"Loper 2" visits the Terra Cotta Warrors in Xi'an: front - Jan Coover, Jennie McCafferty, Dana Glassel, Thelma Pascua, Lori Pang, Sue Golden; back - Tim Wachuta, Carolyn Seiffert-Wachuta, Barb Spitler, Vicki Steinwurtzel, Christine Waltz, Tim Golden.
HUANGYAGUAN, TIANJIN, CHINA (5/21/05) - "Don't call this a race," laughed a fellow participant in The Great Wall Marathon. OK. I'll call it an adventure, privilege, thrill, accomplishment, mental test, opportunity to see one of the world's most beautiful places, catalyst to learn more about Chinese history, and a chance to make new friends.

The Marathon

You know you are in for a different experience when your race packet includes nine pages of instructions. Read it ahead of time? Yup. Memorize it? Maybe some of it. Carry instructions with me during the race? Nope.

I thought about the marathon route in five sections: 1) mostly-uphill road to The Wall, 2) 4K on The Wall, 3) the villages, 4) 4K on The Wall, reverse from the first time, 5) mostly-downhill road to the finish.

The description of The Wall from Towers 5 to 6 did come to mind during the race:

Runners must cross this stretch in single file. Therefore, no overtaking! Please help a fellow contestant if necessary. For quite a while along this stretch there will be no Wall on your lefthand side, which means a potential free fall!

At some point the downward slope of the Wall is quite steep, and some heavy ropes with knots have been fastened here to help runners whose shoes do not grip the stone foundation very well. Slow down in order to avoid getting rope burn or losing your foothold.

The 3,700 steps of the Wall were deliberately set at varying depths and heights to disrupt the marching rhythm of invading armies. Those steps disrupted our rhythm too.

My favorite part of the marathon was running through the villages of Duanzhuang, Xiaying, Chedaoyu and Quinshaling, with brick houses, well-tended gardens and friendly, smiling people cheering us on; we runners were a long parade. Kids waved, high-fived and practiced English: "What's your name?"

Because The Wall at Huangyaguan was built atop mountain ridges, the views are spectacular. The second stretch on The Wall was a wonderful chance to take in those views - a good time not to hurry. Two-hundred twenty-seven men and 104 women finished the marathon, 143 men and 104 women chose the half-marathon, another 127 picked the 10K or 5K.

Michiganian Greg Feucht did hurry, breaking the course record by 13 minutes with a time of 3:25:13. Almost everyone could add 1.5 to two hours to their usual marathon times. (See Tom Henderson's interview with Feucht in Tom's column elsewhere in this issue.)

Great Wall marathoners share the road with villagers.
Beijing and the Terra-Cotta Warriors of Xian

The heart of Beijing is trendy, modern, clean, safe, friendly and fun. Our tour guide, Tony, was patient and knowledgeable about the attractions we visited.

Beijing is gearing up for the 2008 Olympics. Everybody is learning English. One woman was proud that her grandparents are taking weekly English lessons from a teacher in their apartment building. Most signs are in English.

Sections in a large bookstore were in both English and Chinese. A whole floor of the busy establishment was devoted to business subjects: marketing, finance, entrepreneurship, success. English was another floor: English for business, tourism, teaching English, more.

Imagine an emperor, determined to leave a legacy, with access to a workforce of 450,000. Early in his reign, the emperor ordered his tomb to be built, along with an army to guard that tomb.

Imagine constructing a life-size army from terra-cotta clay, arranging the army to face outward from the tomb, then burying the whole army underground. Oh, and this was not a small army: 25,000.

The entire army was discovered in 1974. Even after seeing the site where the terra-cotta army was discovered, I have trouble getting my mind around the magnitude of the project.

Kathy Loper Events

The Danish and Australian race organizers require entry through one of several tour companies. I had the good fortune to be part of Kathy Loper Events. Kathy and her partner, Kurt Bodmer, specialize in tours to small, exotic marathons. They knew the names of every one of the 133 people in our group.

We were divided into groups for touring and traveling. Our group, Loper 2, could not have been more fun. Among us were Beth Friedman, who finished running seven continents with the Great Wall Marathon, and 2004 University of Michigan grads Dana Glassel and Matt Graves.

For information on the 2006 Great Wall Marathon, see http:// kathyloperevents.com and our Michigan Runner Internet video: http:// michiganrunner.tv/2005gwm/. MR