So in keeping with the unofficial theme of this blog my latest post is (gasp!) travel related. Funny how motherhood, deployment, a colicky baby and precocious toddler have kept me from getting to the computer much...if at all.
With that I finally completed an endeavor I've been working toward for the last six months and promised many I would put it on the blog. So here you go.
I've been wanting to run this race called The Great Wall Marathon for some time now and given how close we live to China I decided this was a great time to tackle it. When else in my life of Navy wife-dom would I be able to pay $300 for a plane ticket to China?
So on May 13th I boarded a plane for Beijing and started my first solo international trip. Despite putting a year of planning into this trip, it wasn't until I fastened my seatbelt hat I realized I'd never done this all by myself. As the plane took off I realized I had traveled to 29 countries in the last 16 years (gosh I feel old) however I have always traveled with either Colin, my family, classmates or colleagues. I've never been to another country by myself! Despite the freedom of traveling sans babies I was a totally a bit terrified. I'm not sure if it was a strange new country with a strange new language or the strange desire to run 13 miles in this strange country.
I arrived in Beijing a few days before the race. My "chauffeur" was half asleep in the terminal with my name scribbled on a piece of paper. After waking Snoozefest I followed him to the parking garage where we got rear-ended in exit line. It was a fantastic introduction to the mayhem that is traveling in China. I quickly learned there is ALWAYS traffic in Beijing. It took a good 2 hours to get to my hotel. After a quick check-in I got a few hours of sleep before 5am roll call.
Thursday was Inspection Day, where we would travel 3 hours by bus to the town of Huangyaguan (Try saying that three times). Every participant was required to "inspect" the wall before being allowed to race. The race director humorously encouraged us to put aside our bravado and downgrade our race if we didn't feel we were adequately prepared. He even said some folks in the past have completely dropped out after walking the wall. If, however a participant walked it and felt an upgrade was necessary he would send Lars, his colleague over to survey said participant before granting permission. I can't say whether anyone took on Lars but it was entertaining to watch the smiles wiped off the faces of a few overconfident runners in the crowd.
Needless to say the inspection was not only humbling but probably the smartest thing the race directors could do. It provided everyone with a first hand sample of what the first half of the race would entail as well as a great opportunity to get some great photos out of the way. Oh and an excuse to say "I climbed the wall twice!".
The following day was a rest day. Some folks took advantage of a tour of the Qing Tombs but I decided I didn't want to be on my feet all day so I did what any sleep deprived 6 month postpartum mom with a deployed husband would do....I slept! I might have felt a few springs in a mattress in a hotel room that left A LOT to be desired but being able to take a long uninterrupted nap during the middle of the day was indescribable. I'm sure many moms out there can relate. :)
Thankful for a good rest day, we rose at 3:30 the next morning to grab a breakfast of eggs, toast and coffee before boarding our busses to Huangyaguan. Despite all the research I did on weather, race day temps and topography I was not prepared. We were told to dress and train for warm, humid weather during the race. It was about 40 degrees at the start line. Despite the cold and long wait for the race to start we did alright.
I lined up with runners from over 70 countries, all geared up with their GoPros, Gu's, water bottles, iPods & knee braces. The race started right on time and I was in the second wave which I was happy about since I could see the temps were going to rise quickly. We were sent off by a Chinese marching band playing "Jingle Bells".
The first 4 miles are more or less straight up a winding hill to the wall's entrance. I congratulated myself for having run the La Jolla Half Marathon last month with my sister Courtney. LJ Half was the perfect training race as both races have a similar hill at the beginning of the race. By the time we got to the wall I was not nearly as tired as I thought I'd be. Unfortunately this is where I smudged the lens of my camera so I have a fabulous blurry spot on all of my post-hill pictures. Realities of race photography I suppose. :(
Cue the blur:
The wall was pretty cool. Incredibly challenging to the point where most participants ran very little of it. As you can see the incline is steep, the steps uneven very slippery.
Fortunately the view made up for it. After all you have to stop and take pictures every few steps. :)
So as you can see there is a lot of up, down, up, down and up action going on. Over and over again. A total of 2,600 steps (some measuring over a foot in height) over the course of almost 3 miles. (And the marathoners get to do it twice!) But you know what? This was my favorite part of the course! Perhaps because I was dreading it so much, I ran hills and stairs until my brain hurt here in Japan and by not trying to race through the wall, I enjoyed the scenery and still managed to get across it quickly and safely.
The toughest part of the wall was most likely the Goat Track. An incredibly steep decent over slippery stairs and rocks all the way back to the village where we got to run back through the Yin & Yang Square and head out into the neighboring village of Duanzhuang.
The course support was phenomenal. Certainly not your average race spectators you'd find in Chicago or New York. Most were young children with their parents handing out high fives, bananas, water bottles and hand picked flowers.
Things got a little rugged as we traveled through Duanzhuang. I love trail running and didn't know this race would offer any so it was a fun surprise!
Most runners covet the squatty potties along the course. In our case, they were true Chinese squatty potties. Worth a picture of course.
Course signs were pertinent.
Over halfway there and still plenty of energy until....
the last two miles. What caught me off guard was I found the toughest part of the race was not the wall by any measure. After miles and miles or rock, slippery stones, inclines, declines, stairs, trails and puddles filled with questionable substances, it was the last 2 miles of flat, smooth road. Most likely it is because we left the shade of the villages, the temperature had soared to 80 degrees, fumes from trucks and cars littered the air and dust was kicked up from nearby farms. Combine that with the bright sun and not a spot of shade, I was ready to be done!
This is perhaps where the emotions rose for participants. A true test of wills. As the Half Marathoners and Fun Runners entered the finish line at Yin & Yang Square, the Marathoners passed through and headed BACK UP the Goat Track to continue their race. This is precisely why I rarely choose to run a full marathon whenever there is a half marathon offered. There is nothing more depressing than watching your new running buddies trot off to victory while you head off to repeat their race. I know there are some who dig that sort of thing it's probably why I've decided 13 miles is my happy distance.
I completed the race in 2 hours 45 minutes, good enough for 5th place in my age group. I typically finish a half in around 2 hours (not exactly looking for sponsorship contracts here) so I was pretty proud of that time given how many times I stopped to take pictures and how long it took to get down the Goat Track.
Overall the race itself was well organized. Everything ran on time, the route was well supplied and supported by personnel. The rest of the tour left a little to be desired. But as our tour guide quipped, that is the China experience! We were taken back to our hotels in Beijing by bus but it was a shuttle system so our bus stopped at the airport and three other hotels before finishing out at mine...it took 4 1/2 hours to get home that evening. I can't say that was optimal but as I mentioned, Beijing traffic is nothing to mess with. By the time I got back to the hotel I showered, knocked back a protein shake and got to bed.
The next morning was a blast. I got to share stories with all my new friends over a Chinese breakfast and boarded a bus for a tour of Beijing. Our tour guide "Cherry" took us to Temple of Heaven, the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and a silk factory.
Temple of Heaven was first up. It included a park where senior citizens gather every day to sing, exercise, play cards and socialize.
Hacky sack playing seniors was probably the highlight....
Seriously.....
Here is a cool sight. Call it old school Match.com. People line a sidewalk with personal ads featuring either themselves, their child or a client where folks browse for Mr or Mrs Right.
The Temple of Heaven
We were told you couldn't visit Beijing without sampling some Peking Duck so we did just that. We had an impressive lunch of about a dozen different dishes along with the star of the show.
After lunch we walked over to Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City.
Our tour group included runners from Britain, Australia, Hungary, Holland, Romania, Ireland, South Africa, Denmark, Turkey, United States (me!) & Azerbaijan.
If you're up for viewing a pickled corpse, you can view Mao's Mausoleum too.
I skipped that.
But if you want your photo taken by government officials, just look up and smile:
Some of the marathon participants weren't pleased with the stairs along the route....
Despite the pollution, the views of some of the historic buildings were wonderful. The Forbidden City is pretty impressive, but definitely repetitive. Basically it is one long stretch of buildings connected by long courtyards.
That evening we all boarded buses (again) and went to the gala dinner. It was a nice evening full of impressive music theatrical presentations.
We may have ended up drinking champagne out of water glasses and eating dinner off of cocktail plates because they ran out of said items but I guess that sums up the eclectic experience China has to offer...evidenced by the cans of Tsingtao were handed out to participants as they left the building.
Not a bad way to end the evening right?
Below I got a picture with Tommy Hart. This was his 99th marathon. He has sewn a patch on his jacket for every race he has run, including Shamrock, the race I once worked for in Virginia Beach. Quite an impressive guy!
Below, our tour guide (and amateur commedienne) Cherry and our bus group "2A" or "Not 2B" as she liked to call it. The other group from our hotel was named "2B". It took me about two days to get the joke...can I blame the mommy brain?
On the 6th day I said goodbye to uninterrupted sleep and the ability to travel without babies, toys, strollers and sippy cups and came home to my cute little munchkins and their happy but exhausted grandparents who came all the way from the States to watch them. I'm pretty sure they worked a lot harder than I did. Thanks Grani & Papa!!
Zài jiàn,
Caitlyn
