Jacuk - Dongguan Marathon 2017

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November 26th, 2017

Originally I didn't have the intention to run the Dongguan marathon. However, when I was not able to get a seat at the New York Marathon, the marathon in Osaka or the "home marathon" in Guangzhou, the only November/December option left was Dongguan, about 60 km from Guangzhou. As with all marathon events in China, foreigners had to pay a higher entry fee - 60 USD instead of 120 RMB.

The Dongguan marathon was a point-to-point route with the finish far outside of Dongguan at SongShan Lake. For marathons outside of my hometown, I actually always prefer a hotel near the start because I don't want to be dependent on buses, taxis, subways, etc. early in the morning.

A suitable hotel was found in time and on the Saturday before the marathon I drove to Dongguan together with two colleagues from our company who also have registered. The start documents were quickly picked up and the hotel was also quickly found.

On Sunday morning I was able to walk comfortably to the start but it took a while until I found the buses where you could drop off the clothing bag. There were no signs and even police officers who were asked about this by Chinese runners did not know the answer and sent the runners in the wrong direction.

After singing the Chinese national anthem (as it is usual in China) the start took place on time.

The course itself was not very interesting. We were running on wide streets and the spectators were often very far away, so the atmosphere along the course was certainly not a highlight of this event. The second half of the Guangzhou Marathon after the Canton Tower is much better in this respect.

The food and drinks along the route were well organized, although I always wonder why, at events in China, very sweet soft drinks are very often offered right from the first refreshment station.

As one of the few foreigners, I was naturally the focus of attention and was approached by many runners and was a "coveted" photo subject along the way.

About three weeks before the Dongguan Marathon took place, with a little help of some friends I got a seat for the Guangzhou Marathon, which takes place two weeks after the Dongguan marathon. So the question for me was whether I should approach the Dongguan Marathon as a long training run for the Guangzhou Marathon or whether I should run a slow, fun marathon in Guangzhou.

In the end, I just ran the Dongguan marathon without thinking but also without pushing myself to the limit. I was therefore fairly happy with my final time of 4 hours 35 minutes. With a little more ambition, I could certainly have followed the 4 hour 30 minute pacemaker group which I lost at km 30.

Here is the link to the homepage of Dongguan Marathon (but as it is often the case with running events in China, only partially translated into English and not updated after the event)

Addendum:

Unfortunately, as is often the case with running events in China, the website is no longer maintained after the event. This means that there is no information about the winners, their times and no summary report. And a certificate was not available even three weeks after the event. There is a real lack of professionalism.

For pictures pls. check the German version of this post.

Used running shoe: Saucony Kinvara 8