Kitty-Cat Takes to the Trail by Leen

Hi peeps!  I've opted out of this morning's group tour to have a bit of down time before heading off on the next leg of my trip.  And I thought it might be a good time to get some emails out and blog about the race .  I've had a fantastic week - its gone so quickly!  We've been busy right from the start, first touring around Beijing visiting the different palaces, gardens, temples and tombs in the area.  Have eaten loads of Chinese food - some fabulous and some not so good.  Had a very interesting experience with Chinese hot-pot on my first night in the country.  The clue is in the name - even the mild version they served us was enough to burn off most of my tastebuds!  We headed north of Beijing to where the race was held on Thursday and were able to walk the section of wall included in the race.  This was a real eye-opener as to the task ahead - it's a shame I won't be able to post any pictures until I get back.  The stairs were all different shapes and sizes, and incredibly steep both up and down.  In some sections there were no stairs and you just had to cling to the wall and hope for the best!  Brilliant!

Anyway - on to the race report...

So marathon morning we were up with the birds with a wakeup call at 3:45am (nasty!!).  Looking outside it was cloudy and cool - ideal conditions for a 26 mile jaunt.  I got my gear on and headed down for brekky just after 4am.  Filled up on bananas and toast.  Amusingly - for the 200-odd runners in the hotel there was one girl, with one toaster...hence a huge queue of people for toast!  Before long we were on the bus making our way to the start line.

I was still feeling nice and calm, right up until I was down in the starting pen waiting for the gun - then the butterflies got going!  Right from the outset I knew my lungs were going to give me trouble.  They were wheezy as anything as I set off over the start line.  I just told myself not to panic, to take it easy and walk as and when I needed to - advice which stood me in good stead throughout the race.

The first 5km of the race was a relatively steep uphill climb.  I ran as much of this as I could but needed some walk breaks here and there.  As we hit the wall itself there was a huge bottleneck due to the sheer number of runners (over 1500 in all, about 500 of which were doing the full marathon) so it was slow going for the next 3km.  I'd planned to walk this section anyway, but I'd estimate that about 15 minutes was wasted in standing still waiting for people to get along the narrow sections.

I came off the wall for the first time in around 1 hour 35 mins and set off at a steady pace through the villages.  I was running quite well, around 9-9:30 pace although still coughing and wheezing a lot.  As we ran through the villages the locals were out in force to cheer us on, with big smiles and shouts of 'ni hao' (hello)!  Lines of kids would hold out their hands for a high five as we ran past.  As much as it was hurting (especially in the later stages) you couldn't help but smile as you ran along.

After the half way point (which I passed in around 3 hours) things became more difficult.  There was another long climb of about 2 miles - which hurt like hell and was slow going.  The 2 miles of downward slope that followed was lovely though and I caught myself running at 8:30-9 pace in that section.

By mile 17 it had really started to warm up and my lungs were struggling again.  I managed to push on okay until mile 19.  By that stage I was having to take regular walk breaks - but I made sure I kept them short, then would pick a point in the distance to run to before walking again.  Doing that helped me get my legs going again, and just after mile 21 it was time to retrace my steps up and over the wall one more time.

This time around there was definitely more up than down!  It was very slow going - I tried to keep my head down and take one step at a time - looking ahead at the wall stretching out in front was enough to make your heart break!  A few times I stopped to catch my breath, leaning on the wall and looking back at where I had come from.  The cool breeze and fantastic view helped ease the pain (at least a little!)

As I came off the wall, all of those nasty steps completed, I breathed a huge sigh of relief.  With the final 3 miles ahead my back and shoulders had cramped up (I think in part thanks to the preceding 7 days of constant coughing!).  I consoled myself with the fact that it was all (literally) downhill from there, and slowly made my way along, taking short walk breaks here and there.  By this time my Garmin had lost the plot so I had no idea what time I was on track for. 

I was sooo excited to cross the finish line - even more excited when I realised that I'd come in under 6 hours (which was the rough time target I'd had for myself)  My official time: 5 hours 58 minutes 41 seconds!!

As I crossed the line there were mixed emotions - exhaustion and relief, but also satisfaction and pride that I had achieved the task that I set for myself all those months ago.  Would I do it again?  NO!  But I'm certainly glad I did it and it was a race to remember!  And I may very well start looking at other 'adventure' marathons for future years....we'll see.

Anyways, better post this before I lose it all.  Thanks for reading if you made it this far! xx