Gailful 2004 Dong-A Ilbo Baekje Main Road Marathon

“Running Baekje. Running the Geum River (Geumgang in Korean).”

The 2004 Dong-A Ilbo Baekje Main Road Marathon competition (Dong-A Ilbo Chungcheong Province, Gongju city co-sponsored) was held in Gongju city, South Chungcheong Province. The 42.195km racecourse followed each section of the Gongju sports complex: Gongju big bridge, Gongju police station, Baekje Main Road’s three way intersection, circulating back to the Gongju Sports Complex.

In the four categories of 5km, 10km, half course, and full course, including the 6,897 members of Masters group, a total of 20,000 runners participated in the event amidst a mellow autumn sky and support from gaily cheering citizenry.

Participants in a vigorous kickoff with the staring signal of a roaring gun at 9 AM enjoyed a picnic-like run in the non-polluted clean racecourse, which was newly introduced this year, and the sound of applause from people who gathered to cheer them on.

The winner of the 2129 participated Men’s full course was “Gongmyungee Marathons club”, which is a leaf association club of the National Election Commission, affiliate Joo Jae-woo (38 years old; Daejeon city Election Commision;•2 hours 51 minutes and 16 seconds) and the same club members of Seo Jung-Hee (36 years old; 3 hours 14 minutes and 16 seconds) and In Nae-Soo (34 years old; 1 hour 13 minutes and 48 seconds) also joined the pride in the Women’s full course and Men’s half course, respectively. The most numbers of 471 members of “Gongmyungee” marathons club out of 112 total group members participated in the event and swept the three categories.

In the Women’s half course, Moon Ki-Sook (42 years old; MoonKiSook Running Class • 1 hour 21 minutes and 31 seconds) took first place and in Men’s and Women’s 10km group, Kim Doo-chul (25 years old; 35 minutes and 31 seconds) and Kim Bok-man (43 years old; Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute marathon club; 42 minutes and 16 seconds) took gold medals, respectively.

Sang-Ho Kim Jong-Koo Yang hyangsan@donga.com yjongk@donga.com