By Megan Miller, Editor
Trussville resident Andy Bass embarked on a new and exciting adventure in April, running the Pyongyang International Half Marathon in North Korea.
Bass said a few years ago he’d started exercising, trying to gain weight, and quickly realized that his body type would not allow that. It was then that Bass decided to take up running for exercise, and it’s been a love affair that’s continued to grow since its inception.
When Bass started running, he said he ran a 5K and then decided to set a goal to run a half marathon. While completing his training program, he said he figured he could and should keep going, and pushed on to run a full marathon. Now, Bass runs either a half or full marathon every month, and has been doing so since October of 2014.
“The first was the Detroit Half Marathon, which was cool because the half marathon starts in Detroit, then you run into Canada and come back,” Bass said.
Bass keeps himself organized by using a spreadsheet to keep track of when and where each half or full marathon takes place.
“If I travel for work, I might knock one out during a work trip,” said Bass. “Here, we’re central to running one in Georgia, Mississippi or Florida, and you can also fly direct to a lot of places, so that helps too.”
Of all of the races that Bass has run, he said the Pyongyang Half Marathon was the most memorable thus far. Bass had seen specials about North Korea on television, and became interested to learn more about the opportunity to run a half marathon in the most isolated country in the world. After extensive research and talking to those who had run the race before, Bass decided to register in the armature category and make the trip overseas.
“It was really surreal running through the streets of this city you’ve seen on television, and to see the people are just regular people,” Bass said.
The race started and ended at Rungrado First of May Stadium, which boasts the title of largest stadium in the world, seating 150,000 people. Bass said the whole bottom ring of the stadium was full of runners, friends, family and onlookers, and estimates that number of people inside the stadium on the day of the race totaled 70,000.
Eight hundred armature runners and 100 Korean runners started out on the football pitch inside the stadium, and then were released in groups of 20 at a time to start their race path. Half marathon runners did two loops through the city, and full marathon runners completed four loops. Bass said the race route was equipped with plenty of bathroom stops and water stations, and of course, was complete with cheers of encouragement all along the way.
“There were bands playing, and sections for the runners after you ran to go and sit. There were also two soccer, or ‘football,’ matches going on while we were running,” said Bass.
Bass said he had some trepidation about the trip until he got off the plane in China, but said that as long as you followed the rules, there was nothing to be worried about.
“Whatever the rules are, you follow them, because they have an unreasonable reaction when you break the rules,” said Bass. One example he offered was that there were certain things visitors could not take pictures of, and if you were caught doing so anyway, you were immediately apprehended and asked to delete the picture by an official. Immigration also checks the photos you have taken on your cell phone and digital camera when entering or leaving the country, to make sure that you’re not bringing in any unwholesome images, and not leaving with any that would reflect negatively on the country.
Bass also said the crowd support made the race memorable, as there were children along the route doling out high fives, and also people waving red flags, the color red symbolizing luck in Korea.
“The whole experience was surreal because of being somewhere where so few people get to go,” said Bass.
As far as what’s next for Bass, he said he’ll be running a full marathon in Washington state this summer, and that will be an interesting because the race path is 26.2 miles downhill. Bass hopes his running will allow him to travel to Moscow, South America or even Africa in the future.