The rest of the story

I scanned the crowd in front of me... hundreds of heads bobbing, chatting, snapping photos and preparing for the gun to pop. I was looking for some of our crew who were sneaky and jockeyed for position in the middle of the swarm so as to get a better position out of the gate. I spotted everyone at some point, part of me jealous that I wasn't toeing the line with the elites that were expected to hit the podium. AL, our lone full marathon group member, had done just this and stood shoulder to shoulder with the eventual winners. He, however, wasn't a slouch. His top 50 finish was enough to justify his eagerness.

The experience of seeing the Great Wall of China for the first time was pretty amazing. It snaked up and down the surrounding mountains in all it's massive majesty. It looked in good condition  (hard to tell what was original and what pieces were manufactured/renovated/new) and was as daunting as I had imagined. Nonetheless, I looked up at the road leading to the wall and knew that I was, in many ways, running through history... my own, China's, and the world's.

The race itself was, however... well... not good in any sense.

To begin with, my eye was on fire. I'd attempted to put in my contacts in a hurry before leaving the hotel but my right eye just burned every time I tried. Assuming it was a fleck or dirt or something, I resolved myself to put them in at the race site. So, upon arrival and prior to my bathroom (mis)adventure, I tried again. Similar result, but there was no time and I though it would work itself out as the race went on. I hate running in my glasses. But boy, was I wrong. The eye kept burning and I was constantly leaking tears out of my eyes. It was hard to focus and see straight. Just as we neared the actual wall entrance, about 5kms up the hill toward the Wall, I got fed up. I snatched the lens from my eye and tossed it. Immediately I felt relieved and kept on going.

It was the correct decision, but this didn't make my life easier per se... the struggle simply changed.

Have you ever tried to go down EXTREMELY steep steps with a) only one eye open or b) with one contact lens in? I have. It's not fun. Depth perception pretty much disappeared. And if you've ever seen how steep/irregular/sketchy the Great Wall steps are, you'll understand. If not, look them up.

Even worse, over the past 8 months I've been battling a lot of knee swelling in both my knees (prepatellar bursitis, I think) and some achilles tendonitis in my right leg. The symptoms come and go but they haven't disappeared. I'm assuming the cause is shoe-related, but it's hard to say when there's no sport medicine doctor on hand. Both my knees and my lower leg/ankle area were a little tender at the starting gate. So, with my amazing ability to judge the distances between steps, I was also forced to step/hike up and down extremely steep stairs made of stone for about 3 or 4 kilometers. Every step down, my knees felt like they wanted to buckle. Up was okay... Down was not.

At the 11km mark, shortly after getting off the wall section, I looked at my watch. Just over two hours. It was time to pick up the pace.

The final 10kms I ran in under 50 minutes, which I have to admit I'm quite happy with. The problem was that I totally bonked in the final 2kms... the tank simply ran out of gas. My legs quit, my knees screamed and my achilles forgot that it was supposed to loosen up with such activities. I had to stop twice, once when I was less than 500m from the finish. I've never done this because of fatigue, and I totally felt defeated. Swearing, cursing, willing myself to finish, I got going after about 40 seconds of complaining and got on my horse. This last kick kept my time just under 2hrs 50mins.

Even with all this pain and frustration, I was only slightly behind my reasonable goal of 2:45 and the day could not have been more beautiful. I watch my buddies BH, RA, and NM trot across the line, and waited for CG to surge through as she completed her first ever race (the 10km... awesome finish for her!). AL came through around 4:35 for the full marathon putting him in the top 50.

The beer and ice cream that followed the race tasted absolutely delicious, as did the steak dinner at Outback in Wangfujing in central Beijing. The shopping at the markets the next day was excellent and the sun continued to shine. NM and I got a bunch of pics throughout the first half of the race as we took time to check the sites, do some stretching, and soak up every minute of the event. I had no ambitions to run this race for time... I did it for the experience. And to check it off the list. I didn't dominate the wall, but maybe I'm conquered a small piece of that egotistical drive that has been a source of frustration in my past. I enjoyed it. What else can I ask for?

As I sit here typing, I'm only 27 days away from Canada. And I can't wait to taste that sweet air on the West Coast. There's tonnes to do in the meantime, but I'll be home soon.

T