Hit the Wall Running: The Great Wall Marathon Returns in 2024

There’s a saying that goes “one isn’t a true man until he’s climbed the Great Wall”, but what if you hit the wall for a run instead? For those curious to find out, there’s the Great Wall Marathon, which is coming back in May 2024 after a brief hiatus.
 
First hosted by Danish travel company Albatros Travel in 1999, in conjunction with Chinese event company Culturestone, the first run along the Great Wall was attended mostly by fellow Danish runners. While it was meant to be a one-off event to show off what Albatros could accomplish in China, it was so popular that it became an annual event.

In subsequent years, though, it was joined by more and more marathon runners, coming from all over the world to Beijing for the chance to run along the ancient ramparts. The popularity of the marathon led to eight other marathons being formed under the Albatros Adventure Marathons umbrella, each promising to “offer challenges in beautiful surroundings and varying terrain”; a step above your normal city marathon.
 
“By 2018 and 2019 we had more than 70 different nationalities coming to run the race,” says marathon organizer Rune Nortoft. I’m joined by Nortoft and his colleague Lars Fyhr in the lobby of a JW Marriot near Xidan, on a sunny and brisk autumn day, speaking to them before their departure to the Wall to scout out the course.

Both men have been helping to organize the marathon since the early 2000s, with Nortoft having run the marathon in 2001 before he was tapped to help organize future events, something he says was too good to resist. Fyhr, on the other hand, came on board later when he was hired by Nortoft to assist.

Over 2,000 people were taking part in the Great Wall Marathon by 2019, a big jump from the original 350 during the first race. Things came to a halt in 2020 with the pandemic, though, which put the Great Wall Marathon on hold until tourism was back on in China. Even though things reopened this year, the Albatros team is instead waiting until May 2024 to hold the next installment of the run.

Why 2024 and not 2023? “Traveling to China was too complicated for most people,” says Nortoft. Fyhr adds that late into 2022 with tourist visas still unavailable, it was decided to hold off on the race a little bit longer. Continuing issues coupled with higher flight prices still won’t make 2024 easy.

Fyhr says that based on responses on social media, most people want to wait until 2025 to come to Beijing and run the Wall. “2024 is going to be different from previous years because we expect to have more local runners,” explains Fyhr, “more people who are based in China and not coming from abroad to run.”

That being said, appealing to more local runners and expats in Beijing isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and it’s something both Fhyr and Nortoft hope will make the Great Wall Marathon more popular in the future.

With things like trail running and ultramarathons gaining popularity in China, this doesn’t seem too hard of a task. At the end of the day, the Great Wall Marathon is all about getting out of the normal city marathon, which can get monotonous after a while from Nortoft’s experience, in search of something more challenging and exciting.

Fyhr sees it as a good jumping off point for those who might have never run a marathon before. “Let’s say you’ve never run before but you want to start off with something exciting like running on the Great Wall, this is your chance.”

And there’s perhaps no better place to get your toes wet on a first marathon or dive into something totally new. The course starts and ends at a reconstructed fortress at Huangyaguan, through ups and downs, ancient villages, and more to run over 5,000 steps in total.

For those who don’t want to take part in a full marathon just yet, there’s also a half marathon and 8.5 km fun run option.

Even though the race is happening on May 18, 2024, you can already register now. You can find out more about the marathon plus entry packages and pricing on Albatros Adventure Marathons’ website, or you can sign up through Culturestone via email here.

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Images courtesy of Albatros Adventure Marathons