Hello friends. We have now been in China for nearly a full academic year, and I am finally taking a turn at my first blog entry. Tony has done such a great job of narrating our adventures for the year; I don't know that I can measure up to his humor and his way with words. But I did recently take on an adventure that warranted my own description and interpretation. On May 17th I participated in the Beijing Great Wall Half Marathon. Seven fellow expat wives and I signed on to participate together. Most of us were doing the half marathon, but two brave souls signed on for the full. The marathon takes place on a portion of the Wall accessible from a small city, I think called "Huan Yuan". It is in a more remote area, and as such was a rare opportunity to see a portion of the Wall that not many people get the chance to see. To access the start of the run, we had to take a 2 1/2 bus ride from the center of Beijing.
The course for the Great Wall Half Marathon is challenging to say the last. It begins with a 5K portion that follows an uphill route to simply get to the entrance of the Great Wall. Once on the wall, there is another 5K of going up and down many, many, MANY stairs. The stairs are all different heights and depths, so it is difficult at this point to really maintain a rhythm. Most people as far as I could see were pretty much hiking this part. The scenery for the Wall portion is truly beautiful as by this point you have reached a pretty high elevation and have some nice mountainous views. After completing these back to back grueling segments, the remainder of the run takes you through a trail with some paved roads and some rolling hills. Many of the villagers come out to watch the runners, give "high 5's" and chant "jaio, jaio" which means "come on". It was neat to see their support, especially the children who come and watch with a lot of enthusiasm.
So, I finished and didn't fall of the Wall, which were my two main goals for the event. Our training group had read that to estimate your finish time for this event, you take your "typical" half-marathon finish time and add 50% to it. That turned out to be just about right for me, as I came in in about three hours and 10 minutes.
After the run we treated ourselves to a stay at a very nice hotel in downtown Beijing that had a free happy hour from 6:00 - 9:00, and a free breakfast buffet the next day - both of which exactly hit the spot. It was an incredible experience - to see the Great Wall in such a unique fashion, to tackle something physically challenging, but most of all to share the experience with some women who have gotten to be good friends. I can't say I'll do it again, maybe next year is the mens' turn, but it will always be a great memory.
The course for the Great Wall Half Marathon is challenging to say the last. It begins with a 5K portion that follows an uphill route to simply get to the entrance of the Great Wall. Once on the wall, there is another 5K of going up and down many, many, MANY stairs. The stairs are all different heights and depths, so it is difficult at this point to really maintain a rhythm. Most people as far as I could see were pretty much hiking this part. The scenery for the Wall portion is truly beautiful as by this point you have reached a pretty high elevation and have some nice mountainous views. After completing these back to back grueling segments, the remainder of the run takes you through a trail with some paved roads and some rolling hills. Many of the villagers come out to watch the runners, give "high 5's" and chant "jaio, jaio" which means "come on". It was neat to see their support, especially the children who come and watch with a lot of enthusiasm.
So, I finished and didn't fall of the Wall, which were my two main goals for the event. Our training group had read that to estimate your finish time for this event, you take your "typical" half-marathon finish time and add 50% to it. That turned out to be just about right for me, as I came in in about three hours and 10 minutes.
After the run we treated ourselves to a stay at a very nice hotel in downtown Beijing that had a free happy hour from 6:00 - 9:00, and a free breakfast buffet the next day - both of which exactly hit the spot. It was an incredible experience - to see the Great Wall in such a unique fashion, to tackle something physically challenging, but most of all to share the experience with some women who have gotten to be good friends. I can't say I'll do it again, maybe next year is the mens' turn, but it will always be a great memory.
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