An English professor who has mania

 for running since 13 years old

Rebecca Patten was the first female who finished 10 Km course at the CheongGyeCheon marathon with her time 40:18 on 2^nd Oct but she gave disappointed look first when she finished with saying “I wanted to run it under 40 min but couldn’t make it.”

She has been teaching English for 7 years at KyungWon University as well as has mania for running since 13 years old.  Her happiness and pleasure with her running is just like when she was 13 years old except she runs further distances now with getting old.  She picked merits of running which are setting a goal and achieving, focusing on only one thing while running, meeting various people and having herself relaxed with a peace of mind while running.  Although she is small it infers her strong spirit.

Ms. Patten regularly trains with a marathon club ‘SmileRun’ at Nam Mountain and along Han River twice a week and doesn’t skip to run with them for her long run training before her race.  Running alone is also nice but a pleasure of running is getting higher in succession when she runs with who has a same goal and a hobby with sharing information and agonies.

Comfortable environment, various courses…. Seoul fits for running

Seoul fits for Ms. Patten’s running.  There are some comfortable places with various courses such as Nam Mountain and Han River to run close from her place.  It is also very easy to find a store to buy drinks when she needs water while running and she can take a cab easily to get back home when she gets too tired.  It must be a strong point or an attraction of Seoul to marathoners, which are hardly found in other cities.

She studied Korean at Korean Study Center of SeoGang University before and is good at Korean as she could participate in a Korean contest.  Although it is interesting for her to learn Korean and a Korean culture, she stressed to say running is much more interesting.  She has been always placed top 5 at big races and she proudly said that she would race in a full course of JoongAng ilbo marathon this month.

When I asked about CheongGyeCheon to her, “It seems refreshing me with sound of water and wind passing through in the middle of the city.”  “I couldn’t see it much because of focusing on my race and the crowd, so I will come again to see with my husband later.” She replied with grinning broadly.

On the Seoul city magazine “Seoul Love” Nov. 2005

Written by HyonA Kim from Seoul city