the energy, though it was probably also due to me starting too fast (despite moving myself into a slower group) that my pace started plummeting after the mid-way point, and the last 10-ish km I was running around 6min/km, struggling hard. In spite of this I still managed to get in at 3:58:45, just below my 4 hour goal, though it didn't feel particularly elegant. 

The official time and placement is at the time of writing unknown as no data can be found. I suspect it's hiding somewhere on a Korean website but due to a lot of the text is posted as pictures instead of text the browser can't translate it, so I'm waiting for a more internationally inclined website to post the results. It is clear that they are capable of communicating in English, but you sometimes get he feeling they just can't be bothered with anything but the most important. The info magazine that was included in the race pack had the most important information also in English (though much of it seemed either shoddily translated or just put through Google translate). But the rest of the magazine was in Korean only, though some headlines were also in English - but how does that help? 

Crossing the finish line I walked what felt like an eternity to get to my bag, and then all the way back to get to the exit where we passed through the snack area (as they called it) where we were handed a bag with snacks. You have to give them credit of handing out the equivalent of 2½-3 liters of liquids, bananas, a bread (which was a dull disappointment) and a snickers (whoever decided to do this has my undying love). I honestly wouldn't have minded saving a bit on the liquids if it meant more to eat instead. It took an hour of constant movement from the finish line to end up at the nearby subway station, then a 45 minute standing ride before being able to return to my hotel. 

Added the 8th of February 2026

I spent a long time trying to find more information on the results online. I also tried mailing the coordinators but it was 50/50 if they bothered responding to my mails. I also asked on reddit, and while that was probably the most fruitful attempt it was still quite limited what I gained from it. My official time ended up being 3:57:39. My overall place was 8500, 2958 in my age group and 2644 among 40's men. Oh, and also 2259th overall in my starting group and 2073th among men in my starting group, but those two numbers aren't really helpful as I was put in the wrong starting group from the beginning. And while all these numbers are fine and good, it doesn't do much good if you don't know out of how many. And... Well, the best I could find was a google translated article estimating 34.000 participants, split evenly between the 10k and marathon. That's it. How useful is that?!

 

Apparently there was (is) a Korean app that had all the results, and assuming I would be able to get some more information there I signed up for an account. Getting through the trouble of guessing based on the UI and back and forth between the app and google translate I got most of the way through until I hit a wall that required me to identify myself with a Korean ID (similar to the Danish MitID). 

 

Also, with regards to photos, a user on reddit referred me to a well hidden page that had the photos. The selection was limited and quality seemed to be so-so (none from the finishing line), and if you wanted to buy any you needed a Korean address, even if you just wanted to download them.

 

I was surprised to find out how Korean-centric this run was. To be honest I got the impression that they didn't really care at all about international participants considering the absolute lack of communication in English. Why do they even let internationals sign up if they don't give a shit?