Running

The two of us are no longer runners, but health and fitness has been an integral part of our relationship. We started as running buddies, and now years later, we still push each other to do our best. Today, Husband Sol writes about how we started. After I complimented him on his non-existant tie, then what? - Levy

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So it wasn’t exactly love at first sight with us. I’m not a fan of that concept anyway, honestly, how much can you know about someone based purely on a first impression? Can you determine where you stand on key compatibility issues? Future goals? The all-important “C” question - how many cats is the right amount?

An initial spark needs to be there, sure, but it takes a bit more than that to know if someone is really right for you. With Levy, it was more love at sixth or seventh sight. Her dissing my non-existent tie was a pretty good jumping-off point, but there was a bit more to our story than that.

I had to run 26.2 miles in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.

Sept 2012 - The border of North and South Korea

We sometimes think about the myriad of little coincidences that had to occur for us to even meet, never mind get together. We’re almost exactly the same age (she’s five months older, a fact I often remind her of) but were born about as far apart as two people can be on this earth. The Philippines and Scotland are, as a crow with superbird stamina flys, 6,672 miles apart. For the first 27 years of our lives, we were seldom even on the same continent. Then you factor in the, frankly quite strange, choice to move to South Korea at the precise same time. The odds of us just being in the same room as one another must be astronomical.

Our first meeting after Jeonju occurred a couple of months after we arrived in Busan. Busan is Korea’s second city, but not all that well-known compared to Seoul. It’s a place that has all the amenities of urban life at a fraction of the cost of most major cities. I could see my gym from my apartment window, there was a convenience store on the ground floor of my building, and more cheap restaurants than I could count in my neighborhood. I didn’t make much but the cost of living was so low, I lived like a king and still accumulated savings without much effort.

Levy and I met by chance in a bar whose name I can’t recall and struck up a conversation, but thankfully not about my attire this time. For some reason, we talked about fitness and Levy suggested we meet up to go for a run and that’s precisely what we did a few days later. At the time I was living in a neighborhood called Jangsan, at the foot of a mountain bearing the same name and just a couple of stops away from Haeundae Beach. We arranged to meet at the station there and walked over to a nearby park called Dongbaek Island.

Levy here! This is a photo of us taken May 2012. I happened to snap a pic of the night he was talking about at the bar! So glad I did that.

Over the years the island became a peninsula, there’s a pathway that is very popular with locals that rings the area. On a pleasant May evening, May and October are by far the best months in Korea, we completed a couple of laps of the park. We didn’t really know each other that well but there was none of the awkwardness such meetings often have, we spoke easily and freely on the way back to Jangsan.

Dongbek Island, Busan, South Korea 2012

Now, much of these posts and the content on Sparkles of Sol is about cats, but our first not-a-date-at-the-time-but-absolutely-a-date-in-retrospect featured dogs. Jangsan has everything you could possibly want except space. Imagine the smallest place you’ve ever called home and I’m pretty confident my apartment in Jangsan was more compact. Pets aren’t viable for a lot of Koreans so dog and cat cafes are popular with locals who want the pet experience but can’t have one of their own. We visited the local dog cafe and watched the pups zoom around the room and occasionally seek a pet or two.

May 2012 at the dog cafe. That's a little white pug mix.

We met regularly to run together, the distance we ran and our bond grew steadily over the weeks. My intentions were still platonic at the time but that wouldn’t last. I think the breakthrough came when I lost my phone on a night out and Levy helped me get it back. A local found it and met with me to hand it over. That’s one of the really amazing things about Korea - the people are incredibly honest and kind. A perfect stranger took time out of his day to meet with a foreigner who’d been careless with his phone.

The phone was a cheap little thing barely worth the effort of going to collect but in my gratitude, I invited Levy out for dinner. I still didn’t wear a tie, but I was dressed to impress. We ate Indian and took a walk along the beach afterward. That was the turning point, friendship wasn’t going to cut it anymore.

The story’s a little more complex in that Levy was going through a very difficult time. The details aren’t mine to tell, but there was a very real danger she’d leave Korea and my life for good. So I suppose you could say I hatched a plan to keep her around.

By this point, I knew her well enough to know she doesn’t do things by half. One of the things I love about her, then and now, is her drive and enthusiasm to take on challenges. It’s infectious and has driven me to be a better person. I’ve completed two postgraduate degrees in the time we’ve been together and pursued opportunities I’d never have thought of without her. So with that knowledge in hand, I signed up for the DMZ marathon in September. Phase one of my scheme came to fruition when I mentioned this fact and she signed up for the half-marathon.

Of course, we’d have to run more often together in order to be ready for the race, wouldn’t we? We ran further while growing closer and on June 23rd, 2012 we crossed the romantic Rubicon at another of Busan’s beaches: Songjeong. Love at first sight? No. Love at first kiss? Well…

June 2012

By the time the marathon came around Levy had moved into my tiny apartment “just for a few weeks”. Those few weeks became eight and half years and counting. I think I’m kinda stuck with her at this point.

Sept 2012 - At the DMZ Maraton

I ran my first and last marathon in September 2012, I’m eternally grateful for the experience but I am absolutely never running another one. We made the blunder of loading up on caffeine and sugar to get an energy boost before the race. I fairily zipped through the first fourteen miles and was on track for a very decent time until my earlier foolishness came back to haunt me. My insides began to churn angrily and I was forced to stop at the nearest portaloo where I discovered a nasty surprise.

Here’s the thing about Asian toilets: not all of them are commodes. Some are little more than holes in the ground you squat over. Have you ever tried to run 14 miles and squat while your intestines attempted to leave your body? Pain doesn’t even begin to cover it. What kind of monster thought that was a good idea? After an ungodly amount of time, I emerged like Bambi on ice and forced my legs to keep going. I’m pretty sure the stench I left behind was a violation of the Geneva Convention. I trudged on for mile after mile in one of the remotest places on earth.

One of the unintended consequences of the DMZ was the lack of human touch has allowed the local wildlife to flourish. Running along the paths deserted for most of the year was humbling, we were intruding on the paradoxical tranquility of the most militarized border in the world. At various points, we were cheered on by Korean conscripts. Every South Korean has to do two years of military service, and most get it out of the way after high school. Kids in uniform hyped us up with cries of “pighting!” roughly the equivalent of “you can do it!”.

I finally made it across the finish line with a final burst of energy to sprint the last quarter mile. Levy was waiting for me after acing her race, she finished fourth in her age group. On the bus back to Seoul I realized I was finished with long-distance running and turned my attention towards strength. I still run regularly but will never again run more than a few miles in one go.

It was the end of one journey and the beginning of another.

Levy won 4th place in her category - women under 30s.

Sept 2012