Thank you for your interest in the
3rd Annual Gapcheon Charity Race!

Over the past two years, this event has raised over 4,000,000Won for KMSS, the Korean Multiple Sclerosis Society. We hope that this year’s race will be our best year yet, and that we will be able to give a wonderful donation to this amazing organization. 

This document serves to give you the information that you need in order to register and participate in the race. Please read this document in its entirety!

Here are the basics:

Date: Saturday, December 15^th

Time: Race starts at 3pm

Dinner from 6-8pm

After-party from 8pm

Distance: 5k and 10k

Race location: Begins and ends in Gung-dong, near the big Yuseong Homeplus (specific directions and maps to follow)

All proceeds from this race will be donated to KMSS, the Korean Multiple Sclerosis Society. Check them out at http://kmss.or.kr/.

How do I register?

We encourage everyone to pre-register for this event (discounted rates!)!

Pre-registration prices:

5k: 20,000Won

10k: 25,000Won

Registration on the day of the race:

5k: 25,000Won

10k: 30,000Won

To pre-register, simply deposit your money into the Daejeon Diablos bank account:

KB (Kookmin) Bank

478102-04-219681 - Petra Glithero

Once you have paid, please EMAIL PETRA at dr_petra@yahoo.com. Tell her what your payment is for (how many people, distance of race, if you are paying for the dinner (see below)).

We will also be accepting registrations on the race day. Please come with the exact change!

Show me the routes!

10K race route (There will be one water station around 6-7km.) 

***CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE***

5K race route (There will be no drink stations, sorry! Please plan accordingly!)

***CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE***

Basic snacks will be provided after the race.

How do I get there?

Race Location: Coordinates: 36.363164,  127.360440

Both routes start near the big Homeplus in Yuseong. (Taxi drivers should know this landmark.)

By KTX

Daejeon Station: Follow signs in the KTX station to the subway. Take a Banseok-bound train to Gapcheon Station. Follow the directions from Gapcheon Station.

Seodaejeon Station: Exit Seodaejeon station. Walk 10-15 minutes to the subway. Take a Banseok-bound train to Gapcheon Station. Follow the directions from Gapcheon Station.

By Bus

Most intercity bus terminals are not conveniently located near the subway or the race site. (The Yuseong bus terminal is about a 20 minute walk from the race.) If you arrive by bus, please consider taking a taxi to the race start. (Ask to go to Yuseong Homeplus)

From Gapcheon Station

Use Exit 3. You will see the river on your left. Walk down to the river and take the stone footbridge across. Once you cross the river, turn right and follow the river path (Homeplus will be on your left). Follow the river around the bend, and soon you will see the race site. It will take you 15-20 minutes to walk from Gapcheon Station.

Local Buses

Local buses that serve the race location are:

104, 121, 5: Yuseong-gu District Office 유성구청

102, 106, 108, 113, 706: Yurim Park / Homeplus (Yuseong Branch) 유림공원

Red dot: Race start/finish. ; Blue circle: Love motels ; Orange circle: Dinner and after-party

What will happen on December 15^th?

2pm-2:45pm: Check In and Registration

3pm: 5k and 10k races begin

3pm-4:30pm: Races (1:30 time cap)

6pm: Dinner at Ali Baba’s Treasure in Gung-dong. Presentation of awards and prizes.

8pm: Relocation to Santa Clause for the after-party. Party will include foosball, darts, and poker tournaments.

Tell me about this dinner…

We have arranged to have our post-race feast at Ali Baba’s Treasure in Gung-dong. Expect delicious Middle Eastern, North African, and European food.

Dinner will be served buffet style. (Drinks cost extra)

Cost for runners is 12,000Won

Cost for non-runners is 15,000Won

PLEASE NOTE: There is limited seating at Ali Baba’s! Please reserve and pay for your dinner in advance. Pre-pay when you pay for your race registration (same payment details, just let Petra know that you are also paying for the dinner!).

Remember, space is limited!

Check out Ali Baba’s on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/alibabastreasure?fref=ts

Any other questions?

Do you have any questions that were not answered in this document? If so, sorry! Please contact the race organizers on the Facebook event page. Alternately, you can email the race director, Robin, at rwillis2@gmail.com.

We look forward to running with you!

Bye bye!
Maury and Shawn 

We climbed the lower 48's tallest mountain, trudged through burning hot sands in the Mojave, lit part of our tent on fire, and encountered a whole slew of awesome wildlife (big, monstrous things like bears and mountain lions excluded), and saw things in America that not many people get to see outside of their television. The thousands of fish feeding on mosquito larvae - a veritable frenzy - in the Sierra lakes while the Sun peaked over the hillsides and a waterfall gushed just meters away - that was our life for three months, more or less.

It was a beautiful trip, one that I'll try to remember as long as I can.

The failure, however, of Making Miles' quest to finish the PCT in one season was this ... we wanted our cake and to eat it, too. In order to thru-hike a long trail, you have to go at it with a marathoner's mentality. You can't take the sidetrip; you can't spend two extra days in town. You have to keep walking.

Since we'd newly returned from South Korea only a week before starting this hike, we just weren't prepared to dedicate our bodies to that sort of masochism. Twinkle and I were hoping to both finish the trail and to enjoy America - the food, people, all of it - along the way. We missed this place. Living abroad for two years really hammered home to us just how beautiful our National Forests and Parks are - and just how lucky we should all consider ourselves to live here.

The only problem with enjoying America to the fullest extent was that we've spent far too much of our savings out here on necessities and libations. We've spent far more money on our hike than what has been donated to the Myelin Repair Foundation on our behalf, even. And that discrepancy became more and more apparent to me as time went on. Lately, I find myself disappointed that we just didn't skip the hike altogether and donate a $5,000 lump sum to the MRF ourselves.

I know ... this isn't the propaganda-ish, everyone wins all the time marketing-speak that you might be accustomed to. We should be touting the successes of the hike, not admitting defeat, pretending to be a politician in other words, but I'm not a fan. As we close this chapter of our fundraising efforts to end MS, I want each and every one of you to know this.

First off, I want to thank all of the people who donated money to the Myelin Repair Foundation on our behalf. You helped move us along, gave us strength and determination, and most importantly, your money is going to an incredible place that's doing the work necessary to end MS. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

If you were waiting for us to finish the trail, get halfway, or reach some particular point in the hike before chipping in, I ask that you make a donation before the October 1st deadline we've set. If we failed some expectation, don't allow that to prevent you from donating. Multiple Sclerosis continues, even if we do not.

And finally, if you followed us on Facebook and have yet to donate to the MRF via our ChipIn widget, what are you waiting for? We have 145 'likes,' but likes don't equate to research dollars. Likes have no meaning. With only 45 contributors, thus far, to our hike and cause - many of them donors who've contributed multiple times - our biggest sadness with this hike has been that. THAT.

Fix that. There's no better time than right now to pull out that credit card or PayPal ID and contribute a small amount to an insanely worthy cause. I'm writing this solely to the folks who haven't donated, yet. Get on it.

Like I said, I'm not a marketer. I'm just a dude who likes the outdoors and sees that as far as MS is concerned, there's still a whole lot more work to do. Expect some more Making Miles' info in the near future, and folks who donated, expect some emails concerning your sweet postcards, calendars, gifts. We'll be sending those out in a month's time.

Adios, muchachos.

This prodding, of course, comes from the same people who've read in countless guidebooks and have been told by many former thru-hikers: "I wish I'd spent more time enjoying the Sierras." Go figure.

Take your time, hurry up, choice is yours, but don't be late. -  Kurt Cobain, Nirvana

Maybe Cobain wouldn't have killed himself had he not given in to these hurry-uppers. By that token, it's nice to see that here in Mammoth: The Returnining, we've run into a group of 15 or so hikers who are 45 miles behind us, to be exact, and they're enjoying the slower pace of life immensely. There may be hope, yet.

So, with that, I'm signing off. I'm glad you guys are all following along. Know that - one way or the other - we'll finish the 2,650 miles of this trail in a single season. It may require another jump ahead here towards the end of California, but for Multiple Sclerosis, we'll get it done, even if it's all puzzle-like and piece-mealed together in late October. That's my promise! Your support is keeping us strong, even in the face of many obstacles and obstinance.

Peace, love, and frozen yogurt from the PCT,

Voodoo

Adios muchachos,
Voodoo

Okay ... so, I'll stop being mysterious! The hike is going well, despite a hiccup which I'll detail in a minute, and we're currently sitting in Lone Pine, CA at mile 742 of 2,650.

First off, thank you all for the donations and kind words.

Secondly, onto the hiccup, well ... Twinkletoes (Maury) has contracted some sort of stomach parasite (doctor wasn't sure which without running some tests), but we've got medicine for it and she's feeling much better. The way any hiker contracts this sort of thing is through polluted water sources, and in the desert, we drank from some sinister-looking creeks. The symptoms of these lil' buggers are cramping, stomach pain, diarhhea.

Needless to say, Twinkletoes' last two days of hiking before we were able to get into town were tough. Not only was she fighting off a crazy bug, but we were starting our ascent into the Sierras - the highest altitude that we'll ever reach on this trip. The climbs are tougher, and hikers typically drop their daily progress five miles/day to get through them.

On the last day, during one of her many bathroom stops, I took every bit of extra food, clothing and gear that I could from out of her pack and strapped it precariously onto and into mine just so she could make it up the final climbs. The situation was never dire, but it was certainly a testament to her conviction in this hike and this cause that she climbed over 10,000 ft. in three days' time so that we could make it into town.

I was, and am, proud of her. And I know that this conviction will only carry us all the way to Canada. It's one of the reasons I asked her to marry me. She's stubborn, and well, as a hiker ... you gotta love stubborn. 

Also, recently, in the news - Jack Osbourne (son of rocker Ozzy) was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. He's received a load of interviews and press on it, and I hope that through this publicity, the disease will receive more attention, more understanding, and better funding for a cure.

At the end of each day, we know our personal "adventure" or hike is simply inconsequential in the face of the "why."

One of our major focuses is to raise awareness for MS. The other is to raise money for an organization which is simply doing the best work around in finding a cure for people like Jack Osbourne, Mom and two million others. The more people we reach, the more people we can help. 

As far as the PCT goes, these last 40 miles have been stunningly gorgeous ... a great entry into the section that everyone says is - hands down - one of the most beautiful places in the United States. We're grateful to be here, looking forward to good health and a beautiful day to climb up the Western side of Mt. Whitney in less than a week.

From there, we'll just keep chugging and posting pictures (and hopefully videos should we ever find a computer that wasn't created during the Stone Age), taking this trip step-by-step and being flexible when life inevitably throws you the proverbial curve ball.

Twinkletoes and I - after we finish the climb from Warner Pass Campground - will finally ascend, for the last time, from the blasted desert of Southern California. To say that our last 100 miles were hot, difficult, debilitating, mind-boggling ... it wouldn't be enough. Our will was beaten down. Our palettes dried to the point of being unable to even swallow or produce saliva. And we made it through. I'm sitting in the library at Lake Isabella, CA - 40 miles off of the trail, because it's one of the closest places to the "No Man's Land" we were hiking through, but we're both happy and alive.

Mile 652 is where we stand, and officially, we have less than 2,000 miles remaining! The past week were some of the hardest miles we ever hiked, period. Craziness. Waterless stretches that go 30-40 miles. One of the best sources of H2O? A seep ... a SEEP. Did I spell that correctly? Not sure, but it involves you walking one mile off of the trail to dig a hole in the sand/ground and let it fill up slowly with dirty, mucky water. Then, if you're lucky to have a filter (we do), you can hope that it cures the Giardia inherent in drinking water that's surrounded by fresh cow dung. Glorious, glorious desert, I'm so glad to kiss you goodbye.

Imagine, if you will, 12 hikers and backpacks huddled underneath the above-tree for shade. That's exactly what happened three or four days ago. For hours, we huddled beneath Joshua Tree branches (not this exact one - I would post pics, but the library computers restrict all my uploads and downloads), waiting for the Sun to fall. At 6 pm, we headed out, and the trail was literally sand. Just sand ... not rooted in anything. Like walking through an hourglass. Whew! The desert may be a beautiful place to travel through by car, but it's a real pain in the ass by foot.

Next up - the High Sierras and Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the lower 48 states!

It's not as hard to climb as it looks, I swear. So, never fear. Anyway, we're rested, excited, and ready to get back to forests and rivers. Whereas we've been carrying four to five liters of water between stops, we'll soon only have to carry two. The difference in weight is two lbs. per liter, so it's a huge bonus to not only only our knees but our spirits.

Before my time cuts out, I'd just like to make a special shout-out to fellow hiker, Dazzler, as well. He covered our hotel room in Lake Isabella as a donation to the cause. Thank you! It was a sweet and necessary stop-over.

Also, I've lost 15 lbs., so far, not including water weight, which is usually an extra five or so off when we get into towns. And have I been on a diet at all? Not really. Hiking is the best "diet," if you can call it that. Burn 6,000 calories a day, so that you can then eat every single bag of potato chips, every pizza, and drink every fine beer in sight. Sometimes, I think I like the eating more than the walking.

Coming soon ... VIDEOS. We promise to make and post some more as soon as we can get to a computer that trusts our devious intentions. Libraries are notorious, sometimes understandably, for disallowing patrons from uploading or downloading anything. Kinda frustrating, but that's what we get for being low-tech. Other people can wirelessly upload through their smartphones and such, but not us. Nope. No iPhones for Twinkletoes and me.

Finally, I see the donation total is at $1250, and all I can say is, again, "YEEHAW!" Thanks for all the good will and love. We're feeling strong and determined to get there, so keep it coming. Pass the page along if you haven't already. Even one or two extra looks may lead to a solid donor and friend to the cause.

Also, if you haven't added us on Facebook, here's the page to do so - http://www.facebook.com/MMonthePCT

See y'all down the trail,

Shawn "Voodoo" Hudson