For my birthday present this year I asked my husband if we could head to China and run the Great Wall marathon. It happened to fall on May 21st, which is my birthday and I couldn’t think of a better way to spend the day.
For those of you who haven’t had a chance to visit Beijing and see this amazing World heritage listed site, then I suggest you put it on your Bucket list (you don’t need to do the marathon but can opt for a walk or bike ride instead, there is even a bob sled at one section).
As the Great Wall is a few hours out of Beijing we had an early start on race day. A 5.30am pick up saw us up at 4.30am. With our breakfast packs clutched under our arms we huddled together to keep warm while we waited for our transport to arrive. It is very cool in the mornings and evenings in Beijing at this time of year, and even cooler out at the wall. Lucky for us the day dawned clear and bright, with beautiful blue sky and no hint of the pollution that generally clouds the city.
After about an hours traveling, we left the city behind and drove through some lovely countryside, the roads lined with a canopy of trees still holding onto their autumn colours. In the distance we could see the hills (huge mountains!) looming knowing full well that the Great Wall would be perched high on the top.
The start point for the run was a walled square, which reminded me a bit of a much smaller version of the Forbidden City. The hills, which I had spied from a distance, now rose grandly above us and as I had feared the Great Wall ran majestically along the ridge. There was no other way to go but up!
As the gun went off to start the race we all headed through the bluestone arches of the walled square and into the town beyond. A nice flat road beside the river allowed us to get into a comfortable rhythm before the climb began. About 1.5kms in the road began to gently rise in front of us, no problem I thought, this is nothing compared to the Peak (my regular Hk run). Five minutes later the gentle rise became a steep slope that went on for 3kms…and then you hit the Great Wall. Luckily the incredible views and excitement at actually being on the wall were enough to keep me energized, although I’m not sure David was feeling the same! He was very unprepared for this race as his work schedule had been crazy and he hadn’t trained much…(at all!). I decided not to worry about my time for this run but rather stay with David and focus on enjoying the journey we were sharing together. We stopped to take a few photos and admire the stunning views while we still had the energy and inclination.
After the first section of the wall, we descended via a VERY long set of stairs back to the road, where we ran past rivers and through villages for another 20kms. By this point our legs were getting very tired and the day had heated up to 30 degrees. At around the 34km mark we arrived back at the Wall. This time we did in reverse the section we had started with that morning, which meant the VERY long set of stairs we had descended, we now had to climb. Needless to say the next 8kms were SLOW! My poor husband hit the Wall…literally! He managed 1km in 40mins…with me bouncing beside him trying to gently encourage him to keep moving (I’m not sure why I was getting nasty looks!). This section is referred to as the “stairway to heaven”, but I can tell you at this point we were calling it many other, not so nice, names!
One step at a time we climbed, relying now on mental strength to keep us moving. Finally we got to the highest point and realized that all we had to do was stumble the final 3kms downhill to the finish and we were done. Every time David started walking I would give him a loving push from behind and let him know the quicker he went the sooner we would be finished (more dirty looks!).
As we crossed the finish line the crowds cheered and the announcer yelled out our names and what country we were from. It was such a proud moment for us both and another tick of the bucket list of goals that we (I) have.
We drove back to the hotel in silence with us both reflecting on what a wonderful experience the run had been. (I found out later David was actually asleep). Not only did we get to run on such an incredible monument, we pushed ourselves physically and mentally over 42kms and 5126 steps and we survived. We ran beside people from all over the world and got to chat to some and hear their stories.
I learnt a very important lesson about myself during this run. This may come as a surprise to some of you, but I am quite competitive and running without worrying about my time didn’t work for me. Every time someone passed me I would urge David to go faster, until he finally told me in no uncertain terms that he was doing his best and he didn’t want me with him if I was going to keep pushing him…fair enough too.
We celebrated that night with a lovely dinner at the restaurant in our hotel, picked specifically as my husband wasn’t moving too well and didn’t want to walk far!
It was a great way to spend my 49th birthday, now I have to decide what to do next year, when I turn 50, to top this one!