I participated in the 4th annual Sunshine Run on August 30th. It was my first official half marathon since I started running, and I thought I’d write about it because it was so memorable.

First of all, I can’t help but mention the weather. If you’ll recall, the weather on race day, August 30, 2025, was pretty fickle. I can’t tell you how many times the weather changed in the short two hours or so that I was running. It looked like it was going to rain at the start, then the sun came out halfway through the run, then it disappeared, then it rained again… It was the most amazing weather. There was even a rainbow. The good thing is that I love running in the rain. It’s hard to wash your shoes afterward, but it’s easier to breathe and the trees look prettier when they’re wet.

The marathon started at 9:00am at Jamsil Sports Complex and I took the morning bus from Chuncheon to the subway to the starting point. I calculated the time beforehand, but I didn’t have as much time as I thought, so I went to the starting line without warming up enough. It wasn’t long before I realized that my body felt more saggy and heavy than I expected. But what the heck, the race had already started. The good news is that this time I wasn’t running alone, but with people.

The difference between running a half marathon alone and running with a group is that you can see each other. At the beginning of the race, I was thinking a lot. I would try to follow the pace of other people, I would look at the rules of the race, and I would think, “How is that different from how I run, how does that person run so well?” … At the same time I was looking at other people, I was looking at myself.

By the middle of the race, I started to think about other people a little less. No, I should say I couldn’t. Because I was struggling right now. I was out of breath, my legs were hurting, and I couldn’t afford to look at other people, so I just casually walked through the green and over the blue. My goal for this marathon was to not walk once, but I couldn’t do it. I had to stop at a pretty high hill in the middle of the marathon course. If it’s uphill, it’s downhill. It’s a simple truth. And I hated that fact for a moment. If you don’t control the downhills, you can get tired. You have to be careful.

After 15 kilometers, I started to feel my body reaching its limits. Normally, I would have felt fine after this distance, but for some reason it was different today, especially my right shin. I kept going, resting, resting, resting. When you run and walk, you start to see things you didn’t see before, especially runners who stand out. People my age, older people, middle-aged people, and even children. It’s a humbling world. I realize how big it is and how many people there are.

In my experience, the 18th kilometer was the hardest. When I circled the course and saw the same 3 kilometers that I had passed so lightly the first time, I felt like I was in the middle of a 15-kilometer gap. In the last kilometer, I was running with a rat on my right shin. I wanted to finish in at least two hours, but I just couldn’t muster up the strength. The half marathon is a strange distance. It’s obviously longer than 10 kilometers, but it’s also closer than a full marathon. It’s also an easy distance to get greedy. That’s the beauty of the half. The condition of the day, the weather, the cheering of the crowd, someone’s step, my breathing - everything affects the result. That’s why it’s a new race every time. I think I read a similar passage in Haruki Murakami’s What I Want to Talk About When I Talk About Running once. It said that even if you’re running the exact same route every time, that day’s run will be unlike any other. I don’t think my memory is perfect, but what the heck.

If you’re on the fence about running your first half, I encourage you to give it a go. Even in imperfect conditions, keep moving forward. This 4th Sunshine Run will be a bold mark in my running life. It’s just the beginning. Until I conquer all the marathons in the world.