5,124 steps on the Great Wall

MANILA, Philippines - The Great Wall is said to be the only man-made structure visible from space. Seeing it at ground level elicits only one reaction: awesome! As a child, I had always marveled at the Great Wall and wondered how it is to be one of the soldiers watching out for Mongolian armies and to run from tower to tower to sound the warning when invaders come.

Well… I got my chance some three decades later, long after the Chinese and the Mongolians had buried their hatchets. I had been to the Great Wall many times before but as a tourist taking leisurely walks… not the kind of running required of soldiers on its uneven steps.

I signed up for the Great Wall Marathon, held annually on the Wall’s Huangyaguan, Tianjin section. Now I have a very healthy respect for those ancient Chinese soldiers. The full 42-km marathon runs the same course twice. Despite my having run the New York Marathon and having undergone a regimen of street running every day along the hills of Little Baguio in San Juan, I was only brave enough to sign up for the half marathon at the Great Wall.

Eleven of us from the Philippines had flown to Beijing to join over 2,000 runners from all over the world to run the Great Wall Marathon. We were a diverse group ranging in age from 25 years old to 50 years old, with varying running abilities.

There were three couples – Dennis and Jenifer Quepe, Australian expats Chad and Natasha Davis, Iloilo-based Arthur and Angela Chu, and the rest of us Bads Tan, Charita Agana, Candy Lee, Niño Fajardo, Marge Buot, Guam-based Ronaldo Navalta and myself. We were the first batch of Filipinos to do the run since 2002.

Jenifer signed up for 10 km, while Natasha, Marge, Niño and myself signed up for 21 km. The rest of the group opted for the full marathon.

On the day of the race, we were up and about at 2:30 a.m. and in the bus at 3:30 to take us to Huangyaguan in Tianjin province, about two hours away from Beijing. Huangyaguan Wall is not as popular as Badaling, the portion closest to Beijing, but it is the best restored section and the most picturesque. 

Huangyaguan (Yellow Cliff Pass) lies on a steep mountain ridge and got its name from the surrounding yellowish hills and rocks. Its average altitude is over 700 m and it stretches 42 km long with 66 watchtowers. The wall was built during the Northern Qi Dynasty (550-557 AD) and repaired with bricks during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). 

The area covered by the race is only 9 kms of the wall and 18 towers.

It was cold at 9 degrees Celcius when we arrived – and foggy! We could only see a faint outline of the wall against the mountains. We walked down to Bagua Castle to the square to assemble. There were booths set up to collect bags and personal belongings. On a stage, perky aerobics instructors warmed up the crowd. 

Chinese officials in suits gave a pep talk to perk us up further at 7 a.m. Immediately after that was the gun start and we were off! The course was divided into two sections – 9 kms along the wall and 12 ams through the villages.

From the starting line, we exited the castle and ran on asphalt road, crossing the Juhe River towards the mountains. There were townspeople smiling and cheering us on. It was a gradual uphill climb.

I wasn’t used to the altitude and started peeling away from the group. Approaching the entrance of the wall was an imposing 8.5-m statue of Qi Jiguang (1528-1588), a Chinese military general and national hero during the Ming dynasty. There was a slight gridlock at the entrance as runners waited in line to climb the steps. There should have been a sign up that says, “Warning: Expect treacherous climb or endless steps.”

 This is the famous Taipingzhai section. The path felt like a roller coaster with the steps getting steeper and steeper as it wound through the mountains. At this point I was climbing up the steps, whose height varied from the normal step up to thigh height. There was a portion of the course where the path changed from bricks to narrow gravel lanes where we had to hang on to ropes – that or fall down the crag. In hindsight, I should have brought my trail shoes instead of runners – it could have helped make up for the fact that I wasn’t prepared for such a grueling course. 

After climbing up and down for one hour and six minutes, I had covered only 6.46 kms and reached the highest point at 502 m. I wondered about the Chinese of yore. How on earth were they able to climb in the dark? Did they memorize the steps?

As I was leaving the wall for the next part of the course, Christian Reitermann from Germany crossed the finish line, clocking 1:41. He was fast!

The next part of the course was through the picturesque villages. The path changed from asphalt on the main road and then gravel and dust. Again it was an up and down path, making me long for my trail shoes. Farmers stopped and watched the runners, while their rosy-cheeked kids called out and cheered. 

Close to the finish, at the 20th marker, I was surprised to see a white-haired grandma overtake me, striding easily and not panting. Her race bib indicated that she was doing the full marathon and will do 9 kms more on the wall.

There were two 70-year-old women who finished the 21 km: Ruth Helfenstein (Swiss) at 4:26 and Joan Newman (USA) at 5:07. Two 64-year-olds finished the 42 km: Kathleen Peck at 5:49 and Jacque Core who made the eight-hour cutoff at 7:56.

As for me, I finished the 21 km at 3:39, which was okay. I didn’t expect to break any record, especially after eating grandma’s dust. In fact, I had been warned that given the conditions of the route, I would finish 50 percent longer than my normal time. 

Let me say though that the Chinese are great organizers. They had well-placed distance markers for the different races (black for 42 km, red for 21 and green for 10); water stations every 5 kms including up the mountains; sports drinks, bananas and sponges every 10 km; gigantic baguette sandwiches with bananas, dessert and drinks at the end of the race. And, to top it all, we were given a free 20-minute massage to help us recuperate before finally boarding the bus back to the hotel.

If you and your family want a history lesson, sightseeing tour and a chance to sweat it out in one neat package, the Great Wall Marathon is your best bet. You have 10 months to prepare for the next race on May 21, 2011.

Ready, get set, go!