Great Wall of China Marathon blog: Race Week
I am a Great Wall of China Marathon finisher in a gruelling 5 hrs 42 minutes!!!!!!! It was one of the hardest things I have ever done physically and mentally. At times it was absolute torture but I can honestly say I enjoyed every second of it……….well maybe almost. Nonetheless it was definitely an amazing experience and one that I will be proud of for the rest of my life. My highlight was definitely race day, but the days leading up to and after the race were still an important part of my journey.
I arrived in Beijing at lunchtime feeling pretty rested after sleeping all of my night flight (Score!) . I luckily managed to arrive at my hotel in one piece. The traffic in Beijing is crazy! I have never seen so many cars or so many lanes of traffic. Apparently my driver had no worries about driving down the hard shoulder or swerving in and out of traffic (this is the norm in China.) I checked into my hotel and immediately bumped into my roommate for the week and some other runners from my group. It was these guys who ended up making my trip so much fun-Pauline the Irish Mad-one, Milan the Australian Croatian Sensation and Ahmed the laid back cool dude from Azerbaijan. We decided to make the most of our trip and go out and explore the city.
The first thing that hit me was the heat in Beijing. I wasn’t prepared for it to be so hot and I could feel I was getting dehydrated just walking around. How was I going to manage running in the heat for hours?!?!?! The second thing was the pollution, it creates this thick smog across the whole city. It is so dense that you couldn’t even see the sun most of the time. I could really feel a heaviness on my lungs walking around. Great race prep for running a marathon. NOT!
The next morning we were up early to go do a sight inspection of the wall itself. So after a 3 hour bus journey out into the country we finally arrive. Seeing the wall for the first time was incredible. I couldn’t work out if I was more excited or overwhelmed? It looked unbelievably high and almost vertical in places.
We sat down in the square where we would be starting and finishing the race. After a short safety briefing about the race it was time to walk the part of the wall we would be running on. By this point it was midday and very hot. I was sweating buckets just taking my time walking the wall slowly. I realised I would have to really work hard to stay hydrated during the race. Walking the wall was tough and my legs were shaking by the end especially on the downhill parts. Some parts of the wall didn’t have proper steps either so holding on to the rail would be essential. It made me realise I wouldn’t be running the whole race. Mentally it was really good prep for race day to see what I would be tackling.
The next day was a rest day before the race the following day. I woke up in the morning with DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) in my calves and quads from walking the wall. What was I going to be like after running 42k of it? I just tried not to dwell on it too much and get some rest before the big day. We explored the local village where luckily the air was much cleaner. Walking around, we were like celebrities with all the locals taking our pictures. I had the feeling that they didn’t see foreigners very often. We chatted away to the local school kids as they we keen to practice their English. Then it was off early to bed as call time for race day was 4am!
I don’t think I slept a wink at all that night. I was too full of nervous excitement to relax enough to full asleep. When my alarm went off I didn’t feel tired, I was already pumping with adrenaline to notice. We arrived at the wall at 6am and had the shock of our lives because it was absolutely freezing. The sun hadn’t come over the top of the mountains yet so it hadn’t warmed up at all. Not like the other day where we were sweating our arses off. So we started dancing around like idiots in our shorts and t-shirts trying to keep warm. The sun came up and hit us in the square just as we were lining up on the start line. It was literally like someone had turn the oven on and it was about 30 degrees instantly. No time to think about it too much as we were off.
The first 5k of the race was up hill with about 500m climbing to the start of the wall. I started out very slowly which felt really alien to me, as usually I bolt out of the start line. However I knew I had to conserve some energy to get through the rest of the race. I got to the start of the wall and my legs were already feeling heavy for the climb. I knew I had to keep pushing on and started at a trot to tackle the wall for the first time. The wall is so undulating it just feels like it is never ending. As soon as you reach the peak of one hill you look over and see the next. It’s just up, down, up, down, up, down. Some of the steps were so sheer they were taller than my shins. So you can imagine what the muscle burn felt like. Finally I reached the end part of the wall we were running on and had to start the steep decline of stairs down to the bottom of the fort. My legs were like jelly but I made it down to the square with a quick cheer from the crowd spurring me on and out to the local villages.
Running through the villages was amazing. All the locals came out to take pictures and cheer us on. All the children had dressed up in their best clothes and were giving out high fives. To be honest that was just as incredible as running on the wall. However I thought the villages was going to be the easy part of the race. I was seriously mistaken. I had focused so much on how hard the wall stages would be, I didn’t even consider the village stage. The route started out alright with a slow and steady incline, nothing too serious but enough to start feeling fatigue in the legs.
Then at about the 20k mark we came out of the village and I saw the monstrous mountain that we were supposed to climb. At this point I had to walk for a bit. It was a 2k uphill climb to the top and again I was conscious of having enough in my legs for the last stage on the wall.
But what goes up must eventually come down. It felt so good coming back down, I actually felt like I was running fast (I was probably only running about 10kph, but it felt fast.) Not so great on the old knees though they definitely took a bit of a battering. But before I knew it I was back in the square at 34k ready to tackle the wall for the second time.
Taking on the wall the second time with massively fatigued legs was HELL. This time we had to run it from the opposite direction. So the steep decline I had on the way down the first time, I was now climbing up. I could only manage 10 steps at a time before I had to rest. I think it was a mixture of pure fatigue, dehydration and the heat. By this point it was coming on to midday and there was no shade. All the runners around me were starting to feel the strain too. We were trying to encourage each other to keep going whilst trying not to pass out ourselves. I think it took me about 5 minutes to descend the steps the first time, but about 30 minutes or more to ascend them the second time. It was an absolute killer. Eventually I made it to the top and continued along the wall up and down, up and down, up and down again until it was time to leave the wall for the last time. I actually got a bit sad that was the last time I would be on the wall. For all about 5 seconds until I thought to myself “I just need to finish this race now.”
The last few kilometres was all downhill which felt like heaven. I was even over taking people. I ‘m not sure if it was the hill or the thought of finishing that spurred me on. I was counting down the kilometres as I went “3 more to go, 2 more to go, 1 more to go” Then finally I turned the corner and was back in the square and over the PA I heard “Emma Manaton from United Kingdom” as I crossed the finish line. I don’t think I have ever been that happy to finish a race before. I felt such an achievement and it made all the weeks of training worthwhile to feel that rush of pride. Looking back up at the wall and think I conquered you.
After a Chinese Subway lunch, and a quick massage it was back on the bus and a 4 ½ hour bus ride back to Beijing. I thought I would be stuck in a seated position by the time we got back, but I was actually alright. Even the next morning I was pretty stiff but definitely not as bad as I have previously been after races. I even managed to go sightseeing all day. I think I must have walked about 10k the next day, I figured it was better than staying still. Then came the gala dinner and after party where I danced the night away, literally. Leaving the bar at 5am when you need to get up 8am to catch your flight home is never a good idea, and makes a hell of a flight home…..Trust me.
Overall I had the most incredible experience and met some really inspirational people. I met one guy during the race and as we started chatting he told me he was in Nepal about to climb Everest when the earthquake hit. He was going to fly home but came to China to run the marathon anyway because he was doing it all for charity and didn’t want to let anyone down. Another guy was attempting to do an A-Z of marathons after he retired last year, and another that had already completed 244 marathons and was still going strong. The friends I made during this journey are definitely what made the trip for me. Being around like minded people who enjoy the same things you do, was a great experience. Taking on the challenge and laughing a lot while you do it was priceless.
These people are my inspiration to carry on my running, to continue to challenge and push myself and to keep setting myself goals. So what’s next on the list? There’s a polar marathon that I quite like to look of………….I’ve always wanted to see polar bears in the wild.
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