ny which resulted in bizarre sight of
a medical golf cart collecting him up
in the middle of the stadium, barely
reviving him before returning him to
podium to prop him for collection of
his bronze medal.
For the ceremony itself, the North
Korea’s Minister of Sports presented
us with our medals and I had my 20
seconds of basking in the applause.
Korean runners, most of them were
children, presumably young teenagers, which created the peculiar
illusion that I was some sort of Pied
Piper sprinting through the streets of
Pyongyang.
Pyongyang itself is a visually stunning
city. Its main function appears to be
as a showcase for a nation, endless
wide open streets, enormous monuments and memorials to the Kims or
in commemoration of the war against
the “American oppressors”. Running through it was fantastic, with
supporters cheering and waving as I
went past.
As I was competing in the half marathon I had to complete two laps of
the 10km road circuit before returning into the stadium for a final lap.
The race was both weirdly professional and amateur at the same time.
We ran with racing chips, had motorized television crews and live national
television coverage. However there
were few rest stops, no nutritional
supplies, more about this issue later.
By the time I entered the stadium
I was so focused on running that I
barely noticed the 70,000 cheering.
12
As it was an IAAF event, stewards
in white coats were in charge of the
official timing.
I came to the final lap in the lead and
after one hour 23 minutes and 36
seconds, I burst through the tape. It
was a personal best for me but not
a time in which one could expect
to win even a medium-sized event
in the West. It was an unbelievable
situation: a decent if unremarkable
runner winning an event in front of
an Olympic-scale crowd. In North
Korea. Crazy.
I was immediately rushed off to talk
to some local media representatives
through a translator, mainly meaningless compliments about their country’s hosting me, before being ushered to one side and waiting hours
before the ev [