JTBC Seoul Marathon

Super parcours, ambiance agréable et bien organisé. Par contre, problème de communication pour les étrangers avec les organisateurs - difficultés à accéder aux infos pour les dossards avant la course, et accès aux résultats après la course

This was my first international race and my first time running in the rain. The route was great, and the Korean crowd was incredibly enthusiastic, cheerful, and supportive. Their energy and encouragement really made a difference. Overall, it was an amazing experience!

한국에서 처음 참여한 마라톤이었습니다. 루트가 정말 멋있었어요. 매일 빌딩과 자동차로 가득 찬 도시, 그 안에서 뛰는 난 정말 믿기 어려운 경험이었어요. 한강을 세 번이나 건넜다고요! 힘들게 달리면서 풍경을 완전하게 감상하기는 힘들었지만, 아름답다는 건 틀림없었어요. 언덕에서 조금의 고비가 있었지만 마침내 완주할 수 있었습니다. 레이스 팩도 정말 멋졌어요. 비가 온다는 사실을 주최자는 미리 알았어요? 큰 타올을 제공해주어 그 어떤 문제 없었습니다. 풀 코스 셔츠가 검정색이라는 게 아쉬웠지만, 주황색이었다면 눈에 더 뛰었을 거에요. 다만 확실한 건 2024년에 나는 이 완벽한 대회에서 또 한 번 뛸 것입니다.

去年我参加了JTBC首尔马拉松，因为这是一项可以穿越首尔的比赛。参观了几个旅游景点还是不错的，比赛的照片也很满意。最重要的是，在汉江大桥上跑步的乐趣是巨大的。今年我们再试一次吧！我的朋友也被预订了

Last year this was my first running, and it left me with great memories though it was raining. I’m gearing up to run this year for my new PB

The marathon is remembered as a competition with a generous race package. :) there was no expo, but there were no issues receiving the race package. the course that crosses Seoul was truly amazing, and I remember it as a place with really delicious food. signing up again this year!!!

^^

I always wanted to participate in a marathon held in Korea, and after hearing that the course of the JTBC Seoul Marathon was good, I made up my mind and applied for the 2023 race. As a result, unfortunately it rained, but overall it was a great memory. But rain or shine, the race goes on. The course was memorable and it was great to be able to see famous places in Korea. I will definitely apply for this year’s competition as well.

Спасибо организаторам за хорошую гонку! Понравился стартовый пакет: беговой лонгслив, бутылка, наклейки! Сервис и волонтеры - отличные! Маршрут красивый! На пунктах питания есть всё необходимое: вода, изотоник, бананы, энергетические гели и chocopie :) После финиша дали пакет с едой! Хотелось бы узнать свой результат: какое место я занял? И где взять фото с финиша?

It was cold in the morning 1º C at 5:30 and only managed to warm to around 17º by mid day. But back to the start, I was early, before the sun rose. It was quite when I got to the stadium and they were still setting up parts of the event. The bag drop was well organized, and the crowd seemed to hang out there. I guess as I couldn't understand any announcements they might have mention it was time to go to the start line. So I ended up rushing to the start line managed to get there with a few mins to spare but again with zero Korean language skills it was only the small fireworks going off that alerted me to the actual start. The start was good with people actually running, unlike many where the crowd forces you to walk the first bit. There was space and it never felt crowded. The course was made up a long relative straight sections so it was quite easy to know where you were. It seemed like every second aid station had sponges only and with it being so cold I never went near them but I guess if you lived there maybe they were helpful. But I did use the water, Pocari Sweat and gels that were on course. While I was told this was a flat marathon, it's not! Sure most of it is level there are quite a few 'bumps' that require a change in stride or pace to overcome. The map on WorldsMarathon is not quite right as there is a little kink out for a 2/3km section on the way back around the 33km mark. I did see the leaders coming back as I was going down South and they just looked so comfortable as they strode past in a small group. I would recommend this race as an event to do if you're visiting Korea, the timing worked for me so I was very happy to spend half the day running 42km. The fact that I walked 20k the day before and 10km each day after was not ideal but it was family holiday so we had things to see and do.

I booked the holiday months before and the marathon was the only distance I could signup at that time. There was also a 10k but I didn't know when that would open for registration so went with the longer option. The race was 3 weeks after doing the Melbourne Marathon so not ideal but actually worked out well with the Korean marathon being 15 mins faster than Melbourne.

Hi! I expected more with this marathon. This is my third one (Nagoya and Sydney), and its the only marathon without an expo. But thats okay. The worst thing was that during 30km above their were no water stations available or banana and food. Good thing that there were good samaritans who would give us water along the way. This is such a huge disappointment because you guys knew that the course was not easy, it was mostly hills! The last 12km made a huge difference with my pace because I was already conserving water because I didnt know if there would be. I finished at 5:21, but my target was 4:55.

Unless significant improvements are made by the event organizers, don't even bother joining this one. (TLDR ; down 🔽) I'm happy to provide more insights if needed and help make future runs more enjoyable - as a passionate runner and event manager, all I can say is that this was the unfortunately most unpleasant race event I have participated in so far. TLDR: There hasn't been any follow-up messages or news about the 10km run, only one general email with basic info: - the notion that starter packaged could only be picked up within two days before the race, giving an address completely different and far away from the race venue. Also, no official information was shared what happens if starter packages are not picked up in time (no info if and where this could be collected, at the race venue?); - no detailed venue map sent or to be found online, I randomly found one at the race and even then with no marker where we are located, making it necessary to ask around 3 other runners who were also just guessing; - no visible welcome desk for foreigners, only after asking a few runners and walking around for 20 minutes, the right tent popped up. FYI, even the volunteers didn't know where it was; - the loudspeakers provided the warmup speech and all info from the moderators, as well as countdown were only in Korean language, you didn't know what was happening at all as no English translation efforts were made whatsoever; - short moments of walking instead of running due to too many runners creating a bottleneck (forget about having a personal best time) and additional traffic congestion, participants were sometimes running only a few centimeters next to opposite traffic (cars, trucks, buses), giving the impression this to be a relatively risky and not fully enjoyable running experience - finisher medals were provided in plastic packaging, with the visible print "Made in China" on it, this felt sterile and not like a typical positive running experience; - drinks and food were just distributed by volunteers from regular pallet batches, no effort was made to decorate or cover them with whatsoever - this gave the impression everything was "industrialized" and cold; - the biggest plus was the passion, energy and friendliness of the many volunteers who made this event possible, big shout-out to them!

Overall I think it was a good marathon. I find that the start corrals could be better organised as they were over crowded. I had problem getting to my B corral and ended up "sandwiched" with E corral runners..too overcrowded. Water points were spread at 5km apart and could not find portable toilets set up along the route.

The 1st 2 to 3 kms were kind of congested. Water points could be spaced out more regularly at 2.5km apart vs 5.0km in the race. It would be good to set up portable toilets along the route for unexpected nature's call.

Absolutely amazing crowds creating a fantastic atomsphere

this is amazing experience for me to observe Seoul with bridge , fall, olympic park, . cheerful crowds will make everyone come here to miss when they leave.

hard route for me, and i will comeback to get it again. go go

The full course route was great, passing multiple Seoul Korea landmarks and crossing Han River three times during the peak of Autumn season making the running experience memorable.