Dongguan Marathon 2017
November 26th, 2017
Seoul Marathon 2017
March 19th, 2017
The 2017 marathon season started for me on March 19th with the marathon in Seoul, South Korea.
Considering the climate in South East Asia, you can only really train for a marathon in autumn, winter or spring. This automatically means that the "right" marathon has to take place between November and March.
Of course, it's also possible to run a (trail) marathon in July in the north of China, for example in Inner Mongolia or in the mountainous western provinces of Sichuan or Yunnan. But then the necessary training can only take place very early in the morning if you live in the hot and humid south of China like me.
Guilin Half Marathon 2016
November 13th, 2016
About a month before the marathon in Honolulu, the marathon (or half marathon for me) in Guilin took place. It was a little over two hours by high-speed train from Guangzhou. Unfortunately, the departure station for this route is deep in the south of Guangzhou, so an hour's journey to the station had to be added to the train journey. The journey by train went smoothly, but unfortunately the famous Guilin landscape with karst mountains could not be seen. It was raining. And it was still raining when we arrived ...
My running colleagues from our company had booked a hotel very close to the start. The start documents were picked up quickly and I was able to find myself on the large list on which all participants were mentioned by name. In the evening we had "Guilin noodles" in a street restaurant. Unfortunately, the weather forecast for Sunday did not look any better and that was exactly what happened. In the morning it was still raining and it was not going to stop - apart from a few short interruptions.
Honolulu Marathon 2016
December 10th, 2016
Honolulu Marathon Hawai (Homepage)
Translation is ongoing ...
Used running shoe: Saucony Kinvara 7
ZhaoQing Half Marathon 2016
May 8th, 2016
Translation is ongoing Zhaoqing Half Marathon
Used running shoe: Saucony Kinvara 3
QingYuan Marathon 2016
March 20th, 2016
When running the marathon in Guangzhou in 2015, I could recognize a few runners wearing a shirt with the words "QingYuan Marathon" written on it. And since QingYuan is only about 1.5 hours by car north of Guangzhou, it was obvious to put this marathon on the "to do list". The date, March 20th, was also suitable, as it meant I could use the time between January and March for the long runs when the temperatures were not yet too high.
Grassland Extreme Marathon 2015 (Inner Mongolia)
July. 4th 2015
Grassland Extreme Marathon in XiWuQi in Inner Mongolia on July. 4th 2015
Before taking part at the Grassland Marathon, a marathon journey had to be completed. First, a three-hour flight from Guangzhou to Beijing. Then an overnight stay in Beijing close to the airport (to not to miss the connecting flight the next day at 6:40). And then at the following morning the one-hour flight to XiLinHot.
And from XiLinHot it took another two hours in the shuttle bus provided by the organizer to XiWuQi. Finally I arrived the hotel in time for lunch. At the time I registered for the Marathon my favourite hotel which also hosted the organization office, was already fully booked. Therefore I had booked two nights at the hotel called "Electricity Hotel" (...).
Great Wall Marathon 2015
April 19th, 2015
Living in China and being a runner 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 which I found on the Internet in 2015.
New Year's Eve Race Britzingen 2013 & 2014 & 2015
2015
Anniversary ! This year I had the opportunity to participate in the Britzingen New Year's Eve Run for the 20th time. The organizers were lucky because the rain stopped just in time for the start of the main race. The conditions for the run were therefore almost perfect.
Read more: New Year's Eve Race Britzingen 2013 & 2014 & 2015
Zhuhai Half Marathon 2013
December 15th, 2013
As I was not sure whether the registration for the Guangzhou Marathon would be successful, I asked Chinese running colleagues to register me for the Zhuhai Half Marathon, which was scheduled for December 15th, 2013. (hier die offizielle Webseite)
Together with a colleague from our company and a Spanish running colleague, we went to Zhuhai on Saturday afternoon. It was about a 2-hour drive from Guangzhou. By many Chinese Zhuhai is considered to be a city with a high recreational value. Probably because of the neighboring city - Macao, the big gambling paradise.