Behind The Glitz of a Dream Marathon Race

This is a follow up to The Great Wall Marathon Adventure which summarizes the whole trip.

Jessi and I just came back from a trip of a lifetime: running a marathon on the Great Wall in Huangyaguan China. The course is on The Wall (I feel compelled to capitalize it) for ~7 miles. The rest is run in the surrounding city. It's good that the entire race isn't on The Wall because... well... The Wall is brutal and probably couldn't be run for 26.2 miles.

You start by running 3 miles almost straight up a hill. Then ~3.5 miles on The Wall (2,582 stairs, the equivalent of 47 stories). Then around town for 13 miles. Then, if you finish all that in under 6 hours (remember this time, it's important), you get to go back on The Wall for another 2,582 stairs, and back down the hill you started on. You have 8 hours total. Here's what the elevation looks like (click on it to see a larger version... but I think you get the point):

This was my first marathon and Jessi's second. It's how we celebrated 10 years of marriage (technically in July, but we can't control when the event happens). My sister, Lisa, and her boyfriend, Jason, also joined us.

The pictures look awesome, and the experience was fantastic. It was truly a dream trip. But like any great success, this was a long time in the making and included a lot of hardship. Too often we only learn about the result, but I think it's valuable to also share what it took to finish.

At the starting line with Jiggle Bells playing in the background.

To start, we spent MONTHS training. Two weekdays I would run. Then Saturday morning I would do a long run before the family woke up. I learned to run with a lamp, and the places to avoid before the sun came up. Jessi ran during nap time and Sunday after church. We didn't have to run in snow, but in a lot of rain. As distances increased, so did the time. It wasn't easy to juggle schedules. We only ran twice together before the race.

Then in January, I hurt my knee. I went from running 20 miles in 3.5 hours to limping in pain after 3 miles. It was frustrating to have to completely stop running. I went from "ahead of schedule" to "doubtful to finish". The recommendation is to stop running for 8 weeks (!) and let your body heal.

I really had to trust the advice and cross trained for the 8 weeks. I learned I dislike swimming laps, but I woke up early 2 days a week and swam laps. After swimming, my nose would run the rest of the morning (something in the water?). Man, I really wanted to run instead. It was tough. With additional strength & flexibility training, lots of reading (I recommend "Your Best Stride") on my injury, and help from doctors at Corvallis Sport & Spine, I was able to get back to 20 miles in 4.5 hours... on flat ground with zero stairs.

I kept forgetting my goggles in the locker room. So I took a picture to show the staff ("These ones...again").

I felt mostly back on track confident I could finish in 8 hrs despite the hills & stairs with minimal knee pain.

Then, as we left on the trip Jessi got sick and didn't improve at all leading up to race day.

As a result, when we started up the first hill Jessi couldn't breath. Think asthma attack level of not breathing. I knew the run would be tough because she was sick, but this was bad.

We barely made it to mile 13, stopping regularly, and Jessi furious that she was struggling so much. We talked to a medic, and after hearing her symptoms told Jessi she was done: get in the ambulance to go to a local hospital for oxygen.

Predictably, Jessi was furious. "I didn't train for 8 months, push my kids around in a stroller, and come to China to stop half way!" The medic was polite, but firm. He told me I could carry on and still finish.

Leave my wife to fend for herself in some random hospital on the other side of the world?

Yeah, right.

We negotiated with him and determined we could keep going, as long as we went slow and stopped trying to reach the gate to the wall in 6 hours. After all, what’s the difference b/n stopping now and being picked up later? At least if we kept going, again much slower, we could enjoy more of the country side.

Then something amazing happened. We actually started having fun! By deciding to walk, Jessi calmed down, got out of her own head, and relaxed. We held hands and treated it like being on a relaxing date... up a spiraling hill that never seemed to end. (Yeah, that's the third peak in the elevation map...it looked much smaller on the map.)

A hill in the middle of the run. We'll get as high as the hill in the background on the right

We were able to let go of the expectations of finishing and simply enjoy being together in China. We talked, we joked, and we bonded. We were of course disappointed, but recognized some things were out of our control (like getting sick). It's a great life lesson we want to share with our kids: when your life revolves around Christ, you can be joyful in tough situations because life is bigger than a race/achievements.

Eventually Jessi felt better, and we were headed down hill, so we started jogging again. We got 5K away from The Wall's gate and an official let us know we had 40 mins to get to the gate. We could make it!

This is when the training paid off. We walk/jogged and entered the gate to The Wall with 5 minutes to spare. So close!

Then the really hard part: those remaining stairs. Jessi powered on like a champ. At this point, I was happy to spend more time on The Wall and even thought it might be nice to have the bus pick us up at the top so we didn't have to go down the hill (my knee was starting to hurt at this point). We completely ignored the clock and just made progress one step at a time.


These stairs are brutal. We passed one guy who was laid out and waiting for the medic team to get him. We passed a lady screaming in pain as she was lifted onto a stretcher. It was surreal.

We got to the top of the hill and checked the clock. If we jogged down most of it, we could actually finish. Thankfully, down hill didn't seem to tax Jessi's breathing, so we went for it.

Here's a video of us near top, and my favorite part of the course. These stairs are the first thing I saw when researching this race, and what compelled me to suggest we do it.


We finished with 10 minutes to spare: 7 hours and 50 minutes.

It was both a physical and mental challenge and 3 observations:

1) I’m thrilled we finished. But not finishing would have also been great because life isn't about the achievement. It's about living each day and moment to the best of your God given ability, no matter what the circumstances. We did that, and celebrate that, not finishing or the medal.

2) I was the last male to finish with a time. On the way down the hill, we passed a couple other guys. I don't know if they also got to finish or got picked up, but it's sobering to think some people didn't get to finish despite going so far. One guy in particular had a great attitude and cheered us on as we passed him (we cheered back). I want to have his same attitude when facing challenges.

3) Slowing down and letting go of the result saved us. Had we kept pushing, we probably would have ended up in the hospital. At the very least, we wouldn't have enjoyed the event as much.

We probably won't run another marathon for various reasons (my knee injury & the training commitment to start), but we're glad we did it. It was a tough challenge that taught us a lesson about pursing a dream and being OK with letting it go.