Great Wall Marathon Review & Training Advice

On May 17th 2014 I finished the Great Wall Marathon in 5:02:15, this placed me 101st out of 750 runners and 17th in my category, but it's no big deal, so stop going on about it!

At the very end of the review you can view the personalised race video, I have more videos and photos, but I don't want to ruin all the excitement :-D

Basic stuff....

Firstly I should say that I was able to enter as a 'local runner' - which excluded me from all the extra activities your tour operator may lay on, so this review is only about the race.

I’d read a few reviews online that all said your planned time goes out the window when you start, because the race is so hard and because the bottle necks take so much time to get through. Well I’m going to say that is a load of cr*p. If your planned time goes out the window it’s because you have underestimated the course. This course is seriously hard. You need to train seriously hard.

There are also reviews out there saying there is no water or support on route. Check the date of these reviews as there is plenty of water, bananas, gels, sponges and energy drinks given out along the course. The only issue I had with the water stations was that at a couple they didn’t hand out the bottles, and even worse, the runners who hadn’t trained for the race properly congregated around the water station for a chat. This made it difficult for me to get a bottle quickly. I even dropped one bottle because I couldn’t get in and then get a hold of it . I tried to remind myself that lots of people enter for “the experience” but I was annoyed they didn’t appreciate other people are there to race. Other reviews saying that you should wear gloves because you'll be crawling up the step can also be ignored.

Finally, the training advice is simply what I did with thoughts on if I were to do it again.

Training

The main thing with training for this event is including steps (obviously). Work the steps into your long run. Doing 1000 steps on a stair-master one day, followed by a long run on another day, will not even come close to preparing you for the fatigue your legs will suffer when you hit the second lap of the Great Wall at mile 20. You need to stress your body into adapting to handle both at the same time. If you have steps or stairs available near by that are of varying heights that will also help you. On the day you will find some steps are a couple inches high but over a foot deep, whereas others are a foot high and only 6 inches deep.

I started training for the Great Wall Marathon approximately 5 months before the event. I was living in Qufu, Shandong Province, China at the time and was all ready training full time Shaolin Kungfu Monday-Friday. Fortunately I taught English as a foreign language to Chinese children at a Kindergarten on Wednesday. So this gave me 2 rest days a week after adding an extra training day on Saturday to accommodate a long run. My weekly training looked like this:

• Sanda is the Chinese version of kick-boxing, so lots of intensive pad work and the like.
  ** Qi-Gong is a form of stretching and breathing exercises designed to be a form of dynamic meditation and enhance the flow of ‘chi / qi (inner energy)’
  *** Power training is the term used for the very intensive strength and fitness training session, it can involve circuits, sprints, carrying other people, squats with people on your back, lots of body weight exercises etc

Great Wall Marathon Training Runs / Log

Fortunately I lived about 1 mile from the base of a mountain called Shimen Mountain. I counted the steps to the top as 1000, although the way down was a little longer I assumed about 1000 on the way down too. Therefore 1 lap of the mountain is approximately 2000 steps. The Great Wall Marathon contains 5164 steps, with the Great Wall section of the route being at about mile 2 and again at mile 20.

I followed a route that would reproduce the actual event course, and highly recommend future entrants do the same.

My advice for anyone creating their own plan would be to not run up 1000 steps and then down 1000 as I did. As this is not a true representation of the course. It would be better to train running up say 500 steps, down 200, up 200, down 400, up 400 etc, as this would replicate the great wall section of the race much more closely. The only long continuous climb section on the wall is at mile 20, by which time you'll be f*cked and will probably have to walk anyway!

Here's what my weekly running log looked like:

It covers 19 weeks and starts at 5 miles including 2000 steps, ending up with 21 miles including 8000 steps. I am really glad I went over the step count in training.

To replicate the Great Wall Marathon course I started with a few miles of steps, did some hilly miles then climbed some more steps.

By the end of the training schedule my run elevation looked like this: (compare it to the race elevation below). Like I said previously, if I were to do this event again, I would attempt to replicate the actual elevations more closely.

Race review

Pick up from the hotel in Beijing was at 03:30am. I’d been getting up at 0530 and having early nights in preparation, so the early start and 2.5 hour coach ride won’t affect you if you plan for it. I managed to get about an hour sleep on the coach.

Breakfast is something you will want to think about. The hotel provided a packed bag containing a bread roll, apple, milk, preserved vegetables and a processed sausage. Not an ideal pre-race meal! Again not a problem if you plan ahead and buy what you want the night before, such as locally available breads.

We arrived at Yin & Yang Square at the planed time of around 0600, allowing plenty of time for a few photos, toilet stops, baggage drop off and general nervous faffing about before wave one set off at 07:30.
There was a standard speech given by local communist party members which no one paid much attention too, and also a warm up routine lead by two Chinese girls on the stage. I didn't take part in the warm up as I wanted all my energy for the grueling course ahead.

I was in wave two, which set off at 07:40 sharp.

I've given my minutes / mile pace, in case it helps anyone for an idea of how to pace out the different sections. (Although I was really pleased with my time, I couldn't help but feel a bit annoyed at being 2 minutes off a sub 5 and 1 place away from the top 100!!) Maybe you can beat my time? :-)

Miles 0-2.5

Heading out of Yin & Yang Square the troops run along a flat tarmac road for about half a mile (we were joined by a flock of sheep too!) the road then winds up the side of a mountain for about two miles. It’s not excessively steep, but not ideal on the legs when you’ve still got two laps of the Great Wall and over 20 miles to run, I recommend taking it easy here to warm up and settle in to the run. Mile 1 pace: 10:20; mile 2 pace 10:12.

Miles 2.5-5

The picture to the below shows where you enter the wall section and turn left (running towards the camera).

The Great Wall! The steps vary from an inch in height to about a foot. It starts with a big climb, followed by a section of up and down stairs, finishing with a steep descent. There were a few occasions when I had to slow down or even stop at bottle necks, but it was only for a few moments each time so it wasn’t too bad, just be aware it might happen so don’t get too annoyed! I probably only lost about 30 seconds or so altogether, so it's no big deal.

Mile 3 pace 12:01; mile 4 pace 18:14; mile 5 pace 16:28

Mile 5-10

All downhill or flat. I used it to recover from the 1st wall loop and the approaching climb. Mile 6 pace 10:06; mile 7 pace 9:42; mile 8 pace 9:48; mile 10 pace 9:57.

Mile 10-14

Another hill to climb. The incline starts gently enough and gets steeper until the peak. This is where I started to overtake quite a few people who went out too quick at the early miles. Mile 11 pace 10:13; mile 12 pace 10:15; mile 13 pace 10:45, mile 14 pace 11:12.

Miles 14-16

The descent down the hill you just climbed. I overtook a few more people here. Mile 15 pace 9:23; mile 16 pace 9:29.

Mile 16-18

There is another incline then a longer decline which brings you back down to the same altitude as the start. Carried on overtaking a few people. Mile 17 pace 10:43; mile 18 pace 9:31.

Mile 19-22

This section covers the section you already ran, so you’re heading up a slight incline back to the wall. This is where I overtook literally hundreds of people. I was really surprised that knowing how hard the race is that so many people didn’t pace themselves properly. Mile 19 pace 10:07; mile 20 pace 10:41, mile 21 pace 10:06.

Mile 22-22.5

You’re back at the wall for a seriously steep incline. The picture above shows the route (I took this on the inspection day). On the 1st lap of the wall you come down the wall from the top right, following the path down on the left side of the picture before crossing back over to the right again. On the final loop at about mile 20 it's the reverse, meaning you are in for a serious climb.

I managed to run about 1/5 of the steps up here before looking at my heart rate and noticing it was at over 100% of my theoretical max, I was starting to struggle and decided to slow it down to a quick walk. In reality storming up in a fast walk was probably just as quick as trying to run it anyway. Again lots of people stopped here or were dragging themselves up. Mile 22 pace 22:10.

Mile 22.5-24

Once you reach the top of the wall it’s back over the ups and downs. There is where I started to feel the legs getting that pre-cramp feeling. I reached a gate house on the wall which had massive steps, as soon as I got up them my left leg cramped so bad I couldn’t move. A helpful one eyed Chinese man came out of nowhere and massaged my leg, after a minute or two I was off again! The up and down sections of the wall at this point in the race are really tough. I saw lots of people just sitting on the steps or crawling up on all fours. The cramp in my legs kept coming back, if I had it in my left leg I’d climb one step at a time using my right leg and dragging my left up, then swap round when the right leg cramped! At the very end of the wall both legs had cramped up and were very painful, I managed to walk up through gritted teeth. I was still able to run the down steps which actually helped my legs recover I think. I knew if I stopped I’d cramp up completely and probably wouldn’t cross the line for another hour. Mile 23 pace 25:44.

Miles 24-26.2

Downhill! I got my second wind and smashed it back to finish line. Mile 24 pace 8:56, mile 25 pace 8:52, mile 26 pace 8:36.

Elevation from my Garmin:

After the finish I had a bit of a wobble, I think because I pushed so hard on the last few miles. I managed to get myself to the first aid tent where I pretty much collapsed. GOOD LUCK!!