[Great Wall Inspection Day]

 

The Race Director required "inspection" of the Wall on which we would run. You will see from the pictures, it was a good idea. These were taken on inspection day, two days before the race. I didn't use the camera on The Wall on Race day, so my hands would be free to prevent falls. I have a lot more pictures of the Wall, and may replace these later.

 

The race started at the Fort at Huanyaguan Village. It is located about 120km ENE from Teinanmen Square in Beijing, and is on the edge of the Beijing Municipal area, if that shows up on any maps you have.

This is our first view after stepping off the bus.
  This is the Fort proper, from YinYang Square, which served as the Start/Finish area.
  This is the Wall around the Fort. The rising Wall in the background is not the part we ran on, but we didn't know that yet when this was taken.
  Turns out, this is to the east of the Fort, and we actually raced near the Tower on the top of that hill.
  Here's Linda and Jim at the center of the universe, or at least the finish line of the Race.
 

After the Race Director described the course, and told us to be careful, they bussed us 5km, up hill, to the point we would actually mount the Wall.

This fellow was on guard near there. That's just another tourist posing on the statue.
 

This is the last ramp before the stairs up to the wall started.

All the folks in red shirts were Danish runners, there for the Race, too.
  Here we are, finally on The Great Wall.
 

If my memory is right, this shows Towers 1 and 2. We didn't race to them, but many of us walked up that way on inspection day, just to get our money's worth.

I will post a race map later, to orient you to the Towers, or you can get it directly at www.great-wall-marathon.com
 

This is from another side-trip to Tower 3.

The race course enters from the left, goes up and over the hump (and back up) to exit out the back right of the picture.

The surface here was actually smooth, that is not stairs, so this gives you some idea of the change in elevation on the Wall itself.
 

Much of the race course is in the valley below--there's a river there somewhere.

Well, the course also mounted another hill not seen in this picture, but you will see more of that on the Race page.
  This fellow was trying to lead his parents through the hord of slow-moving tourists. He probably didn't appreciate seeing The Great Wall from butt level.
  A few portions were narrow, and without a guardrail. So, they discouraged passing along here. The never announced any losses over the side.
  This point was along the down-hill side (on the first pass) leading back to the Fort (which was at 8km).
  This shows some of the Wall we ran on, going back into the distance.
 

In the upper right is Tower 10, not part of the course. By this point, not many inspectors were venturing up to it, but a few did.

We turned left at Tower 9, and exited the picture to the left.
  Tower 10, again.
 

From the time stamp for this, I think it shows Tower 8, from near Tower 9.

The white paint is to warn us about the drainage trenches in the Wall floor.
  It just keeps coming!
 

More of the single-file area. This is really a tame part. I didn't get any pictures to really show how treacherous it was. Some of it had rope handles to help keep our balance due to the un-even footing and erratically spaced stairs.
  Tower 11, which we didn't really race to either. You see we exited the Wall, and started a "goat path" for awhile; actually, turned into stairs too, as shown below.
 

This is the start of the rugged decent to the Fort, and near the Wall entrance on the second pass at the Wall for the Marathon on race day.

They had a half marathon, and a 10km race, too. Each racer in those went over the section of the Wall just once.

Us marathon racers got a total of three trips on the Wall when you include inspection day. Pretty cool; I understand many normal tours of the Wall give only 20--30 minutes in total, in other more touristy areas; probably fortunate this race is not on one of those spots.
  This is the river north of the Fort. We get down to that level quickly, and come back up to this point on the second pass at the Wall during the Race.
  The Fort is just to the right of the picture; the bridge across the river is part of the Fort, I suppose.
  Here we are back at the Fort, seeing where we just came from--Tower 11, and probably 10 at the very top ridge in the middle.
  This is out of order, but shows Tower 5, I think; about the middle of our passes on the Wall, and the relative highest point of our race course. We actually turned left about where that lady is standing and circled around just below the tower; that's the same kid from above, and his mom.