Goodness Gracious Great Wall of China

Yep, I went ahead and made that pun. I'm allowed to because, in yet another feat of personal human stupidity, I decided that running a 10k 'adventure race' up a crumbling section of the Great Wall of China was a good idea.

Out with a bang was the gist of it.

So with less than five weeks left in China, I trekked up to Beijing via train to do the Conquer the Wall Marathon. Well, others did a marathon. What ensued was the most disorganised race I've ever run; think twice before you consider it.

But despite the 2am wakeup to meet at the hotel venue for 3am to hop on a 4am bus ride to get to the line for a 6am start, the views were spectacular: like I always thought the Chinese were a little bit crazy but then you see the wall and that sentiment takes on a new meaning. With views like this

you hardly have a moment to catch your breath before your propel yourself up, over and back down sections of one of the seven great wonders of the world.

3 hours, 396 flights of stairs and 14.1k on my Fitbit later, I crossed the line having taken a gently sloping trail through the woods, up to a vertical crumbling section of wall that willing victims had to scramble up and then slide down, onto a new section of the wall, over, back, across, through, up, down, back.

 

 

It felt like winning. 

Correction: I didn't die, thus I won. And, really, one can hardly live in China and not go to the Great Wall. Lifetime bucket list: tick.