Most Sunday mornings at sunrise, you can find me on the C & O canal getting ready to do my weekend run. The trail is pretty empty, as you’d expect – execpt for about 25-30 Korean runners. For a long time I wondered why Koreans liked running at 6 am on Sundays.
A cute little aid station!
So now the mystery was answered. A Korean running club. A few months passed and I kept waving happily to my early morning running pals. Then, one morning, near my parked car, I saw a whole table full of Korean delicacies. A pot of rice, dumplings, and who knows what else. I could see the steam rising from the food.
Then I became intensely interested in wondering if I could pass myself off as a member of the Korean Marathon Club. I didn’t take any of the food – but every few weeks, the food would magically appear again in the parking lot and I would look longingly at it as I drove away.
This weekend, I ran into a guy setting up the little aid station. Here’s Harrison, the president of the Korean Marathon Club. Finisher of 53 marathons and on his morning 20 mile trail run. He’s made me an honorary member of the club. I get to eat all the goodies! I’m so excited. The little aid station has ice cold water, gatorade and cute little Korean granola bars. I missed the big buffet table this past Sunday, but I’ll be on the lookout for it. I have to text Harrison as I want to pay dues, but the website, of course, is all in Korean.
That is AWESOME! I became Korean to play club volleyball at MIT. How do I get in on this action? 🙂
Ha ha! This seems to be the schedule. 2nd and 4th Sundays they meet at the C&O. The other Sundays they meet somewhere in VA. They seem to gather at 6:30 or so and are done by 9. Food seems to be at Swain's Lock, but Harrison mentioned on Mother's Day they were at Carderock. They don't run in a large group, rather, there are clumps of 3-4 or loners all along the trail.