My Race Report:
25 May 2019
The Great Wall Marathon
Three days exploring Beijing, wandering around bustling hutongs, the Temple of heaven, seeing the ancient Drum and Bell towers (the drums being the traditional method of telling time for the city), Beihai park, eating in the number one peking duck restaurant in the city, seeing the famous acrobats in Chaoyang theatre, people-watching and kite flying. I told myself before leaving that I would have a restful week, rent bicycles or taxi from place to place, do some strength exercises and save my running legs. This did not happen. The allure of exploring whilst on holiday was too great and we managed to clock up about 30,000 steps per day (about 21km) of walking whilst sightseeing. Bikes proved difficult to rent and taxis where impossible to find. However, if I had to do it all over again, I would probably do the same! How often do you get to explore the backstreets of Beijing.
I had been rather paranoid about potentially becoming unwell whilst travelling to run. I washed my hands at every opportunity and carried a hand gel in my bag, I was extremely careful about what I ate, only drank bottled water, and increased my Vitamin C intake (evidence shows this can boost immune function and prevent respiratory illnesses1). However, this was all to come undone. There was an ‘inspection’ of the wall two days prior to race day. We had a nice time wandering on the wall and taking pictures. At the end sandwiches and containers of rice are provided for lunch. It felt safe as it was at race HQ and all seemed to be of high standard. About two hours after eating this rice I started vomiting! Back at the hotel it progressed from there. Pretty bad abdominal cramping, no appetite, all over body aches, feeling hot and cold. Disaster! My biggest fear about the event had materialised. There is a bacteria that can easily contaminate rice if undercooked or re-heated called Bacillus Cereus, causing quick onset gastroenteritis, which was my number one culprit. Pre-race day we booked onto a tour taking us to the Qing Tombs near Jixian. I considered missing this, but again my thought was “I’m only here once, gotta see it”, so we went. Unable to eat much breakfast or lunch, constant tummy pain all day and loaded up on painkillers and anti-sickness tablets, with many visits to the toilet. I’m glad I saw the Qing tombs, but this made for a less enjoyable day. Pre-race evening meal consisted of half a plate of noodles: Not the best pre-marathon nutrition! Far from ideal pre-race planning.
Skip forward to the start line. I made it. Standing there I felt like my legs were a 5 out of 10. Energy low and dehydrated despite trying to keep up with fluids. If this was an event near my home in New Zealand, I would probably have pulled out but not an option here! We had travelled a long way and paid to be here for this event. I’m doing it even if I walk!
Setting off from Ying/yang square you climb 350 metres on road in the space of 4.5km to get you to the start of the wall, at which point you cover steep steps up and down, with descent back to ying/yang square. I ran with the frontrunner Douglas Wilson for the first 8km, keeping up along the steep ups and downs of the wall. This is what I am good at, trail running and extremes of elevation, and where I’m usually in my element. I came off the wall segment in 2nd place and felt very depleted already. Normally I would feel like this at 40km, not 8km. Oh dear! The middle 25km is all on road, through villages and climbing a few 200metre hills on tarmac. I managed to stay in second place until about 25km, but had lost sight of Douglas by this point. It was now a road marathon. Not my speciality. I am short at 169cm and not a road runner. Give me trails and hills anyday. It was at this point that 3 or 4 fast road runners, a foot or so taller than me, glided past. I would normally have the energy to keep pace, but felt today like I had nothing to give in response. My body was not behaving as it normally would and my muscle power was just not there. Abdominal cramps had started about the 25km mark. Whenever I ran down hill, the pain would shoot up to 8/10 and slow me down. I adopted a hunched, very inefficient, running posture. I was also unable to consume any of my running gels as this would cause a wave of severe nausea. It was at this point I realised the rest of the race would just be about survival. I had never ran like this before: with such severe pain and at such a low energy ebb. My thoughts of finishing on the podium had to be scrapped, and I would just run to my best ability now and try finish. This really got me down. It is my ethos to push myself in any event. My biggest ‘fear’ is not performing to my full potential: in any avenue of life. I knew from looking at past events and my normal split times, that I had the potential to win this marathon, or least get on the podium. I became disappointed and annoyed seeing the split times on my watch being so far off my normal. This made for a both physically and mentally challenging remainder of the race. I told myself to just run my own race and forget about pace and positions. I concentrated on other things and tuned in to the supporters and scenery, going off on tangents in my head. The Great wall marathon has local villagers out in force, taking pictures and running along side you, with school children in lines waving flags and asking for high-fives. If you ever wanted a nice distraction this was it.
At the 34km mark, runners enter the wall once more and climb about 350 metres in the space of 3km, up very steep steps. A lot of it is un-runnable due to the severe gradient and large steps, especially being on already tired legs. I managed to take back two more runners at the point (as I say hills are my forte) placing me back in 4th place. The last 5km is a steep downhill tarmac charge to the finish. These two runners both took me back, one of them in the last 800metres. At this point I was just surviving. Running down that last hill my abdomen felt rigid and peritonitic, with shooting pains doubling me over. It felt like something was very wrong inside of me. I hung on but did not have anything to answer these two that passed me. I finished the race with a sigh of relief. My partner was at the finish and had just completed her first ever half marathon. A pretty amazing choice for her first ever 21k, involving 400metre elevation on the great wall of China! I was so happy for her and others in our group achieving their own challenges. It was a great atmosphere. I slipped away to the medical tent to receive stronger painkillers and lay on my side in a ball for a while.
I spent the next two days feeling disappointed. Knowing that I could have done better and not achieving my potential did gnaw at me and get me down. I didn’t really admit this fully to anyone and talked to others saying I was happy with the result. It took me these two days to stop this thought process, gain some perspective and feel happy at my achievement. Sixth place is a great result among some amazing runners from over 70 countries. I am happy that I got to experience such a stunning run on a unique feature and part of the world. Don’t give up your chance to sight-see, life is short. It is during times like this where you learn about yourself, your ability to suffer and persevere whilst in pain and with fatigue or dehydration. I have foolishly entered an Ironman next year as well as my first Ultra 55km run this year. Experiencing this pain and conquering the Great Wall in these conditions will stand my in good stead to complete these events which I know well can entail a fair amount of suffering.
When all is said and done, I feel incredibly lucky to be in a position to travel to the great wall of China to run an adventure race with awesome people, watch my partner exceed her goals, and be part of an incredible event that continues to inspire and motivate people from all over the world. If you would like a challenging adventure run with some amazing people, I would recommend the Great wall Marathon2.
References:
1)Vitamin C and Immune Function. Carr AC, Maggini S. Nutrients. 2017 Nov 3;9(11).