Seoul 50/100km Ultra

krjames · November 6, 2013, 5:45am

This event was held on Sunday 3rd along the AnYangCheon River and the HanGang River. (Cheon and Gang both mean river.)
We had 24 100KM riders and 45 50KM riders.
Except for SeoSangMan (Mr UDC Korea) on a geared 29 all the 100 riders were on 36ers. The 50 field included everything I think, 24s, 29s, 36s and a few 24 munis! Quite a few elementary school and middle school students. Gwak DongMin (3rd grade MS) was 5th in the 100. The 50 was won by Lee JeongWon also a MS 3rd grader.

The course was on what seems to be the internationaly standard river bike path with two or three lanes. Basically flat with one small rise a kilometer from the start. The 100 riders started in pairs and later we started in groups of 5 or 6. I made a fool of myself at the start failing to get on, took about a dozen goes before I got away… Non-stop down to the far end on the HanGang river where there were literally thousands of cyclists.(Not like my Suncheon at all I stopped at the turn for a drink and a chocopie and then headed back with more tomfoolery getting started

I was starting to feel tired by about 32km and got lapped first by Kim GyeongSu and then by Yun YongHan, both calling encouragement as they went past. When YongHan went past I was having trouble with sweat getting in my eyes and could hardly see a thing… I stopped soon after for a rest,drink and choc bar and I sponged out as much sweat out of the foam padding in my helmet with tissues. then to the dreaded mounting, I was getting paranoid, couldn’t get started using a post but got away on the 3rd freemount attempt Getting tireder I passed the place where I had got onto the path in the morning riding to the start and I did think," I’ve done my 50km, I want to stop." ( I had arrived late on Saturday night and stayed in a motel by a bridge that I thought was a few hundred meters down from the start, I was only 4km out…:o )

I was struggling to pedal on the flat path soon after and was planning to stop and walk up the hill that I knew was ahead but I died… and just ground to a halt. Turned out the hill was around the next bend with Park YongJu sitting at the top with his camera to catch the actiion! Ha. At the top I sat down for a drink and choc bar, didn’t even think about the fact that the finish was only a kilometer away… Watched Yu ByeongSo and Shin SeungGyun barrel over the rise and then I stood up and got away on the second attempt and rode in to the finish thinking running is so much easier

Winners
100KM
Kim GyeongSu 4:08:08
Yun YongHan 4:25:56
Yu ByeongSo 4:54:29
Kim GiSuk 5:32:00 (1st woman)
50KM
Lee JeongWon 2:38:25
Shin HyeonGyu 2:47:17
No MinWu 2:49:41
Not sure who the first woman was but Kim YuSu finished in 3:00:32 (5th grade elementary)

We had a big meal on the riverside and the prize giving. I got to draw a few names out of the bag for some of the many lucky prizes thanks to the Juggling Shop/UDC Korea.
Bit sad to have to leave, I went part of the way on the subway with Lee HanBeom, we decided that having been drining it was dangerous to ride our unis!

I’ve had some fun choosing a few photos from the many on our homepage, thanks to our photographer Park YongJu, and Kim GyeongSu. YongJu told me his bag weighed 7kg!

And it’s all about having fun with good friends.

Cheers

James

Klaas_Bil · November 6, 2013, 12:20pm

Good writeup, thank you. Sounds like a fun event. I’m surprised that so many riders turned up for a long distance race in what I thought is a small country in unicycling terms - but maybe I’m wrong in thinking that. It struck me that the top riders in the 100 km were faster than the top riders in the 50 km. Perhaps most of the better riders chose to ride the longer distance?

johnfoss · November 6, 2013, 1:30pm

A flat course – how nice! Jacquie and I did a 100km bike event on Saturday in Solvang, CA, with 4000’ of climbing. We’re too slow; her on the ups and me on the downs. We were the last riders to finish.

Apparently it’s a big country in unicycling terms and a small one geographically. I look forward to a future Unicon in Korea!

danomite33 · November 6, 2013, 6:49pm

Great post! Thanks for the pix and write up. What a thrill it is to see people enjoying our sport throughout the world. Very nice indeed.

krjames · November 7, 2013, 6:36am

Klaas, back in June there were 38 riders at the Incheon marathon (Full) and another 12 riding the half.
There are half a dozen active clubs in the Seoul/ Incheon region and they regularly ride road and muni, like just about every weekend. Quite a few of my friends from Suwon were out riding on BaekUnSan mountain! I know Kim JongWon rode the 100K on Sunday…To the east both Busan and Ulsan have active clubs.
At the kid level some Taekwondo gyms run uni groups, essentially freestyle riding and a lot of them perform at various local events. At least two gyms in Suncheon do, our group performed before the start of the local Suncheon marathon amongst other events recently.
On Sunday some of the kids filled in time after the 50K by practicing their wheelwalking…

Anyway here are a few more photos.

Klaas_Bil · November 7, 2013, 7:33am

Ah, thanks for the additional info - lots of unicycling activity then. I’ve met some South Korean riders at Unicons but I never realised they were backed up by so many more. Ride on!