Running commentary

I have never witnessed the Olympic Games first hand, but I believe I may have now experienced the next-best-thing after attending the Asian Games XVII for track and field on Saturday, September 27.

The "Asiad," as the Asian Games are known, has rotated among the countries of Asia every four years and includes many of the events typical of the Summer Olympics, including "athletics," or as we know it in America, track and field. Forty-six countries were represented.

So after consulting my calendar, I conspired to complete a day filled with sport.

The morning started with a 6 a.m. departure to Seoul American High School for a league cross-country meet hosted by the U.S. Army base school. The Golden Dragons, whom I coach with my friends Christie Gordon and Amanda Maholtz, performed quite well, including son Izaak, who despite an off day, finished a strong fourth. Our top girl, Nuri Yi, nearly broke our school record.

After a lunch at the base's food court, where the team gorged on American-style food not readily available elsewhere in South Korea, I grabbed a taxi to Seoul Station, took the airport train to the stop closest to the track and field stadium, and hopped a tour bus to the final destination.

Approaching the Incheon Main Stadium, I marveled at the newness of every single structure within a two-mile radius of the place. South Korea is well-known as a country that knows how to get things finished, and the 60,000 seat arena and its surroundings are no exception.

The sweeping design is said to depict the movements of people dancing, as in Buddhist dance called Seungmu, but also the movement of the tide and wind representing the sea of Incheon. Regardless of interpretation, it is a beautiful structure.

High-quality track and field on a pleasant Saturday night is my idea of bliss, but apparently the same is not true of the people of South Korea, as only about 5,000 spectators had arrived before the first event.

Wanting to get as close to the finish line as possible, I found myself adjacent to approximately 200 seats set aside for the media, complete with tables, monitors, Internet cables, and power outlets. Signs for Reuters, AP, Getty Images and others marked the media territory, but like most of the rest of the stadium, these seats were empty. Seeing an opportunity for a more comfortable seat, I decided to risk parking there, and in an attempt to add at least a dab of authenticity to my presence, I scribbled "Nuggetnews.com:" onto a sign near one for United Press International, and sat down to start writing this column.

As hosts, South Korea worked to assure that spectators knew proper etiquette. Before the first event of the evening, instructions were given regarding the vital importance of being quiet for the start. "However," the announcer said, "once the gun has sounded, please clap your hands in order to encourage participants to do their best."

The gun cracked and immediately the entire audience began clapping. Special love was afforded any runner in last place, which I thought was very sportsmanlike.

Living in a different culture is fascinating to me every day.

While no one ever stood and cheered, a general controlled roar would go through the crowd whenever any South Korean athlete appeared at the start.

In addition to reveling in the sights of athletes walking past in warm-ups reading Iran, Bahrain, Japan, China, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, India, Maldives, Thailand and Singapore, to name a few, I enjoyed the technology present at the meet.

In addition to two big screens with tremendous high definition positioned at each end of the track, I marveled at the cable line system on which a camera followed the athletes from above the track. Remote-controlled pickup trucks retrieved discuses and shot puts tossed by athletes. Every single seat had what looked like an LED sparkler attached to the armrest (which we were politely asked to not touch) for use at the closing ceremony October 4.

My favorite moment of the evening came in the men's 5,000-meter final when Mohammed Ai Gami of Qatar broke away from the field in the final lap and felt so overjoyed to be crossing the line in first place that he leapt like a gleeful child in his final three steps in celebration, and still ran a very respectable 13:21.