Day 2 - 13 April 2014 (Juche 103)

Marathon - Mangyondae Prize

What a day! It will for sure remain as one of the most memorable moments of my life, at least among the sports events. I woke up at 6am, went out of bed thanks to the morning call of the hotel (which was in fact an employee who knocked on the door at 6:00 am), and then began to dress for my race. We left the hotel at 7am.

On the road, I saw people cultivating plots of land between the buildings of the city, on every tiny slot with grass (Sunday is the only resting day but many are willing to do some gardening for the community).

When the bus stopped in front of Kim Il Sung stadium, we were amazed by the huge crowd that was entering the stadium. We were asked to dress with long sleeves and long trousers for the opening ceremony but had to keep our sport clothes underneath. Although I was only expecting to run 10k, I decided to take my running belt carrying two small cans of Pocari sweat, some nutritional gels, compeed, imodium tabs and an iPod Shuffle in case it focusing would become harder, but it was mostly a ploy to carry discreetly my Gopro camera at the back of the belt, in a small mesh pocket in which I cut a 1 squared cm hole and with which I hoped to film the race. We were asked to regroup per event and therefore went reluctantly in the 10k squad.

Finally, at the last very last moment, Ri told me that I could take part to the half-marathon. I happily moved forwards to join the next squad. The amateurs runners had to form three packs (marathon, half-marathon and 10k) and to form lines of 6 peoples, each pack being led by a North-Korean placard holder. We then entered the stadium, grouped by delegation (each amateur pack, each one consisting of About 60/70 runners, plus one delegation per country with a professional runner, aka about 10 countries with 1 to 5 participants each, about 40 Koreans, and about 300 local kids).

The entrance in the stadium was literally amazing! As for the Olympics, we made a lap of the Kim Il Sung stadium, crammed with 100,000 spectators cheering us, smiling back at us, made of civilian and military, women with beautiful and colorful traditional dresses and all of them wearing their badge with both Kim. This feeling was truly amazing. There were four bands of schoolchildren, one in each corner of the stadium, which played the sound for the whole stadium. We then aligned in front of official terrace, were told a dozen sentences in Korean , we applauded of course vigorously each time without understanding, then waved us to go pick up our running clothes in the coaches before to come back to the stadium.

I then started my first half marathon! The first 500 meters were pretty though, because I had to make my way among the riders, but they were fortunately only a few hundreds of them. I started a little faster than targeted (on a 1:20 basis) and thus slightly slowed the pace after around two kilometers; the main goal was to finish it, especially since we did not have time to warm up. The atmosphere of the race was fantastic, with a lot of children running beside us, some barely 1.3m tall, maintaining my pace, but the most impressive was the crowd of spectators on both sides of the road encouraging us, smiling at us, greeting us and laughing or greeting when I answered with an unconfident kamsa hamida or a gesture. I finished the first lap of 10km in 44 minutes, feeling quite well. Despite one or two people who told me that I had to stop here because of my 10k number, I continued as I had been told before the race. The second loop was different. Children who stand up to me in first lap (being however very red and suffering) were apparently registered on the 10k and riders became now more dispersed, with about 2/3 riders every 300 meters.

I was in the same pace as marathon runner from the beginning, he briefly questioned me at the beginning of the second lap, surprised that I kept running despite my number but explained him shortly that there was a mistake and we stayed together for about 9 more kilometers before he talked to me again encouraging me to accelerate for my last kilometer, which I did although I was starting feeling tired…. I was also encouraged by a Pyongyonger in the crowd who told me, when I passed by him, "I hope you will win". I thus accelerated towards the finishing line, which was in the Kim Il Sung stadium. There, at the entrance to the stadium, always full of these 100,000 spectators, there were 100m of track to go before the line, so I naturally sprinted in order to finish the race really exhausted and earn some seconds, raising my arms to ask for encouragement from the public, who replied. Exhausted by this last effort, I naturally turned my watch off while crossing the line, before learning horrified that I still needed to run a full lap to finish the 21.098km! I had no more legs nor breathe because of this last effort and lost one spot, loosing almost 50 meters in the very last lap over a guy who overtook me at the beginning of it. I finished in around 1:33 (I stopped the clock at 1h31'13'' before the last lap and had an average of 4'24 ''/km in the last km, so the estimation seems reasonable, since I haven’t managed to get my official time...).

I'm pretty happy because the goal was to finish but I also made a correct performance, given that I hadn’t run in years two months before the race and only once to twice a week since then, and managed to keep a steady pace throughout. The mood was hard to describe, but to do such a race, allowed to foreign tourist for the first, encouraged by a receptive crowd, finishing almost alone on the track in a stadium of 100,000 people and ending up with a reasonable time is a magical memory.

I then learned that the winner finished in 1:24, and I am therefore very likely to be in the top 10: I did not ask for that much! (well, I would have liked a participation medal, but only the first three of each distance and each sex have been awarded one) . I was almost disappointed when I met the winner of the 10km, which told me he believes I finished my first lap before him, and hoped for a moment that the registration error would allow me to glean a medal but ultimately it seemed that he was wrong and finished in about 41/42 minutes (if I had known that gold was at 42 minutes for 10 km, I would have perhaps done it, even if I am in fact after all really happy to have made my first half marathon!) .

This magnificent race anyway makes me want to keep running and maybe come back for the marathon next year, in less than 3 hours if possible!

The only negative point is that the Gopro had made a few moves during the race, and therefore there is a black mesh front of the camera throughout the video. Too bad, but I keep the memories in my memory and those who wanted to see it should have come :p!

Pyongyang Marathon (look at 1:48 in the 1st video for my finish ;) )

Pyongyang's Monuments

We then visited the home where Kim Il Sung was born, intact and preserved in its original state according to our guide. We could see the pictures of his family, how he was a hero from a modest family in a supposedly more than 100 years house, but that seemed really clean and preserved for a house that old in this city….

We continued by paying homage to the heroes of people died during the Korean War: we all simultaneously bowed on a same line, starting to become used to the move.

We ended our day with a Korean hotpot. Unlike the Chinese, each individual has his little broth in which to prepare his grub

My first thought after a day and a half in the DPRK may seem far from what one reads. I agree and am the first surprised. Pyongyang seems at a first glance not very different from a northern Chinese city of medium size. I do not think whether it's a facade, like Tintin and the Soviets, as smiles and things seem really truthful. However, I am well aware that Pyongyang, reserved for the elite of the country, differs greatly from the rest of the country. We'll see tomorrow on the path leading to the DMZ, but the prohibition of taking pictures from the bus when it is outside the capital seems to be a good indication of a difference...