great wall

The real reason we went to China was to compete in the Great Wall Marathon. I use the word "compete" very loosely as I was doing the 10k. After finding out I was pregnant 4 weeks before (surprise, I'm pregnant), my training had pretty much dropped off completely. I would occasionally run 5k on the treadmill at 0 incline and sometimes take the stairs. I figured I would run on all the flat parts, walk when it got too steep and still finish pretty quickly. It was only a 10k, right?

If you've been to the Great Wall or know anything about the geography of the area, you are laughing, probably a little condescendingly, at my complete ignorance.

There were no flat parts. None.

There was on the other had a lot of uphill, a lot of stairs and, considering that the 10 k route was a loop, a surprising lack of downhill. 

Here I am at the start feeling awesome. I, of course, broke out into a sweat and had to take a sitting break just walking from the bus to the starting line. Don't worry, I'm an athlete. 

Besides being brutally hard, it was amazing. Really, probably the most incredible man made structure I have ever seen. It goes on and on, as far as you can see. All built at the top of a mountain ridge. I've only watched Bob the Builder a few times, so I'm not expert, but I know that's not easy building terrain.  I was a history major, so I do know there were no major building machines around in 13th-15th centuries.

The part on the wall we were running on (it starting with a J, and may or may not have had an x in it, and I'm pretty sure it ending in a ing) was almost completely unrestored. 

Every 100 meters or so there were guard towers with narrow stairs you had to drop down. 

It's probably a miracle I didn't fall down any stairs, I was going very slowly and holding on tightly to anything I could. I have a history of falling down stairs.

During the first half I pushed myself and passed some people, but after I got to the turn around point and realized that the first 5 k had taken me over an hour, I decided I wasn't going to set any records and besides I was 12 weeks pregnant. So, I cut all running out and finished at just over 3 hours. You know, your average 10 k finishing time. 

I was just glad to be finishing at 3 hours. I had a friend who did the 1/2 marathon (what I had originally signed up for) and she finished after 6 hours. The 1/2 marathon course was roughly the same route as the 10k, but two laps and a little more wall. The marathon was 4 laps. We left after 7 hours to head back to the hotel (and to refuel at Pizza Hut) and no marathoners had finished. There were plenty who had stopped and were looking like they were in pretty rough shape. We heard the next morning that they ended up having to change the course to make in humanly possible and it took people up to 12 hours to finish. 

Here I am pretending to sleep but really just willing myself not to throw up. In fact, I didn't throw up during the drive up, the race, or the drive home. I was pretty proud of myself. 

(Since this is my third pregnancy, I'm starting to consider myself an expert on morning sickness. Sometimes you can will away the vomit and sometimes you can't and it comes out your nose. Though, Vi finds it all very amusing and E always runs and grabs me a big glass of water and says, "Me sorry you threw up again, Mommy.)

Luckily we'd been supplied with some quality food. Besides water, this was the only thing the race provided. In case you can't read it it's a, New Orleans Real Chicken Hamburger. And it's good for 3 days. At room temperature. I got hungry enough to eat it and unfortunately kept it down. It was surprisingly delicious.

The run was a blast. Definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity. As in, if I never see that wall again, I'm cool with it.