In an old document of China, there is a record that Koguryo Kingdom (B.C. 277-A.D. 668) dispatched ten persons capable of running 400 kilometers a day to China.

Hong Tae Yong and Ri Kyu Gyong, scholars active in the period of the feudal Joson dynasty (1392-1910), noted that Koreans had been good at running naturally since their childhood and the reason was related to geomorphology of the country having many mountains and hills.

Before the spread of modern athletics to Korea, there had been running games with local customs like a kind of relay, in which a competition was made by teams from different villages, each team consisting of three racers. There was a story that a certain person ran 200 kilometers in twelve hours at the end of the feudal Joson Dynasty.