Great Wall Marathon 2013

Beijing at 3:00am still swarms with taxis, shuttling rowdy expats from bars in Sanlitun home to their apartments in the Guluo hutongs. So I didn't worry about finding a taxi at 2:50am, when the BFF and two more of my colleagues joined me on the way to the Beijing International Business Hotel. I had brought them with me on my second journey to the Huangyaguan section of the Great Wall. Whether I had accurately advertised running the Great Wall Marathon to them or swindled them into signing up for a crazy, difficult race was yet to be determined. But when we arrived at the hotel to meet the buses, my group of faithful followers was in high spirits and excited to get started. Seven joined me on the bus, while the CG and his wife met us at the start of the race. All together, Team Shenyang was made of NINE intrepid runners who would all face the Wall and its 5,164 steps of history.

The marathon weekend had started the day prior, when a group of us departed the 'Yang by train and made our way to Beijing. Thanks to the BFF's incredible amount of hotel points, I shared a room with her at the Crowne Plaza Chaoyang U-Town. To whittle away the time before we had to head to an early bed (given the early start!), we made our way over to Sanlitun to shop and eat. We stopped at the Bookworm, a real book store, to quench our thirst for the written word in physical form. Watching the two of them at home among the many pages was like watching two kids come home to the welcoming arms of their parents. Nothing is more normal than those two enjoying a good book. So glad we got to stop there. After a tasty Persian meal at Rumi, we caught the Metro home and made our way to bed.

So there we were, riding the early morning bus to the base of the Great Wall in heightened anticipation of what's to come. I was feeling very nervous. I felt I hadn't prepared enough this time around. Last year, I had gotten to about 11-12 miles in my long training runs. I had logged significantly more miles in total, as well. This year, I had been focusing much more on strength training, with a concerted effort to improve my leg strength and glute strength. My mileage was much lower and I had fewer opportunities to get outside due to both a busier schedule and poorer air quality. With all that on my mind (plus the stress of hoping everyone was having a good time), I didn't really notice that all of a sudden I was at the start line and we were running.

The course is difficult. The first 3km are uphill, along the mountain access road that leads to the Great Wall parking lot and entrance. Very early on, I lost A among the faster runners. "Godspeed and good luck!" I called out to him as he passed me out of the entryway. As I climbed the hill, I felt a difference from last year. This wasn't so tough, these hills seemed steeper last year. Sooner rather than later, I got to the top of the hill and made my way to the Wall. The next 3km are up and down the steps of the Wall. After the heavy incline, the steps actually helped loosen my calves. Now it was my quads and glutes on fire. Jog jog jog, and wait; jog jog jog, and wait. That's the tempo on the wall because of the bottlenecks. It's not a particularly wide section of the wall, so people are forced to take their time down the stairs as they come. But eventually I rounded the final corner of the wall and saw the Yin Yang Square below me. Halfway there, I thought, and I don't event feel tired?! This feels great!

By the time I made my way through the Square and onward to the village, I had found my true running stride and I was truckin'. The asphalt road to the village has an ever so slight downgrade, so I let the wind push me and gravity pull me through to the village entrance. Right around the time I was stopping at drink station 9 to get my snacks, I saw A coming toward me, having just finished the village himself. "Almost there!" Seeing him come through that connection gave me inspiration to keep going, along with the realization I knew my legs were solid. I had such better muscle strength than this time last year. I remember the agony of running the back stretch and feeling the strain in my legs and knees as I struggled to finish. This year, I kept a steady pace, cruised to my music, and just let my feet go. And go they did!

Finishing 17 minutes faster than last year, I made it through the finish line with more energy, more strength, and more emotion than last year. What a great feeling! And guess who was there to see me cross? Everyone who had finished already from my group! A cheering squad of colleagues and a round of hugs. Nothing could have been better.

I want to take a minute to thank everyone who came to participate in Team Shenyang this year. Your finishing stories were amazing to hear and I'm so happy to have been able to share this wonderful experience with you. I'm proud that you were able to trust me and believe in yourselves that you could do it too! The Great Wall Marathon is now ours and for once, when we say "Shenyang wins again!" we really did win!! Bravo!

Running in China

Burpees - I hate them. But GOD, they make me feel good two days later.

Immediately after running 5 miles up and down hills this morning and doing 20 burpees, my legs felt as if they were being consumed by tiny, little fire-breathing demons whose only goal was to tear my muscles apart. Now, later in the day, the scorching pain has subsided and the dull ache of repairing muscles has taken its place. Tomorrow morning, the all-over warbling numbness of my thighs will make me miserable as I climb the stairs of the Consulate over and over. But by Saturday morning, my muscles will be mostly back to normal and I will be dumb enough inspired to re-do the hill/rear-end workout again. Crazy? Maybe.

This time last month I pre-registered myself and 8 of my work colleagues for the 2013 Great Wall Marathon. As someone who completed the half marathon last year, I found it easy to recruit people to join me for my second go-round on the crazy wall-o-madness. Pictures and first-hand accounts go a long way when trying to convince people that anything is possible when they put their mind to it. The BFF and most of the recruits will compete in the 7.5km race, which is new this year (the race coordinators combined the 5km and 10km distances for a middle-of-the-road distance). A and I will do the half, and one of the crazy guys from CONS signed up for the full (simply for the fact that they cost the same, so why not?). +1 for everyone and good luck during the next six months of training!

Running in China is difficult. Aside from the looks of astonishment that I get as a foreigner whenever I run outside, there are serious deterrents to running out-of-doors in this country.

1. Pollution - Smog is everywhere. The air is cleaner here than in Beijing (by a huge degree) and on average we see blue skies more often than most cities in China. But the lungs do not appreciate working out when they have to filter out ground-level ozone and other atmospheric pollutants.
2. Traffic - In a city of 4 million people and a rising middle class, traffic is a huge obstacle to road running. Not only are the streets filled with cars, but drivers don't follow the traffic rules at all here. Oh yes, China has tons of traffic laws. Do people follow them? Nope. One indicator of why traffic laws are not obeyed is the methodology for obtaining one's drivers' license. Pay the license fee; take a written test; complete a eye exam; bend over and cough --> BAM! You've got your license. No street driving test required. Don't know how to drive your stick shift car? Who cares? You're in China.
3. Conditions - I've written earlier about the winter weather. It does a number on one's moods and emotional health. Imagine what it does to the sidewalks, public places, and parks! Find me a 1km stretch of sidewalk without stones missing, human-sized pot-holes, scaffolding, or hordes of people waiting for buses/walking by and I will give you a pony. Or at least a golden lap giraffe.

So, running in China is difficult. I haven't started my half-marathon training plan yet, but last year I didn't start training hardcore until late January. For now, I'll focus on continuing my long runs (6-8 miles) on the weekends and getting through the holidays healthy. I have my fingers crossed that by the time the race registration closes in March, I'll have recruited even more people to join me on the Great Wall for what will be an even better GWM experience.

Happy New Year - Chinese Version

A long overdue post, but one still fresh in my memory.

Chinese New Years in China is almost too much for words. It starts about two weeks before the actual Lunar New Year, with fireworks going off at all hours. The displays are typically noisemakers, but occasionally you get the aerial rockets that make pretty flowers in the sky. Vendors sell large packs of fireworks on street corners, and without any licenses or authorization, you or I can buy professional grade fireworks for cheap. The city doesn't have many regulations regarding when or how you can set them off, so some days the explosions would go on until 2:00am, sounding like a war zone outside my bedroom window.

There were two days of "crazy-go-nuts" fireworks on the actual New Year's Eve and the final day that fireworks were allowed to be burned. I took videos and will upload them sometime soon, but it was nothing like I've ever seen. Everywhere I looked there were beautiful, colorful starbursts all across the city. The horizon glittered as you could hear the firecrakers explode in the streets below. In the mornings, the streets were empty save for the remnants of burnt offerings and casings all over the place. When work resumed at the Consulate, mornings were filled with the sounds of explosions from the surrounding neighborhood. Supposedly the sound of the fireworks is supposed to scare off any remaining spirits from the previous year, thus giving people a reason to set them off whenever they feel like it. All I know is that by the end of it all, I was tired of hearing fireworks at all! Fourth of July will never be the same.

In the past few weeks, I've kept myself pretty occupied between doing activities at home (reading, knitting, cooking, baking bread) and with friends (going out to clubs, parks, massage parlors, restaurants). I've gone to a few events at the CGR that have been fun, including a baby shower for one of the EFMs and a Mexican food night with the Liaoning Basketball athletic trainer. There are plans in the works to visit the local Beiling Park this weekend and in the future, we'd like to do some skiing/snowboarding at one of the nearby parks. I'm registering for the Great Wall Marathon, to be held in May, and I've started back up with my running training for that. Things are going smoothly -- you can assume that the lack of posts means that life is keeping me busy, for sure!