the upcoming walk and Korea's AQI

Today is an over-200 AQI day here in Seoul. Air quality is so bad that I was finally moved to buy myself a mask. True, I haven't used it yet, but I've done other stuff like cancel my twice-daily strolls outside with coworkers. Our team also stole back an electric air filter that had been taken out of our office for no clear reason, and we've got that fucker chugging right now. It's amazing to see just how dirty that filter gets, even indoors.

Speaking of filters: the mask I bought, while more expensive and disposable masks, isn't nearly good enough to screen out most particulate matter; if I plan to do the 60K walk on March 9, I'm going to have to seek out and splurge on a proper N95 mask, with exhalation valve. Wearing a mask during that long walk will mean adding misery upon misery, but it may be the only way to go.

In other news: I've also been thinking about my start time for the long walk. I had toyed with the idea of starting at midnight, but I might actually start on Friday around 10 or 11 p.m. to give myself time to rack up my extra 3 km around the local park and eventually finish the walk sometime in the mid to late afternoon—this as opposed to limping into the motel late Saturday night. I'm going to need all the recovery time I can get before Monday rolls around.