Sunday, November 8, 2009

Teachers trip, Seoul and A bike race!

I had a pretty eventful weekend. It started Friday afternoon with a teachers trip to Incheon. All of the teachers from my school got on a bus at 1pm and went to Incheon which is on the Western seaboard. We took a boat ride and ate a lot of RAW seafood! I ate raw fish and live octopus! It was very fun and I got to know some of the teachers at my school really well! Many koreans are very reserved but this trip was good for everyone to loosen up and for me to practice my korean skills.
Saturday I went to Seoul and visited some friends. it was fun! Sunday I had my first Korean bike race. I went with my riding buddy Chang Jo. The race was only about 20km from my house so it was a short drive. It had rained the entire night and it rained throughout the entire race! So it was gonna be muddy but I was still excited. I was in the Elite group so I knew I better step up! The race start was a bit messed up and all of the elite guys ended up behind the 400 other racers! but there was 12km of road before the climbing started but we still didn't manage to get to the front by the climbing so I had absolutely no idea what place I was in the whole time! I had a lot of fun though! It was one big loop no single track and the downhills were mostly paved while the climbs were dirt which was kind of backwards of how we would do it in America but still good. I met some of the other racers from the Suwon Alpha team and there is a guy my age who speaks pretty ok english unfortunatly he crashed on the downhill and had to go to the hospital to get bandaged up after the race! The race was super well run except teh start with lots of police and army people marshalling every corner and intersection. Also every entrant got a free multi tool and free buffet lunch all for $30! This was the best value race I have ever entered to say the least! After the race I relaxed and cleaned my apartment and then went to the Public Sauna/bathhouse with my friend scott. Overall a pretty good weekend and I am definitely ready for some more race action here although the elite korean guys can really climb well! I better train some more this winter if I wanna keep up this spring!

1 comment:

Joey said...

Damn straight you better be training- gotta represent Panther with pride! haha