Chuncheon Marathon 2025

One of Korea’s oldest, largest, and most prestigious marathons is held in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province. This year I returned since last participating in 2019. And while a lot changed in six years, I was happy to see that most of them were for the better.

One significant change was evident months before the big day – signing up. Years ago, marathons in general were out of participants, with registration still open weeks after the deadline. We would get prompted with advertising texts to scavenge runners. This year, the online reservation barely lasted a few seconds – we were some of the lucky 20,000 to get a ticket.

After 3 hours on a train bound for Chuncheon (which is a romantic cliché, by the way, in Korean culture), it was hard to notice young runners dominating the venue, mostly in running crews. Marathon evolved with this cultural trend of group running, apparently, into a massively popularized cultural event.

The 10km course began around 10 a.m., and lasted about an hour. Despite having been under the weather just a few days ago, I somehow managed to finish strong.

Chuncheon is renowned for its Dakgalbi, or spicy stir-fried chicken. Most other places were croweded as thousands of runners desperate for food scoured the streets, but I could enjoy fantastic dakgalbi without much of a waiting.

I hope to finish a full course as soon as I’m over 18!