Day Six

Day Six was all about The Great Wall Marathon. Our group of runners had spent the past 6 months training hard for this race...and they were ready to tackle this challenge.

Bill reported:

"Saturday morning wake up call was 2:30am, and our group got on the bus at 3:30am.

The hotel provided us with coffee and a light breakfast box for the 2 hour ride out to the beginning of the race - Yin Yang Square. We arrived around 6am, and hung out in the square with the other runners in the cold, early morning air. Luckily we were wearing our full Sound Body Sound Mind gear, which included long warm up pants and a jacket.

The race started at 7:30am with the shot of a gun. The runners started in four waves - the fastest runners went off first, then 10 minutes later the 2nd (which included full and half marathon entries) - then 3rd - and finally the 4th. You were organized in a group based on your most recently reported marathon time. Following the 4th group were the Fun Runners - which was an 8K...Kate, Keira, and Dylan Prudente did this event.

The race began at the bottom of a long road that winds uphill and finally ends at the foot of an entrance to The Great Wall..we walked on along the wall then down a very steep and narrow goat path back into Yin Yang Square. Out of Yin Yang Square again we headed into small, desolate Chinese villages where we ran for about 15 miles...very poor areas where the occasional villager and their child cheered us on.

Unlike other marathons I have run in, this one had cars and trucks beeping and passing us on the same road we were running on! Eventually we ran out of the villages and into the countryside. Let me just say, that while we had expected and trained for the 5200 steep, narrow, and uneven steps on The Great Wall, we were surprised at how hilly and steep the countryside was! This marathon was by far the most challenging one I had ever run. I was grateful to have simply finished.

When we entered Yin Yang square at the end, our name was announced on a loudspeaker...I was running with Ernie so the announcement went "Ernest Prudent and William E. Simon Jr." We were met by a marathon official, a British fellow, who immediately hung a ribbon with a medal around our neck, shook our hand and said, "Congratulations and God Bless You".

We all finished!

Ben, our youngest Sound Body Sound Mind member and a former rugby player, finished first!"

I don't have many photos as I wasn't at the race, so until I get some from our runners, these very few will have to do:

You may be wondering what those of us who did NOT run the race were up to during this memorable day. Peter toured the Beijing Art Museum and said it held a very impressive collection. Kathy woke up with a sinus infection and spent the day breathing herbs.

I fought an internal battle with myself as my laptop suddenly decided that 84,000 photos was all it was going to take and stopped accepting another one!!! How was I going to keep up my travel blog with this disaster happening? What to do? Oh me oh my... After driving myself crazy I decided to take action, and walked my laptop over to the nearby Apple store where I got excellent and very patient service from several of the young 20-30 year-olds who worked there. Unlike in LA where one has to beg and plead for someone to help you at the crowded Apple store, and that's after waiting in line...here the young folks are falling all over themselves to be of service, all the while wanting to know what it is like to live in California and have I met any movie stars? One of the young employees ("Lee" who kept telling me "Don't worry...don't worry") had graduated from Pace University in finance and had just moved back to China to find a wife. Another young employee ("Summer" who lives with her mother who is suffering from depression because her 34 year old daughter is not married yet) likes her job and doesn't really like her boyfriend, but understands that at her age she had better start being "less selfish" and start being nice to him...for her mother's sake.

Off to Shanghai tomorrow!