From heartbroken to marathon runner!  I did it!  I can hardly believe it was over a month ago now.  How time flies.

So, it took a long seven and a half hours or there abouts.  Which to anyone who is not a runner probably sounds like a ridiculously long time to be running/jogging/walking/in motion on your feet.  It is I guess.  But it didn’t feel like it to me.  Time passed so quickly that day.

It was an early start after a slightly panic-y evening.  The lock on my suitcase refused to open even with the correct code.  Cue hotel concierge and his side-kick with a pair of bolt cutters.  All of my running gear was inside.  That was 7pm.  Dinner of a burger and chips from room service at 7:30pm and I was organised and in bed by 8:30pm.

3am the phone rings.  It’s time to get up.  We have to check out of our hotel by 4am and have breakfast and be on the bus by 5am.  I wasn’t hungry and my stomach was churning.  This isn’t so unusual for a lot of runners and totally normal for me.  But it was levels above what I am normally like before an event.  I had a piece of toast at the hotel and took a boiled egg with me.

We arrived at the start line at 6:30am.  First stop, the toilets.  Now, on inspection day I had sussed out the fact that the only permanent loos were squat toilets – no surprise there, I was in China after all.  And from the toilets I’d seen elsewhere, these were not that bad in the scheme of things.  So, I was ever hopeful I’d be able to get in the line for a porta-loo, those being ‘western’ and all.  Did anyone else know that porta-loos also come in squat form??!!!  SO disappointed!  None-the-less, when you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go and so I went.

Ablutions done, I wandered around the start area waiting for my time to run, 8am.  Naturally I was now STARVING HUNGRY.  I fished out my boiled egg and wolfed that down with some water and a gel.  That would have to do me until I finished now.  I opted not to pay a second visit to the toilets, a decision I would regret later on.

I found a guy I had befriended in the couple of days before the race, Tom, who was a good runner (he said) and had been lumped in my starting wave, much to his disappointment.  He had run some marathons before and was German.  Fair skin, strawberry-blonde hair and over six foot tall.  He reckoned he’d run it in around 4.5 to 5 hours……….this meant his normal marathon time would have been 3.5 to 4 hours – pretty damn quick in my terms!  I was only looking to finish within the 8 hour time cutoff.  I’d never run a marathon before this.  He said he’d wait for me at the finish line, but given the buses were leaving every half hour from midday, I told him not to wait, I’d be hours behind him.

So finally, after a long morning and nervous wait, we were at the starting line and the gun had gone off.  Time to run!

I was in China.  On the Great Wall.  Running my first ever marathon.  I was determined to enjoy this day for all it was worth.  I was not disappointed.

What an experience it was.  The locals lined the street that lead out of the starting square (Yin & Yang Square – see link http://albatros-adventure.com/great-wall-marathon  for a full course description).  There were people clapping and shouting and cheering us on.  There was flag waving (I saw a lot of Chilean flags – go figure) and high-fiving.  I can’t count how many high-fives I got in that first kilometre.  It was fabulous and so encouraging.

Which was good because those first five kilometres were up hill.  Ugh!  Never my favourite, but what goes up must come down right?!  And that was the bit I was looking forward to the most.  Coming down the infamous ‘goat track’ part of the Great Wall which leads back down to Yin & Yang Square.  Imagine my disappointment then when I finally get to the super-steep, straight up and down, not normal stair-bit of the goat track and find it clogged with people at a stand-still!  I sulked for a nano-second, but knowing full well I couldn’t do anything about it, I just decided to enjoy the view and take a few photos while I had the chance.

Finally at the bottom of the wall a full 2 hours after starting the race and 7 kilometres along the 42km course, I was able to get into a more regular running rhythm.  This was more like it.  By now it was 10 o’clock in the morning and heading for 30 degrees Celsius for the day.   It was HOT!  I was carrying a full 2 litres of fuel & electrolyte fluid in my hydration pack and about 8 gels (one for every hour).  The water stations where approximately every  2-3 kilometres apart and good job they were!  I took two bottles at every opportunity.  One to drink and one to tip on my head, hat, neck and by the end of the race, everywhere I could get it. I was absolutely dripping at the finish line, whether there was more sweat than water is anyone’s guess.

At around 12 kilometres a young girl popped out of the crowd with open arms……..she got the hottest, sweatiest hug I think she’s ever had!  If she wanted one, who was I to deny her??  I gave my autograph to another young girl at around 15 kilometres, another unusual happening that day.  These locals really did seem to enjoy seeing these crazy foreigners running some ridiculous distance around their villages, all in the name of fun.

Somewhere between my hug and my autograph I popped behind an abandoned building for a super-fast toilet stop.  And boy am I glad I did.  I heard a couple of stories afterwards of people running in adult nappies (really?!!) or stopping at some local village loos (not recommended).  Give me a bush any day!

The middle part of the marathon was out and around some villages on mostly bitumen road.  Pretty mundane but great for chatting to fellow runners and listening to my tunes.  Picture if you will, me jogging on the dusty side of a road somewhere in rural China, hot and sweaty, bopping along to and singing songs like:  Shoop Shoop Diddy Wop Cumma Cumma Wang Dang (by Monte Video and the Cassettes), MMMbop (Hansen), Step by Step (NKOTB), Dancing Queen (ABBA), Magic (Coldplay), I Bet My Life (Imagine Dragons), I’m Still Standing (Elton John), Running (Evermore), Cheyenne (Jason Derulo), Roar (Katy Perry)……..you get the picture, a varied and diverse selection.  Hopefully no one heard me singing……I guess if they had, they’d have thought me delirious from heat exhaustion or something.

From about 18 kilometres onward I watched my time like a hawk.  Calculating and re-calculating how long it would take me to reach the square again.  At this point, about 32km, there was a cut-off at 2pm.  If I didn’t make it back before then, I was not going to be allowed to finish the race.  At 1:30pm I passed back through the gate – hooray!  All I wanted was something to eat though!  I have never been so hungry in all my life!  I’m sure I could have chomped on my sandwich as I re-climbed the wall (the goat track in reverse this time).  But I persevered.  I knew it would be a tough slog up those steps, but one foot in front of the other up I went.  The last 5km downhill run was the best.  Yes my legs were tired but just knowing I was going to finish this race was more than enough to keep me running and smiling down that hill.  I passed a lot of other runners, many who had decided to walk the last bit.  I had found my second wind and went with it.

Two kilometres from the finish line I heard a song that reminded me of ‘him’.  The reason I was here.  Why I was running this amazing and spectacular race.  It nearly brought me to tears.  Nearly.

As I ran through the gate into the square for the last time that day, I heard my name called in full, followed by AUSTRALIA.  I felt like I was at the Olympic Games!  It was awesome!  I burst into tears and bawled my way over the line.  I was DONE!  Aussie, Aussie, Aussie.  Oi, Oi, Oi!!  This was called out several times as I crossed the line and was handed my medal.  I was also given a great big hug from the lady handing them out.

Then I nearly got bowled over by Tom who had indeed waited to see me finish and gave me a tremendous hug and a high five.  And a massive “You did it!!”.  I felt like a champion.  I did do it!  For the record, Tom did it in around five and a half hours, I think.

Not once did I ever feel like giving up.  Not once did my body ‘hit the wall’ like I was told it would.  Sure, my quads were burning, especially on the final ascent up the goat track, in fact at that point I was the burn, I was ON FIRE!  I loved every hot and exhausting minute of this marathon.  The only thing I did suffer was one single blister on the middle toe of my right foot.  The same place I always get a blister.  Apparently it doesn’t matter what brand of shoe I wear, or how far I run.  At 5km I’m just as likely to get that blister as I am doing 42km.  Go figure.

And!  And, I even passed a rhino.  Yes you read that correctly.  There were two fellows running the full marathon in rhino suits.  Full body, fibreglass, rhino suits.  My aim when I saw them depart that morning, was to see if I could pass one on the run.  I did.  At 30ish kilometres, I passed Brad the rhino.  They were South Africans raising money to save the white rhino.  Good on you blokes!  My hat off to you.  It was tough enough in normal running get-up.

So.  If you’re still with me here, one, thank you and two, go run a marathon!  It is life changing.  It’s such a clique but it’s true.  Maybe not a marathon if you’re not a runner.  Just something you never thought you’d do.  Perhaps compete in something at your local gym, or at a national or international level.  Climb a mountain.  Jump out of a plane.  Get out of your comfort zone.  Test yourself.  Push your boundaries.

China itself was always going to be a challenge for me, even without the marathon.  It was never on my list of countries to visit. But, wow.  I was more than pleasantly surprised by this beautiful country.  The people are so friendly and there is so much to see.  I will not be surprised to find myself back there one day.  Probably running some marathon or other.  😉

So what now?  Back to real life for a while I think.   A bit of running.  Back to the gym and yoga.  Back to dating – oh God help me……

Right now though, I will leave you with this.

I.  AM.  A.  MARATHON.  RUNNER.

F*** you heart-breaker!  I did it.  You did not break me and nor did the marathon.