Great Wall Marathon

Early this year, my friend Korrie and I decided we needed a bit of a fitness goal to motivate us to keep running, so we signed ourselves (and our reluctantly willing husbands) up for the Great Wall Marathon in Beijing.

May 21st came and off to Beijing we went with our friends Korrie and Brian and Korrie's parents visiting from NC. On the morning of the run, we left our hotel at 6am to head off for the mountains north of Beijing. 3 hours, and a few missed turns later, we arrived at Huangyaguang, one of the ancient forts along the wall north of Beijing. It is a beautiful village that has obviously been well-maintained thanks to the World Heritage status of parts of the wall i guess.

The run started at the central square, through one of the formal gates, and straight up a set of stairs. And that is pretty much the next hour of our lives...straight up stairs. It was a gorgeous sunny day and the views were amazing. The route itself was a little precarious and at parts only had wall on one side with a drop-off straight down the hillside on the other. I can see how people are injured every year!

It took us 1 hour and 50 minutes to finish what would normally take around an hour. Korrie and I finished around the middle of the runners. Brian definitely beat us pretty soundly and Jason beat us all by coming in 36th overall. And he didn't even do any training runs!!

The route was beautiful, but hard to appreciate the view throught he sweat.

The steps were relentless. We didn't think they would ever come to an end. And everytime we saw the top we would reach a 'gate' along the wall, only to find that we were stepping down to yet another climb. Ugh!

We couldn't help taking a few candids along the way...anything for an excuse to stop for a second!

We collapsed that night but managed to fit in a trip to the famous Summer Palace before our flight. The Summer Palace is actually a collection of very elaborate pavilions and halls set around a large central lake and stepping up the hillsides. The 6 1/2 of us and several million chinese people enjoyed walking around the grounds and a boatride across the lake.

This is the central lake. It was lovely with little islands with temples dotted around it and beautiful giant stone bridges.

We took a boatride across the lake. We were definitely the only foreigners on-board and Abi was an attraction on her own.

These are a FEW of the millions of people we shared our afternoon on the lakeside with.

Abi, sadly, slept through the entire trip!! But Jason and I enjoyed it, and I imagine that Abi would have been slightly less interested in the architecture than we were...

The palace itself was built in the Qing (i think) dynasty for the empress to have a place to get away from the Forbidden City in the summer heat. It would have been accessed from a boat through the canals and rivers throughout Beijing. The buildings looked stunning but given the heat, the crowds and our flights, we just walked around the lake for awhile.

One of the pavillions. You can see the inner buildings stepping up the hillside behind the front 'gates'.

Unfortunately, every single corner of the place and its beautiful pavillions was occupied. But we enjoyed the place anyway.