Great Wall Marathon Part 2

4:30 a.m...I ate breakfast and then sort of took a shower.  It was weird and mainly just washed my hair and woke myself up with some water.  Ready and outside with everyone at 5:30.  We took some pictures and waited for the bus.

Waiting for our ride.

Two mini, mini vans pulled up and honked.  One of the guys that was with us said that was our ride.  We jumped in both of them and they drove us to the Yin and Yang Square.  We walked into the Square and started taking pictures.  We were all pretty nervous.

Love birds.

Last minute preparations.

Chilly morning.

Andrea, Megan, Me, Erica, Ileana, and Fredy.
Great friends.

I couldn't wait to get to this spot for real.

My hero's.  Ileana and Fredy.

Megan looks like she is about to take off.

Megan's serious pose.

Too bad we weren't really done at this point.

The entire TEDA Gang.
Andrea, Ileana, and Erica.
June, Crista, Me, Fredy, Megan.
Jakob, Peter, ?? (works with Crista), Jakob, and Anders.

The Square got crowded pretty quick.  There was 2500 people running either the full Marathon, half Marathon, or the 7.5 KM Fun Run.  We picked up our t-shirts, put bags in the check in spot, and hit the bathroom.  Wow, huge lines.  Luckily a lady told us to walk around the squatty potty porta potties and there was a real bathroom with shorter lines.  Still a line but not as bad. 

The lines at the bathrooms.

We watched the opening ceremony type of thing, let balloons off, and started the festivities.  The first wave went off at 7:30.  These were the elite runners.  The excitement was building.  Uh oh...we all felt like we had to go to the bathroom again.  June told us about bathrooms on the other side with no lines.  Holy cow...I'm not sure we should have called it a bathroom.  We walked in and it was really dark.  It took a minute for our eyes to adjust but then we saw a concrete step up slab.  There were 7 or 8 squatty potties lined up.  The potties had a very narrow slit to go to the bathroom in.  It was quite interesting to say the least but we all did it with no problems.

The entertainment.

 

Chinese Dragons.

Ready to start.

Go Team TEDA.

Part of the TEDA gang.

Ileana scared a lot of people with this pose.

Launching the balloons.

Me and Valerie.  Two Quad Cities Chicks.

Wave 2 left at 7:40 and wave 3 left at 7:50.  10 minutes until our wave left.  Excitement was building.  By this point we were all ready to get this thing started.  The count down...10, 9, 8, 7, 6, oh my gosh, 5, 4, 3, what was I thinking? 2, 1, ahhhh, go time.  YIKES!

Lined up for our wave to go.

We headed out of the tunnel and onto the road.  Made the turn and on our way to the hill.  Here we go.  Phew, this was not good.  The hill was steep and forever long.  5KM to be exact.  Carrasco's took off like nothing.  Andrea and Megan were well on their way too.  My goal was to stick with someone one of these girls and it was Erica.  Thank God I had someone to run with or else I might not have ever finished. 

Making our way to the hill.

I would get tired running up hill before Erica but the good thing for me was if the hill was steep I could walk as fast as Erica was running so I could hang with her.  Then when it was flat a little I would run.  Luckily Erica needed breaks too or I would have eventually lost her too.  We made it to the top of the hill.

Our next big obstacle was the Wall.  2.5KM of crazy steps, hills, and paths.  This was personally my favorite part.  I knew what to expect because we had done this section a couple times.  Erica had not so she was shocked at what it was like.  We did great.  Twice there were times we were barely moving because we got bottled up.  We finally made it to the bottom of the wall but then it took awhile to get down to the actual road.  We had to run through the Square where we started to get out to the road.  Spectators were cheering which was cool. 

A lot of tired people already.

People going up on the other side.

Up Erica goes.

These steps weren't even the hard ones.

Bottle neck number 1.

A lot of people trying to go through a little spot.

We had a long way to go still.

Almost off the Wall.

 

We were headed to the Square to go out to the road.

On the road which was nice because it was flat.  Erica and I did a combination of running and speed walking.  We made our way down to the Village.  We passed some of our friends who were already out of the Village and heading to the finish line. 

We were off the road and on a dirt/rock road next.  Made our way down which seemed like it took forever.   We finally saw a bridge which we thought was just going to circle around and we would head back down the dirt/rock road.  Wrong.  This bridge took us to the actual Village.

Hard to run on.

We were shocked what the Village had in store for us.  No real roads.  All dirt roads or dirt paths.  There were hills which were tough.  There were rock narrow paths that went up hill too.  The Village was just nuts.  Something I definitely was not expecting.  The best part of the Village was the locals.  There were people out cheering, waving, staring, and taking pictures.  One little girl handed me two leaves as we passed her.  So sweet.  Then a little later another little girl handed me a wad of grass.  Again, so sweet.  I high fived kids and said Hello to a ton of people.  Always with a smile even though I was dying.

The dirt sure made my shoes dirty.

Some of the houses.

The leaves I received.

More narrow paths.

Finally out of the Village and back on the dirt/rock road.  We grabbed a banana and a water at a stand.  I needed a little something and those things helped.  Finally out to the main road again.  Ileana's driver went by yelling at us and waving (we passed Erica's driver on the way to the Village too).  Too funny.  We continued our running/walking combination until we were almost finished.  We kicked it in for the end.  We ran passed Leo and Non (the drivers) and they were filming us and yelling at us to "Go".

We came around the last turn and into the tunnel.  All the people were cheering for us and clapping.  I got a little teary and had goose bumps.  We made it to the finish line and all our friends were there yelling for us.  IT WAS AWESOME.  Erica and I high fived and hugged each other.  We both received our medals.  We found our friends and all celebrated together. 

Showing off our medals.

Ileana and I hit the bathroom.  We heard someone in there barfing her guts out.  Poor thing.  We found everyone again.  A group photo had to be taken.  There was Subway sandwiches for lunch.  I grabbed some but didn't eat them.  I wasn't really hungry.

We walked out to our vans.  I heard from Mr. Singer and he decided to ride home with June since we still had to go back to our Hostel.  We found our drivers and grabbed a celebratory beer.  Ileana and Fredy didn't feel like having one.  Erica, Megan, Andrea, and I had to have at least one.  We cracked them open and took a sip.  Man, for the first time ever it didn't taste very good.  We took a picture.  Ileana decided she wanted to be in the picture so she grabbed a beer but didn't open it.

Celebratory drink.

Ileana wanted in the picture but didn't open her beer.

We went back to our Hostel.  We decided not to shower so we could get home.  Our own shower would be much better anyway.

Showing off my medal.

My finisher shirt and finishing my drink.

Leo got us home around 3:00.  Whoa, I had some hip pain going on.  It felt like it needed to be cracked back in place.  But other than that I felt good.

I can not explain how accomplishing a half marathon made me feel.  Especially the crazy Great Wall Adventure Marathon.  There is a reason why they call it an Adventure Run.  There is nothing typical about it.  I am so proud of myself and all my friends for doing the half marathon.  We all did awesome.  A special shout out to Erica Orr for being my running buddy for the whole thing.  I couldn't have done it without her.

I had a few goals going into this thing. 
1.  Not die.
2.  Not come in last place.
3.  Finish by noon (4 hours)

I'm happy to say I didn't die, didn't come in last place, and finished at 11:36.  Woo Hoo!  3 1/2 hour half marathon isn't bad for a non-runner.  Will I ever do something like this again?  NO WAY!  It was insane.

Below is the official description of the marathon.

The first section which covers approximately 9 kilometres takes runners to and over the Great Wall.  This part of the course is marked by steep ascents and descents of up to 10% and consists of thousands of steps.  Runners are advised to run slowly going up and down the mountain, as well as to walk when tackling the steepest parts of the Great Wall.  Full marathoners will complete this section of the course twice, whereas half marathoners will only pass it once.  The second section of the course, which takes runners through picturesque villages and rice fields, is run on flat asphalt and gravel roads.  All roads are in good condition and do not require special footwear.  Full marathoners should prepare for a long ascent at approximately 21 kilometres.

I think the part about good road conditions is a little off.  Dirt and rock paths are not good conditions.