The Starting Line
Two races down. One remaining.
After TransJeju 60K and the Gyeongju Marathon, UTNP 9 Peaks was the final challenge of my October Crucible.
I wanted to finish. I didn’t.
The Path
41.95km.
3,202m up. 3,173m down.
11 hours, 42 minutes, 44 seconds.
An IT band issue brought my race to an end.
At TransJeju in 2019, a similar issue started around 45km. I carried that leg another 50km before quitting, afraid of permanent damage.
Crazy that was seven years ago.
This time, I stopped earlier.
The Finish Line
Back to the drawing board. The cliché is true: you learn more from your failures than your victories.
Hopefully, rest and rehab now will save me three or four months of recovery. In the meantime, I’ll focus on other things that need to get done—business and Korean.
TransJeju: complete.
Gyeongju: complete, goal missed.
UTNP 9 Peaks: DNF.
Not the ending I wanted. Time to recover, learn, and come back stronger.
ONEWAYGRIT — The long cut is the shortcut.
