Crazy awesome weekend

Saturday started out with my yearly women's checkup- not crazy awesome, but the doctor spoke great English and had me in and out of her office in under 10 minutes, not counting the hour in the waiting room because Saturdays are busy. She said she'd call if my test results weren't normal, and I headed back to the subway. Then I realized the doctor didn't have my phone number. I rushed back and realized the receptionists don't speak English, nor do I speak Korean. Thinking quickly, I jotted my name in Korean and my phone number on a scrap of paper, held it up and said, "Hand ponah changee?" Without batting an eye, they grabbed my chart and added my number. Konglish language skills FTW!

That afternoon, I took a reggae/dance hall (think Sean Paul) dance class with a dozen white girls. It was even worse than you'd imagine. Except for me because I'm awesome and love this music. The class was pretty basic and I would recommend it to anyone since there was only one movement I didn't get.

Then a friend and I went to Myeondong to shop until we dropped. I got the new 2NE1 album and some awesome skirts at Forever 21. I don't know how I lived without them before today. Unfortunately, I failed to find a black hoodie in my size or price range at H&M. :0(



Sunday Sunday SUNDAY!
I crashed for about 4 hours before getting up to catch a 5:30 a.m. bus from Itaewon for the DMZ International Peace Marathon race. The rain stopped shortly before we arrived. As we 10K-ers lined up at the starting line, the announcer called for everyone in the crowd to give everyone else a shoulder massage in Korean. It was awesome. We set out in a beautiful road race amidst a gray sky, blue mountains, and yellow-green fields in the most perfect cool fall weather.

Holy crap, road running is hard. It never occurred to me to attempt it before race day, and by about the 6k mark, my knee was all "hajimaaaa!" I had never run the full distance before and was shooting for maybe 65 or 70 minutes. I came in under 62! Olleh!

My next races are a 5k on Oct. 2, 10k on Oct. 30, maybe another on Nov. 14 and the Warrior Dash 5k obstacle race back home on April 16. I'm so excited!