Hands down, the best race that I have ever done. Also, the most difficult and the most complicated to get to. Totally worth it, but I would probably never try and do it again. I'm sure that it is much easier to manage if you go with a tour company but you also pay quite a bit for this service. Because we live in China, we were able to just book the race through the Great Wall Marathon company. The problem with doing it this way is that you have to figure out how you are going to get to where you need to go, and where you are going to stay.
We decided to fly rather than take a train. (Either way we end up in Beijing. ) We flew out Thursday night and arrived around 11:00 PM. From the Beijing Airport we took a cab to our hotel in Beijing. Now the race is not actually in Beijing. It is about two and a half hours away by car or bus. The tour company gives you a choice of leaving from Beijing for the race (bus leaves at 3:30 AM) or leaving from Jixian which is closer to the race start and the bus leaves at 5:00 AM) on race day morning. We decided that we would would rather stay in Jixian because a two and a half hour bus ride on race day morning does not appeal to me. After many emails back and forth with GWM we decided to book the Jixian Marriott through GWM because that was the only hotel still available where the bus picked up on race morning.
The problem was getting from Beijing to Jixian the day before the race. There are no trains or buses that go there, and to book a private car would cost about of $250 US one way. Since each of our plane tickets to Beijing cost that much, it sounded really expensive. (Hindsight being 20/20, we definitely should have booked the private car.) Now if you went with the tour company there was a bus that takes you to Jixian 2 days before the race. Since we only arrived 1 day before the race we couldn't take that bus. But apparently there were other locals who also needed transport to Jixian so they offered us a minibus to Jixian the day before the race. Originally they said it would be a bus leaving at 1:00PM for 180 RMB per person and then later they changed it to a minibus leaving at 4:00 PM for 100 RMB per person. They email instructions listed this vague location in Beijing where we were supposed to meet this van. We managed to find it as did the 2 other "locals." Around 4:20 PM on Friday afternoon we left for Jixian. (Not the best time to travel.) Now I could do an entire blog post on this ride and nightmare driver but I am trying to forget it. Long story short(ish) our driver was effing crazy. What should have been a 2 hour drive turned into a 3 hour drive. He spoke no English and we are pretty sure that he took us way out of the way in order to avoid paying the tolls on the road. The drive involved ridiculously high speeds and at one point he was driving on the wrong side of the road for an extended period of time. Despite us telling him to slow down, he didn't. Then, when we finally arrived in Jixian, he had no freaking idea where the hotel was! So we drove around some more while he kept getting out and asking directions!! When we finally arrived at the Marriott we were all ready to kiss the ground!
Now Jixian is not a very big city so we were shocked at the size of the Marriott. It was brand new and had only been open about 2 weeks. It was a gorgeous hotel and the staff were all very nice and accommodating. It almost made us forget the ride over.
The rooms were gorgeous and the entire hotel was really elegant and the staff all spoke English. They only had a mini menu in the restaurants because they had just opened but the food was all very good. Also, the next morning they opened breakfast at 4 AM to accommodate the runners. There were 2 busloads of us staying there. At 5:30 AM the buses left for the race. The bus ride took a little over an hour and it involved windy roads in the hills. We had a much better driver this time!
At about 6:45 we pulled into the race start and there were lots of people already there. We got off the bus and it was freaking freezing! Luckily, we had our luggage with us so I quickly took out a long sleeve shirt and a sweater. Then we went to check in.
Once inside, we checked our bags and then went to line up for the toilets. They were basically squatter port-a-potties. Now, the one that I went into was fine. They had foam that is squirted over the bowl so that you can't really see or smell what is going on down there. There were some people who came out looking a little shell shocked, or who opened the door and then refused to go in, but mine was fine. Didn't even smell bad. (A fan came on when you locked the door.) What I found odd was the little sign up top. I tried to take a picture of it but you can't really see it. The top flashes vacant or occupied in both English and Chinese. It also flashes a time once you lock the door. Not the time of day but the time you have spent in the bathroom so that everyone can see how long you have been in there. My line seemed to be going very quickly but the line on the end had someone inside who must have been having a bit of trouble because everyone kept commenting on the time. When he got up to 8 minutes, everyone was talking and joking about it. Poor guy, he had to have heard because it's not like those things are soundproof. When he finally came out it had been 9 minutes plus. Everyone looked to see who took 9 minutes. Myself included. He looked a bit sheepish.
Bathroom needs taken care of we stopped to take a picture. This was the wave corral at the start. There was so much excitement at the start of the race. We were in wave 2. After our start, we basically ran about 2.5 miles uphill on the roads. This was the point where I could see the wall.
This was when I got to the entrance. There was a bathroom there so I stopped to use it. By this time I was no longer cold and the temperature had increased quite a bit.
Since I was not exactly speeding along at this point I stopped to take a selfie. Notice the vein bulging out of my forehead.
Now two days before the race there was a race site tour that you could take. All around you could hear people who had taken the tour talking. Every time we came to another hill of stairs, they kept saying "I'm pretty sure this is the last climb." But then every time we got to the top there seemed to be another one looming in the distance. Not that it was a big deal because the downhill was actually harder to maneuver. There were parts that had no stairs at all that were really quite steep. I didn't take pictures of these parts because they were also where the traffic backed up and you had to hold the handrail and very carefully watch your step and foot placement.
This was the point where we were coming down off the wall and you can see where we started from in the distance. We eventually went past it and then came off the wall. That was about 5 and a half miles. You would think that the downhill would be faster than the uphill but between trying not to fall and the back up in spots, miles 4 and 5 alone took me almost an hour! (Mile 4- 28 minutes and mile 5- 23 minutes.) I had originally had a "goal time" of 3 hours which is quite generous but at mile 5 I realized that I was probably not going to make that, since it took me almost an hour and a half to go just 5 miles! I was pretty tired at that point and yet I still had 8 miles to go. The rest of the race went through the town. There were spectators everywhere! Tons of little kids holding their hands up for high fives! I must have slapped a hundred hands. (I could never leave a little kid hanging!)
All in all, just freaking amazing! I only did the half and it took me about 3 hours and 8 minutes. I can not even begin to imagine the full! I was not in the best shape for this run at all since I had gotten sick and therefore didn't train much. But I must say that all the stair training that I did worked because while I was still extremely fatigued the next day, I was not at all sore! Yay! Matt did really well. His time was 2 hours and 40 minutes I think.
I didn't take any video because it totally drains my battery on my iPod but I did find this on YouTube and it is much better than anything I would have shot. The race was exactly like this. So freaking amazing that it makes me want to cry when I watch it.
That was from the Great Wall Marathon 2013. We actually had much clearer weather. Beautiful day.
Afterwards we all piled back onto the buses for a 2.5 hour bus ride back to Beijing. Not exactly ideal but much better (and shorter) than our original minibus ride to Jixian. Much nicer driver that time too! AMAZING!
We decided to fly rather than take a train. (Either way we end up in Beijing. ) We flew out Thursday night and arrived around 11:00 PM. From the Beijing Airport we took a cab to our hotel in Beijing. Now the race is not actually in Beijing. It is about two and a half hours away by car or bus. The tour company gives you a choice of leaving from Beijing for the race (bus leaves at 3:30 AM) or leaving from Jixian which is closer to the race start and the bus leaves at 5:00 AM) on race day morning. We decided that we would would rather stay in Jixian because a two and a half hour bus ride on race day morning does not appeal to me. After many emails back and forth with GWM we decided to book the Jixian Marriott through GWM because that was the only hotel still available where the bus picked up on race morning.
The problem was getting from Beijing to Jixian the day before the race. There are no trains or buses that go there, and to book a private car would cost about of $250 US one way. Since each of our plane tickets to Beijing cost that much, it sounded really expensive. (Hindsight being 20/20, we definitely should have booked the private car.) Now if you went with the tour company there was a bus that takes you to Jixian 2 days before the race. Since we only arrived 1 day before the race we couldn't take that bus. But apparently there were other locals who also needed transport to Jixian so they offered us a minibus to Jixian the day before the race. Originally they said it would be a bus leaving at 1:00PM for 180 RMB per person and then later they changed it to a minibus leaving at 4:00 PM for 100 RMB per person. They email instructions listed this vague location in Beijing where we were supposed to meet this van. We managed to find it as did the 2 other "locals." Around 4:20 PM on Friday afternoon we left for Jixian. (Not the best time to travel.) Now I could do an entire blog post on this ride and nightmare driver but I am trying to forget it. Long story short(ish) our driver was effing crazy. What should have been a 2 hour drive turned into a 3 hour drive. He spoke no English and we are pretty sure that he took us way out of the way in order to avoid paying the tolls on the road. The drive involved ridiculously high speeds and at one point he was driving on the wrong side of the road for an extended period of time. Despite us telling him to slow down, he didn't. Then, when we finally arrived in Jixian, he had no freaking idea where the hotel was! So we drove around some more while he kept getting out and asking directions!! When we finally arrived at the Marriott we were all ready to kiss the ground!
Now Jixian is not a very big city so we were shocked at the size of the Marriott. It was brand new and had only been open about 2 weeks. It was a gorgeous hotel and the staff were all very nice and accommodating. It almost made us forget the ride over.
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| Marriott Lobby |
At about 6:45 we pulled into the race start and there were lots of people already there. We got off the bus and it was freaking freezing! Luckily, we had our luggage with us so I quickly took out a long sleeve shirt and a sweater. Then we went to check in.
We took a quick selfie before we entered the square.
Bathroom needs taken care of we stopped to take a picture. This was the wave corral at the start. There was so much excitement at the start of the race. We were in wave 2. After our start, we basically ran about 2.5 miles uphill on the roads. This was the point where I could see the wall.
You can barely see it in the picture but it's there!
On the wall!
Now two days before the race there was a race site tour that you could take. All around you could hear people who had taken the tour talking. Every time we came to another hill of stairs, they kept saying "I'm pretty sure this is the last climb." But then every time we got to the top there seemed to be another one looming in the distance. Not that it was a big deal because the downhill was actually harder to maneuver. There were parts that had no stairs at all that were really quite steep. I didn't take pictures of these parts because they were also where the traffic backed up and you had to hold the handrail and very carefully watch your step and foot placement.
All in all, just freaking amazing! I only did the half and it took me about 3 hours and 8 minutes. I can not even begin to imagine the full! I was not in the best shape for this run at all since I had gotten sick and therefore didn't train much. But I must say that all the stair training that I did worked because while I was still extremely fatigued the next day, I was not at all sore! Yay! Matt did really well. His time was 2 hours and 40 minutes I think.
I didn't take any video because it totally drains my battery on my iPod but I did find this on YouTube and it is much better than anything I would have shot. The race was exactly like this. So freaking amazing that it makes me want to cry when I watch it.
Afterwards we all piled back onto the buses for a 2.5 hour bus ride back to Beijing. Not exactly ideal but much better (and shorter) than our original minibus ride to Jixian. Much nicer driver that time too! AMAZING!
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