Citizens Festival in 2004 Gyeongju Open Marathon

The "Thousand Year Capital" Gyeongju went feverish over the Open Marathon.

The 2004 Dong-A Ilbo Gyeongju Open Marathon was held in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang province on October 31 with a 42.195km course circulating Hwangsung park citizen sports complex, Muyeolwangreung, Bomoon village, Cheonmachong and back to the citizen sports complex.

The competition – with three race divisions of full course, half course and 10km – took place as a citizen union festival. The most participants in competition history, totaling 11,396 citizens, raced through the autumn air of Gyeongju, and families of the runners along with 40,000 citizens enjoyed the marathon race, as well as the touch of autumn.

As soon as the participants dashed from the starting line eight o’clock in the morning, family members and citizens spontaneously cheered, accompanied by fireworks, and spectators along the course encouraged the runners with clapping hands.

This year’s course was specially re-designed to be 10 km above sea level to cut the steep hills and down hills so that the runners ran more comfortably than the runners in any other competition. The records for the winners in Men`s and Women`s full course were improved greatly over last year’s results.

Out of the 5,047 Men`s full course participants, Hong In-pyo (age 29) of Wia Corporation, a prominent firm for the marathon industry, won the race. He pulled off a record of two hours, 29 minutes and 32 seconds, which cut seven minutes and six seconds off last year’s first place record of two hours, 36 minutes and 38 seconds. All the runners from the top seed to the sixth seed, excepting the fifth seed, were members of the same company.

In Women`s full course, Jin Ai-ja (age 44) of the Daegu Marathon Club took first place with three hours, five minutes and 34 seconds, as compared to last year’s top spot record of three hours nine minutes and 29 seconds.

In the Men`s half-course division, Lee Bong-joo of the Hyundai Marathon Club won with one hour, 11 minutes and 10 seconds and in Women`s half-course, Ha Yoo-sook (of the Busan Marathon Association) came in first with one hour, 25 minutes and 22 seconds.

In Men`s and Women`s 10 km, Shin Jung-shik (33 minutes and 11 seconds) of Hyundai Heavy Industries, and Jang Gong-ju (40 minutes and 23 seconds)•of Sony Korea took gold medals respectively.