Hello,

I hope you are all well and enjoyed your Golden Week.

Recently I was fourtunate enough to visit North Korea and run a marathon. It was an amazing experience and one I wont forget anytime soon.

Day 1
I met my tour group at Dandong Station in China. We boarded train K27 and crossed the river into North Korea. We only traveled for 5minutes before having to stop for a 2hour security search. The guards were surprisingly friendly.

We then traveled to Pyongyang. Traveling by train i got to see alot of the country side and the people who lived there, although they were poor conditions they were a lot better than i exspected.

When we arrived in Pyongyang and went straight to the hotel. The hotel was very nice, we even had hollywood movies and Western news.

Day 2

We went sightseeing around Pyongyang. Pyongyang is a beautiful city with lots of parks and landmarks. I got to see the statues of the leaders, soveit monuments and I even got a tour of their underground train system.

After sightseeing we went for dinner. The food was delicious however a lot of people got sick myself included.

Day 3

Marathon Day! Pyongyang Marathon starts and finishes in their sold out national stadium with 50,000 North Korean people watching. It was amazing! Unfortunatley i got food poisioning making the marathon itself very difficult. i managed to run 42km while throwing up the entire way. My final time was 4'52 Awful! But i was proud to finish.

Day 4

Early morning we said goodbye to our NK tour guides and headed back for China.

I strongly recommend going to North Korea its an amazing experience very relaxed and safe :)

See you in the gym,

Ryan