Great Wall 1/2 Marathon

Well I think there is a reason The Great Wall Marathon is one of the world's five adventure marathons! They say to add about half of your marathon time onto this race, you have to fight your competitive instincts to run as fast as you can because there were many times we were lined up single file, waiting for our turn to descend using ropes or railings-- the terrain was so rocky and uneven both going up and going down. Many of us used our hands on the really steep parts, some of the steps were two feet steep, whew, talk about feeling the burn :) There were also some spots where there was actually no wall to the left so if you fell, you fell a LONG way down unless the bushes could stop you. One man tried to run up ahead and not use the railing, he fell down on his hands and knees and we all screamed but he was okay! It was a close one, if he had fallen another six inches to the left it would have been another story. Once we made it off the wall we ran down a goat path into the local villages and the support from the kids and the elderly was amazing. They would scream "Hi! Hello!" and give you high fives and scream JIA YOU! (add oil, the Chinese cheer). Some were sitting on their roofs and a few would jog along beside you to get their picture taken. Speaking of cheers, I even got some TNT cheers because I was wearing my TNT jersey, so that was great to get some Team In Training support on this side of the world. I finished in 2hrs 16 minutes, ninth woman overall, second American woman, and first in my age group (20-29 year-olds). That was such a nice bonus, Caitlin I were aiming for me to finish the race intact, so that was a great surprise!