I RAN MY FIRST ½ MARATHON ON THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA!!!!
Enough said, right?!?!?! Yup, although it was just way too hard and way too fun that I feel the need to write more.
Enough said, right?!?!?! Yup, although it was just way too hard and way too fun that I feel the need to write more.
After 13 weeks of getting up early, scaling stairs, doing sprints, and running and running and running, I climbed aboard the speed train and zipped on up to Beijing (at 200 mph!) with 7 other friends to run the Great Wall!
When we arrived at the hostel we unfortunately came across a real-life Seinfeld moment: the hostel had taken our reservations, but they hadn’t held our reservations! As we tried to figure out how and where to sleep since they had given our rooms away, all I could think about was how funny it would be if Steve were there to quote this to them:
“See you know how to take the reservation, but you don’t know how to hold the reservation, and that’s really the most important part of the reservation…the holding. Anybody can just take em!"
Watch it here!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSZYsyrP3Co
We ended up staying in a dorm room for the night, and besides the awful squatty potties down the hall, it wasn’t too bad, considering we only actually slept for about 4 hours….and Steve only slept there for half an hour! He didn’t take the day off of work, but he wanted to be there to support me, so he flew in late that night, arrived at 1:45, and was able to get up with us at 2:15 to catch the marathon busses for the wall.
Three hours later we were at the Great Wall! The live marching band psyched us up as we got ready, ate some bananas, and stretched. At 7:29:50 the countdown started and 10 seconds later I was running up 3 miles of steep switchback incline to get to the entrance of the wall. What a way to start a race! |
I was determined to run the entire incline, because I had heard that a lot of people end up walking…and I ran it all! When I got to the entrance to the wall, though, I was forced to walk because of the bottleneck on the stairs. I thought that this would frustrate me, but it was actually really fun! People from all over the world were crammed together talking in their different accents about how cool it was that they were running on the wall. It was actually a really fun social time, haha. It soon cleared out though and I was able to fully appreciate the pain that running miles of uneven stairs and inclines on the Great Wall really entails. IT WAS SO FUN! I was loving every minute of it!
When I finally got down from the Wall, the first thing I saw was Steve standing there and cheering me on! It was awesome! He was in the perfect place for encouragement, and I definitely needed it because I still had 7 miles left!
That’s when the pain hit. I realized that I love the wall so much that I didn’t even care about running anymore. I just wanted to go back up the wall!!! Since that wasn’t the route for my race though, I ate a running gel and forced myself to endure.
That’s when the pain hit. I realized that I love the wall so much that I didn’t even care about running anymore. I just wanted to go back up the wall!!! Since that wasn’t the route for my race though, I ate a running gel and forced myself to endure.
After running on the road for awhile, I found myself in a small village! I ran through narrow alleys and along rocky pastures. Children lined the path to give me high fives as I passed, all shouting, “Jai Yo!” (It’s my favorite word in Mandarin, and it means “Go!”). It was really neat.
At that point I started to see some of my other friends on the race! I saw our German friends Diana and Andreas in the village, and I passed my Arkansas and Florida friends Andrea, David, and Kendra on my way out as they were running in. It was a great encouragement to see them!
The last two miles were the hardest. I was beat, and I honestly just kept having to tell myself that I was going to finish, and that the race wasn’t going to last forever. I actually reached the point where walking was just as painful as running, and running was just as fast as walking. Haha, nevertheless, I pressed on! At one point a full marathoner encouraged me as he passed….I was able to return the favor when I passed him walking a few minutes later :)
At last I reached the finish line! Steve greeted me with a huge hug, and I felt like crying because I was so proud of myself. It was a wonderful feeling. My time was 3 hrs and 16 minutes. If you know anything about half marathon times, you know that it’s an awful time. Considering that it was the Great Wall half marathon though, it was actually not too bad!
At last I reached the finish line! Steve greeted me with a huge hug, and I felt like crying because I was so proud of myself. It was a wonderful feeling. My time was 3 hrs and 16 minutes. If you know anything about half marathon times, you know that it’s an awful time. Considering that it was the Great Wall half marathon though, it was actually not too bad!
The rest of the day I waited for my friends to finish and tried to keep from throwing up or passing out. It took me a good few hours to actually recover from running, which I take as a good thing because it means I really pushed myself! Steve was the best! Even though he hadn’t slept at all the night before, he was encouraging everyone as they went through, getting me water and the most delicious popsicle I have ever consumed, and giving snickers and Gatorade to our friends who were running the full marathon as they made their way back up to the wall.
That night after showering (the hostel finally gave us our rooms), and after Steve and I got completely lost in the hutongs (for over an hour!), we all went to Outback Steakhouse for dinner. Shanghai doesn’t have one, but Beijing does…sort of. It’s actually called William’s Steakhouse, but it has the same menu (instead of a “bloomin onion”, it has a “burst onion”). It was great! Steve and I split some delicious chicken, and I even had a root beer! Meanwhile our friends joked that I actually ran the full marathon that day because of how much walking Steve and I did when we got lost, haha. At least it gave Steve a chance to get some exercise too!
The next day we were off on the speed train again, returning to Shanghai. Besides the few bumps in the road, the weekend was a blast. It was so much fun to see so many of our friends reach goals that we had been training for for months! I had always wanted to run a half marathon, and I’m stoked that my first one was on the Great Wall….MY FAVORITE THING!!!!!