Nike Lunar Run 2011
Translation in progress ...
ZhaoQing Half Marathon 2016
Translation is ongoing Zhaoqing Half Marathon (May, 8th 2016)
Grassland Extreme Marathon 2015 (Inner Mongolia)
Grassland Extreme Marathon in XiWuQi in Inner Mongolia on July. 4th 2015
Translation in progress ....
Vor dem Grassland - Marathon galt es den Anreise - Marathon zu schaffen. Zuerst ein knapp dreistündiger Flug von Guangzhou nach Beijing. Dann eine Übernachtung in Beijing in der Nähe des Flughafens um den Weiterflug am nächsten Tag um 6:40 nicht zu verpassen. Dann der einstündige Flug nach XiLinHot.
Und von dort dann noch weitere zwei Stunden im vom Organisator bereit gestellten Shuttle Bus nach XiWuQi. Rechtzeitig zum Mittagsessen war ich dann am Freitag im Hotel. Da das Hotel, in dem auch das Organisations - Büro untergebracht war bei meiner Anmeldung bereits ausgebucht war, hatte ich zwei Nächte im "Electricity Hotel" (...) gebucht.
Überraschenderweise stellte es sich heraus, dass eine Laufkollegin aus Guangzhou, die einige Monate zuvor nach Beijing gezogen war, sich ebenfalls für den Marathon angemeldet hatte. Mit ihrer Familie war sie im gleichen Hotel im Nachbar - Zimmer.
Das kleine etwas trostlose Städtchen XiWuQi hat in der Läufer - und Biker - Szene durch diesen Grassland Marathon und die ebenfalls stattfindenden Mountain Bike Rennen bereits einen gewissen Bekanntheitsgrad. Für den Titel des "King of Grassland" bzw. "Queen of Grassland" sind neben dem Marathon (oder Halbmarathon für die Kurzdistanz) noch drei weitere Mountain Bike Rennen zu absolvieren.
So befanden sich auf der Starterliste für den Marathon insgesamt etwa 600 Läufer bzw. Läuferinnen, etwa 100 davon mit ausländischem Namen.
Am Samstag Morgen um 7 Uhr ging es dann los. Die Temperaturen waren angenehm aber die Sonne war bereits extrem grell. Ohne Sonnenbrille wäre es für mich unmöglich gewesen zu laufen. Der erste Kilometer war als "Warm Up" angekündigt, so dass insgesamt 43Km gelaufen werden mussten.
Insgesamt hat es sehr viel Spass gemacht auch wenn die Strecke weniger flach war als gedacht. Da ich nur wenige lange Läufe im Training machen konnte, war ich mit meiner Zeit von etwas über 5Std zufrieden.
Die Organisation war perfekt (schwedisch !) mit Verpflegungsstationen alle 5 Km und ab Km 30 gab es sogar alle 3 Kilometer etwas zu trinken und ebenfalls Bananen und andere Snacks.
Hier weitere Bilder:
Here is the link to the official homepage:
QingYuan Marathon 2016
Translation is ongoing ...
Great Wall Marathon 2015
Being a runner and living in China means running at least one time the Great Wall Marathon is a must. But first of all it was necessary to decide for one of the different events. The name of the races are almost the same and therefore searching the internet for "Great Wall Marathon" can cause a lot of confusion. Below are links to the different events. Have a look to the Picture Gallery for more pictures.
Here are some pictures:
More pictures can be found in the Picture Gallery.
Here are links to Marathon events on the Great Wall which I found in the internet for 2015:
JinShanLing Great Wall Marathon on April 19th, 2015:
http://www.gwmseries.com/index.php?c=index&a=index&sid=2
http://www.jslmarathon.com/index.php?c=index&a=index&sid=2
http://www.runchinamarathon.com/event/detail/2
Great Wall Of China Marathon on May 1st, 2015:
http://www.conquerthewallmarathon.com/
http://www.greatwallmarathon.com.cn/
http://chinesewallmarathon.com/index_e.html
Great Wall Marathon on May 16th, 2015:
http://great-wall-marathon.com/
http://www.interair.de/marathon-reise/great-wall-marathon-2015/reiseverlauf.html
Furthermore a German Travel Agency organizes a Marathon on the Wall in September (which takes not place in 2015)
Great Wall Marathon in September:
http://www.greatwall-marathon.com/
And here two links to websites on which the differences between the events are explained:
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/china_great_wall/marathon/
http://english.cri.cn/6566/2012/05/10/902s698571.htm
New Year's Eve Race Britzingen 2013 & 2014 & 2015
2015
Jubiläum ! Zum 20. Mal hatte ich die Gelegenheit am Britzinger Silvesterlauf teilzunehmen. Die Organisatoren hatten Glück, da rechtzeitig zum Beginn des Hauptlaufes der Regen aufhörte. Die Bedingungen für den Lauf waren deshalb fast optimal. Leider war ich nicht ganz so schnell wie im Jahr zuvor. Aber 53min 32sek sind immer noch o.k. speziell wenn man berücksichtigt, dass ich in den Monaten davor keinerlei Tempotraining gemacht hatte. (linkes Bild von Sportfotografie Thoma)
2014
Auch dieses Jahr habe ich mich wie nun seit 19 Jahren beim Britzinger Silvesterlauf angemeldet. Wie immer ist es ein schöner Abschluss des Sport - Jahres hier die vermessenen 10 Km zusammen mit fast 1000 anderen Läufern zu laufen. Trotz des starken Schneefalls während den Tagen zwischen Weihnachten und Neujahr gelang es den Organisatoren die Strecke rechtzeitig frei zu räumen. Mit meiner Zeit von 51min 46sek war ich so schnell wie seit 2009 nicht mehr und von daher sehr zufrieden.
2013
At the last day of 2013 I had the chance to join again the New Year's Eve Race in Britzingen not far away from my hometown. As always it is a nice event to finish the year. For me it was the 18th time to join. About 1000 other runners joined the 10Km race at nice weather with temperatures of about 7 degrees.
My expectations regarding the race result were not very high. I didn't have time for any special short distances training. Furthermore I was mainly running flat distances. But it is well known that the second 5Km were mainly going uphill.
Read more: New Year's Eve Race Britzingen 2013 & 2014 & 2015
Zhuhai Half Marathon 2013
Da ich nicht sicher war, ob die Anmeldung zum Guangzhou Marathon erfolgreich sein wird, habe ich Chinesische Laufkollegen gebeten, mich auch am Zhuhai Halb - Marathon, der am 15. Dezember 2013 stattfindet, anzumelden. (hier die offizielle Webseite)
Guangzhou Marathon 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015
2015
2014
2013
Unfortunately, the registration process for the event was even more chaotic than in 2012. In this respect, many smaller cities which organize a running event in China (Xiamen, Zhuhai) are light years ahead of Guangzhou. In Guangzhou the website, the registration procedure, the whole organization is poor. Until the beginning of September 2013, the website was not yet updated and was still reporting about the 2012 event. (official website of Guangzhou Marathon and here the modified route 2013)
Neither a schedule for 2013 was mentioned nor any information whether the Marathon will take place in 2013 could be found on their official website. The English translation was only available for a a small part of the website. Finally on September, 25th the 2013 website was active and the registration was opened. Only two months (!) before the marathon, which was now announced to take place on November, 23rd.
What has happened is clear. The servers were overloaded with all the requests of runners who wanted to register. Only those who were lucky, were able to register successfully. I was lucky. Somebody did the application for me. On the internet many complaints could be found about this poor organization. Instead of registering in Guangzhou many runners decided to join the Zhuhai Half - Marathon, which takes place three weeks later. And the registration for Zhuhai was quite smooth.
Something more about the organization: in 2012 two runners died, one at the end of the 10km race, the other one at the 5km race. From the organizers point of view all participants for the 2013 event should qualify for participation by finishing a test run. (typical Chinese: shifting the own responsibility away - e.g. providing adequate medical care in the shortest time) (here some information about this incident in 2012 in South China Morning Post, published in Hongkong)
The time limit to finish the 5Km test run was one hour. This means those who could finish this distance by walking in a fast pace were qualified to participate at the Marathon distance. Later people told me that the real distance was only 4.6Km. About 3000 (out of totally 30000) runners took part at the test run. I have decided for the other qualification option: presenting a certificate from a previous run when picking up race number and documents. Details like how old the certificate could be, whether a Chinese translation is necessary, which race distance the certificate should show and so on was not mentioned. I am sure that some runners are also experts in using Photoshop ....
Update November, 23rd 2013: Done !
The organization was better than 2012. Instead of plastic bottles which were offered in 2012 at the catering stations they offered now paper cups. Every race kilometer was marked this year and the race course was more interesting. Of course there is still much space for improvement. (e.g. better food on the last kilometers, information on the official website about the winners and their time, information about the participants etc.) But all in all it was worth to join although as usual the last seven kilometers were quite tough.
2012
In 2012 the Guangzhou Marathon took place for the first time. The registration process was quite chaotic, but runner colleagues were able to organize two race numbers for me for the half marathon. I forwarded one number to a colleague from Germany, who was at that time accidentally in Guangzhou. (here is his report)