Ultramarathon runner leads campaign to clean up island beaches

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Ultramarathon runner leads campaign to clean up island beaches

Youn Seung-chul, left, and volunteers pick up after ocean debris on Pung Island near Ansan, Gyeonggi, in September 2018. [YOUN SEUNG-CHUL]

Youn Seung-chul, left, and volunteers pick up after ocean debris on Pung Island near Ansan, Gyeonggi, in September 2018. [YOUN SEUNG-CHUL]

 
There is so much trash washing up on the islands that dot the coast of Korea that within just a few hours its possible to fill nearly 100 large bags.
 
“After four hours on Boleum Island, we had filled 80 large trash bags and there was still more debris left on the island,” said Youn Seung-chul, the 33-year-old leader of Island Volunteer Union, a community service organization that visits the remotest islands in Korea, in an interview with the JoongAng Ilbo on Sept. 1.
 
The group, which Youn created with three of his friends four years ago, meets up regularly to pick up trash on uninhabited or barely inhabited islands like Boleum Island in Ganghwa County, Incheon. During their visits, they also provide medical check-ups or volunteer to fix things in the few residents’ homes.  
 
Youn says he is living his dream, having always wanted to be an activist for a cause, but the way he got here was definitely unexpected. It may have begun with an accident nearly 20 years ago, when he fractured his left shin.
 
After a visit to the hospital, Youn’s left leg, from toe to thigh, was bound up in a cast. Having also hurt his growth plate, Youn wondered if he’d ever be able to walk or run again.
 
But because of the injury and its impact on his life, when Youn got to college and decided to major in creative writing, he decided to write his first short story about a man who was extraordinarily talented at running.
 
To create a realistic character, Youn began researching runners and marathons, and found out about desert racing programs run by Racing the Planet, where competitors “traverse 250 kilometers [155 miles] in seven days over rough country terrain with only a place in a tent and water provided.”
 
It could have ended as just a research project.  
 
“As crazy as it sounded then, I wanted to be that character I created,” he said.  
 
Going back to physical therapy, Youn made it a goal to run at least 2 kilometers and walk 5 kilometers a day. After six moths at it, he felt he was ready but wanted to test himself.
 
He enlisted in the Navy, and after 22 months of military service, he said he could run 10 kilometers without much pain.
 
Racing the Planet offers four different marathon courses — one in the Atacama Desert in Chile, another in Antarctica, another in the Namib Desert in Namibia and one across the Gobi Desert in Mongolia.
 
Whoever completes all four courses join the Grand Slam club.  
 
Youn won the title on Dec. 3, 2012, as the youngest person ever to join the club then, aged 23 at the time.
 
It cost him some 40 million won ($29,000) altogether to participate in the programs, which he crowdfunded putting forward innovative pledges like, “Do you have a memory who want to part with forever? Send me a memento for that and I’ll help you bury that in the remotest deserts in the world.”
 
His current cause about saving the oceans and the environment began when he was about to go to sleep in a tent on Antarctica during his race there in 2012.
 
“You could hear the ice cracking, at least once every 10 to 15 seconds,” he said. “Even when the race was over, that sound stayed with me.”
 
Youn in the race in Antarctica in 2012. [YOUN SEUNG-CHUL]

Youn in the race in Antarctica in 2012. [YOUN SEUNG-CHUL]

 
Taking up a master’s program on ecology afterwards, Youn and three friends, one a photographer and one an oriental medical practitioner, created the Island Volunteer Union in 2018.
 
Visiting islands and remote villages every third Saturday of the month since then, the group has visited 21 islands altogether with some 800 volunteers.  
 
The group was approved by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety last year as a nongovernmental organization affiliated with the ministry.  
 
“Islands are places where social problems such as aging populations and unequal opportunities for education and medical care are more dire than elsewhere,” Youn said. “Due to the dwindling population there, or the remote location of the islands, they are also the places most in need of volunteers to clean the islands of ocean debris.”
 
Volunteers from Island Volunteer Union pose after picking up trash on Boleum Island in Ganghwa County, Incheon, in July. [YOUN SEUNG-CHUL]

Volunteers from Island Volunteer Union pose after picking up trash on Boleum Island in Ganghwa County, Incheon, in July. [YOUN SEUNG-CHUL]


BY SHIM SEOK-YONG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]
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