Lotte Aquathlon

	Swim (1.5km)	Run (123 flights of stairs)	Total
Record	27:46 (1:51/100m)	23:27	54:24
Rank	Age group 4/38 Men 36/750	Age group 1/38 Men 13/750	Age group 1/38 Men 11/750

July 2026.

A meaningful race, as it was the first time I placed 1st in my age group. I finally learned what it feels like to stand at the very top of the podium.

Having lived in Jamsil for three years, I always thought “there’s a race like this?” and wanted to take part. But I never knew when the registration period was, so I kept missing the sign-up window every time. This time, some people I train with for triathlon let me know the registration schedule, so I managed to fight through the fierce competition to register.

It was a race with a fun concept. You swim two big laps around Seokchon Lake, which I sometimes stroll around, and then climb Lotte Tower — which I used to gaze up at in awe — from the 1st floor all the way to the 123rd floor via the stairs. Since it felt like conquering both Seokchon Lake and Lotte Tower, I wanted to try it at least once while living in Jamsil.

Since I normally do triathlon, there wasn’t much I needed to prepare specifically for the swim. The stair climb was a bit of an issue, though — when I tried the StepMill (the “stairway to heaven”) at the gym, it turned out to be harder than I expected. It was completely different from running; it felt more like an anaerobic exercise that heavily works the leg muscles. Just 10 minutes of climbing stairs made my legs feel like they were burning, which was tough. Still, by using my leg muscles for 30 minutes of intervals every lunch break at work, I gradually got used to it.

The long-awaited race day… Since Seokchon Lake was only a 10-15 minute walk away, I ate breakfast at a leisurely pace before heading to the venue. It was great that the race took almost no travel time at all, being held right in the middle of Seoul, right in front of my house.

My rough target time for the race was about 25-26 minutes for the swim, 3 minutes for the transition, and 3 minutes for the stair climb, for a total of around 53-55 minutes.

Swim. The course involved going around the 750m-per-lap east basin of Seokchon Lake twice. The course was harder than expected, so my time wasn’t great. I meant to pick up the pace, but the strong sunlight made it hard to see, so I couldn’t swim in a straight line. Given that I wasn’t all that out of breath during the swim, I probably didn’t push the pace as hard as I should have.

Coming out of the first lap, the clock showed around 13:50, which was quite disappointing. On the second lap, I picked up the pace a bit more, coming in at around 13:15-13:20.

Climbing the tower. Perhaps because I hadn’t swum too hard, my heart rate had some room to spare, and since I hadn’t kicked hard, my legs still had some strength left. As planned, I grabbed the railing and climbed two steps at a time, moving quickly. Climbing 123 floors turned out to be quite a bit harder than I had expected. Up to floor 40 was still manageable, but around floor 60 was the real crisis point.

I thought about giving up partway through, but drinking the cola provided at the aid station and pouring water on the top of my head to cool down helped bring me back to my senses. From floor 80 onward, my strength returned, and that’s probably how I managed to safely make it all the way to floor 123. When I finally reached the top after all that struggle and looked out at the observation deck view, I could hardly believe I had actually climbed all the way up…

My final time was 54 minutes 24 seconds. The swim was a bit slow, but since I saved time on the tower climb, I finished according to plan, which was satisfying.

I wasn’t overtaken by a single person while climbing the stairs, and there didn’t seem to be anyone around my age ahead of me. So I secretly hoped for 1st place this time, and it turned out to be true.

At the final awards ceremony, hearing my name called and stepping onto the very top of the podium did feel good. The medal wasn’t just a regular finisher’s medal either — it was given in a special gold color. I’m not particularly fond of competition, but it felt rewarding to be recognized as having better aerobic ability than many others in the same age group.

Riding this momentum, I hope to come in under 10 hours as planned at the full-distance Ironman in October. I need to train hard this summer.