Great Wall (1/2) Marathon 2016

A few weeks ago I ran the Great Wall (1/2) Marathon. Last year I had prepared for it well in advance, but about 6 weeks before race day, just as I was really ramping up my training, I had a calf strain. The thing is, I didn’t know that. I spent the next month or so trying to rest then run again, rest then run again, rest and run again. After a couple of tries I knew I wasn’t going to make the race and so took a rain-check for 2015. Over the summer I again tried to rest and run with longer periods of rest, but nothing seemed to be working. In the early fall I started to see a physical trainer and she told me about the strain. It took about 3 months of weekly visits for massage, ultrasound, and rehab to get me back ready for running shape. By late November I was running again, slowly, and by late December my single run distances were creeping back to double digits. So, with that in mind I signed up again for the Great Wall race that was to take place in May 2016.

Throughout January I wasn’t pushing anything, but just kept running regularly to get myself back into a good spot for when the real training began. From February to May, roughly 15 weeks, I went from about 20km a week to almost 65km. I topped out my practice run about 10 days before race day at 22km running, about 5km uphill with roughly 30 minutes of stair work in the middle to represent the course to put me in a good position for tackling what the race would throw at me as I knew from the course description there would be an uphill stretch followed by lots of stairs and then a long flat portion.

Unfortunately, being Beijing and China, the air quality forecast was showing very unhealthy conditions for race day. I can’t express how furious I was that after all that rehab and training I might not end up running the race because of the chance of bad air quality, but I figured anything could happened and I should at least get to the race site before deciding not to run in toxic air.

The day before race day I went straight from work to the Beijing Int. Airport to catch a bus to the race site. The company that runs the race offers a few options, but as someone living in Beijing I didn’t want to make my way downtown to stay in a hotel only to get up at 3am to take the bus to race site. Nor did I want to arrange private car which would require me to leave around 330/4am. I opted to take the bus out the night before and stay in a Hostel that the race organizers had set up. Finding the bus to the race site was easy enough and the ride was about 2.5 hours. When we arrived in Huangyaguan it was dark and as soon as we arrived our guide had mysteriously disappeared. The bus arrives in the main square where the entrance to the wall is located, but those of us on the bus were booked at different hostels and none of us really knew where to go. Luckily someone in the group spoke mandarin so they rang up our hostels and got vans to pick us up. I rode alone to my hostel and I am not sure if any other racer was staying there, but I imagine so. It was a nice little place and interestingly had a huge rectangular bed, in China called a “kang”, where about 6 people could have slept side by side. It was just me, but that was lucky since the bed was rock hard and I had to use the additional comforters that were provided to cushion my backside. Facilities were about what I paid for, roughly 40usd. There was a tv, a wet shower, toilet (no paper, brought tissues), and sink. Unfortunately, it was also about 15 feet from the main road and the trucks rolling by all night didn’t provide the best sleep, but good enough and better than I would have had getting up at 3am.

I was in wave 1, surprisingly to me, which meant that I would start the race at 740am. I say surprisingly because that was the fastest wave of runners, the first to go and expected to be the first to finish. Prior to the race I had to submit my fastest time for ½ marathon which is currently 1:50. From this the organizers must have derived that I would be one of the faster runners and as it turns out they were pretty much right, but I was on the slower end of the fast people. I woke at 6am, ate my normal pre-race of oatmeal and coffee, then packed up and started walking up the street to the race. Luckily the north wind had blown a bit in the early morning and readings were showing, “moderate” air pollution. It looked like conditions would remain that way for a few hours, then go back up to “unhealthy”. Good enough, just.

By the time I arrived it was about 7am. Like any good pre-race routine, I went to the bathroom about 3 times in the next 30 minutes, dropped off my luggage, and had a short jog and stretch to get ready. Once runners were let into the first gate I ran into my friend John, whom I teach with and was running the full marathon. He would eventually finish the marathon in about 6 hours. That is a respectable time for this course, it’s a killer. The winner of the marathon came in at about 3:40, an astonishing time as the course is punishing. After listening to numerous speeches and getting riled up, it was time to start.

Like all races, the start is exhilarating. I took off quite well and was feeling great. A couple KM in we were through the village and crossing a bridge where our ascent to the wall would begin. The next 5km or so was uphill to the gate to the wall. There were many people along the route cheering us on and that was cool, but in true China fashion when I was about ½ way up the hill a 2-stroke tractor came puttering up and kept pace with myself and other runners, puffing black smoke clouds in our faces. Great China air conditions. On the initial take off from start I passed a lot of people and going uphill I pretty much kept my place, neither passing nor getting passed too much. As we entered the stairs to the wall the race was slowing down. On the wall itself there is barely any room to actually run. You are either going up a set of stairs that is just a bit too steep to run up, or going down a set that is just a bit to steep to run down safely, with bits about 30 feet long in between where you can just get running before hitting another set of stairs. This portion was nice, lots of people cheering us on, and the views were good. You could see at lower levels down the valley was a bit smoggy, but up by us looked pretty good. At the end of the wall is what is called the “goat track” which is basically a steep set of stairs going straight down from the wall to the square where the race begins. You make a circle, in other words. This bit was pretty hard for me and I was not prepared for such steep downhill running. I was going slow at this point and lots of people were passing me, but they were not going too fast either. Upon reaching the end of the goat track you hit the flat bit of the wall by the square where the race begins. This is tricky as after going up and down for the past 5k or so you now are back on flat ground and it was hard for me to get my legs to adjust.  

Once again you go through the same gate you start from. It was at this point that I was getting a little frustrated. I had hit a couple of water stands and was keeping hydrated, though the day was getting hot, but the race course also was supposed to have gel stations and bananas. I could not figure out where those were as each stand I passed was just handing out water. It was until further on, around 13km, that I found a stand with bananas and so grabbed a bunch. The course moves back through the main town and along a dirt road by the river, then across the river and through a small village before returning again. It was by this point, about 17km, that I was starting to get tired and irritable that I hadn’t packed gels myself beforehand thinking they would be readily available on the course. I stopped to walk for a few minutes and then stretch before keeping going. Eventually I got to 19km and seeing the end was near I put on the gas to finish in 2:38. I am happy with that time as I wasn’t sure how long it would take, but I told myself under 3hrs for sure, under 2:45 respectable, under 2:30 would be quite good. So, good to respectable given my expectations. Overall I was 151st of 484 1/2 marathon runners. 

After I finished I had a shower on site, very handy, and then grabbed the provided lunch of Subway sandwiches. I waited some time for my friend John to come running through, but unknown to me he would be out another 3 hours. Eventually I made my way to the buses departing for Beijing airport. Another 2.5 hour bus ride and I was at the airport, then a 30 minute taxi and I was back home in Lido. Overall I am very glad I did the race and am planning some small ones over the summer, hopefully getting back to a 1/2 or maybe full sometime in the coming year. It might be fun to do the Tokyo marathon again someday or perhaps something new. I will never do the Great Wall Marathon again nor any other race in China for one reason, air pollution. I got somewhat lucky and the heavens parted on race day for me, but the air still wasn’t that good even in the mountains. Predictions had the AQI at possibly over 200, or “very unhealthy”. In developed countries no race would go forward at that level, but in China that’s not uncommon. Last year the Beijing marathon saw levels at 350ish during the race, considered, “hazardous” yet people ran, some with masks. Its just not worth training for months only to have terrible pollution on race day and not run, or alternatively to run 21km with a mask on. Gross. Until Beijing can get skies in China clearer, I’m steering clear of their skies.

Beijing Living 101: Traffic (Jam)

The traffic here in Beijing has always intrigued me. The first time I came I experienced traffic, but mostly from the back of a bike. That was more than 10 years ago and the bicycle kingdom was just shifting over to the automobile kingdom. Now that I have lived here for almost a year I can tell you, I want the bike traffic back again. Beijing has terrible traffic congestion, and commuting trips rank the longest in all of China. 

Personally, I usually take a bus to work. This is a private bus that makes a few stops before mine. After my stop, there are no more until we reach my workplace. During the APEC blue sky days when half of all cars were restricted from the roads to ensure a pleasant atmosphere for visiting leaders, my commute had a record 21minutes one way. Usually it take 35-40 minutes each way and there have been times it has taken more than 1hr. Of course, as an America my home country went through the growing pains of the automobile boom almost 50 years ago. Just about every city has kept up well with the increase of cars since then. Beijing, on the other hand, has had only 5 years to accomadate a rise in the number of autos in the capital from 5 to 6 million. For reference that is about twice as fast as the most notorious place for traffic jams in the US, Los Angeles. 

While a large degree of the traffic congestion is caused by lack of infrastructure, there is also a huge amount caused by bad or selfish driving. Many of the times that I have been stuck on the staff bus to work for more than one hour is because of a situation where a bus or block of cars has cut off an entire 3-4 lanes after running a red light. To explain a bit further, see picture. This picture is in Chongqing, I believe, but I have seen this many times in Beijing too. As a light turns from green to red a number of cars, or buses, decide to run the first couple of seconds of the red light, I suppose thinking that traffic in front of them will only take a few seconds to move and they can get out of the intersection before causing a blockage, but then they don't. So the opposing lanes also get blocked. 

I can't say I blame the drivers who do this. Traffic here is one big game of, "oh no you don't!" and road rage is actually incredibly low when considering all the nonsense, but it does happen. Any leniency towards another driver is quickly pounced on. The only way to drive is to act as if you own every lane, pedestrians don't matter, and your time is more important than anyone else's. Forget about blinker, swerve into another lane regardless of what or who is there, and yes, the breakdown lane is the one made just for you so you can pass all the rest of us stuck in the jam. It is a wonder to me that so many people have gotten, and retained, their licenses. Then again, even though I see the occasional police officer, I have never seen a policeman issue a ticket or pull someone over. Never. Actually, the police here are incredibly patient with traffic and drivers as can be seen in this incredible video. Certainly this driver would have been shot in the US. The cops are trying to help a broken down car, but this driver just can't wait. 

Crossing an intersection, by bike or on foot, is a whole new game. I have often seen a light turn from green to green left turn arrow and 30 people move halfway across the street, clogging the left turn lane. There is no green light to walk, but people do, and again it gets to the point the horns start honking and traffic slows down, just because people can't wait. This blog post from a few years ago sums it up nicely. 

Personally, I just follow the rules and the lights as much as possible. Sure, everyone an their mother is using the crosswalk on red, going through intersections without looking ahead of them, and cutting off each other left and right, but I want to live. Some people aren't so lucky. 

Beijing Living 101: Ikea

One of the oddest things here in Beijing and a perennial source of amusement among the new expats is the behavior of people at Ikea. This recently was in the news again as Ikea decided to ban people from loitering on their beds and furniture. I immediately saw the futility in this when I heard of it and it seems that since then Ikea has stated that they will not be banning people from doing this. Probably a good choice since it is likely impossible to enforce. 

One thing China has is a lot of people, one trip to Ikea on a Saturday and you will feel like you have seen and touched all of them. The only way to actually have a pleasant shopping experience and maybe to try out a couch or bed, is to get there right when the place opens. Any later and you won’t be able to get through the store without being pressed by the sweaty masses and certainly won’t be able to try out any piece of furniture you might like to buy. For me personally this has just been frustrating as a couple of times I actually wanted to test out some couches and had to ask people who were napping to get up, which they didn’t like very much. . Once, rather stupidly, I went to Ikea during Chinese New Year thinking that certainly there would not be very many people there as it's the time of year that everyone goes home to spend family time, like Christmas in the West. No, all of Beijing was at Ikea spending family time on the couches and beds, not in their homes. 

There are many reasons why this is, but the main one can be easily seen by who  it is that is doing the sleeping/lounging on the furniture. Since Beijing is a packed city and China is a developing country, many people don’t have very nice furniture at home. Secondly, the availability of an outlet for people to have a social outing with their family that is in any way comfortable is slim if you are making an average salary or less. Third, Ikea has it all. From comfy couches to cheap eat and drinks, and even air conditioning. Why go anywhere else?

The only times I dare go now is immediately at opening, if I go at all. The idea of Ikea trips makes a ripple of stress go through me. Its best to plan ahead and get in and out quickly. Though management has good intentions to, you know, actually sell stuff to customers who want to buy it, that is unlikely to detour anyone from doing what they please. This is China, after all. 

The Air in Beijing and How We Deal With It

AQI PM 2.5 at 44 on this day

AQI PM 2.5 at 230 on this day

Say China and most people think of just a few things. The Great Wall, cheap exports, and pollution. A few years ago when I lived in Shanghai the pollution there was something that bothered me and a big reason I wanted to leave. At the time I did not have a measurement for pollution levels besides how it looked to the human eye. Though there were occasional days that were obviously smoggy, it wasn't too hazy on the average day. I did develop a little cough and had a rash at times that I’m pretty sure was due to the pollution levels. Despite this, I made almost no attempt to avoid the pollution other than watching the sky and eventually getting out of Shanghai.

Now that I am in Beijing, the pollution levels have become even more visible to me. Of course everyone warned me about the pollution levels and it was something that I was preparing for from the moment I accepted the job. Before arriving I bought a respro mask, aya got a lot of disposable masks which she uses, we installed AQI apps on our devices, and started looking into air filters for our apartment.

The Respro Sportsta mask, has been something that I have used a lot. Whenever I ride my bike and the levels are near 100 or above I wear my mask. I also use it a lot riding the staff bus to and from my job on days where pollution is high. I have found that it is not difficult to breath through this and ideally people are supposed to be able to do physical activity like running in this mask, though I haven’t done that. The filter does seem to be working. After about 72 hours of use I changed the filter and found it to be blackish on the outside. The only complaint I have about this is that to get the mask to fit properly I have to put it high on the bridge of my nose, which means that my glasses then can’t rest on my nose, but must sit on the mask. This pushes them out and gives me a strange look. I would recommend buying one of these if you are coming to China, but there are other options that some people use such as Vogmask and there is even a nasal filter that 3M makes that I have seen but haven’t used yet.

We installed the AQICN app on all our devices and I check it all the time. When I wake in the morning, usually at lunch, on the way out of work and then again at night I check to see what the aqi level is, but more importantly I look at the wind speed and direction. When the wind dies down the pollution levels go up and the longer the wind blows the cleaner the air in Beijing gets. Obviously the restrictions on cars and factories are not very good so no matter what day it is they will be pumping out huge amounts of particulate. The only real short term way to solve that is for the wind to blow. Blow that pollution out to sea! And to Japan! And Even to the USA! The levels of pollution have a color code as well to help identify different levels. 

GREEN: More or less I follow that if its green, which is below 50 PM 2.5 (the smallest particles measured) then I am good to run outside. This happens a few times a week and one of the reasons I check my app so often. Looking now I can see the wind will be blowing hard all day tomorrow, so I am bringing my running clothes to work tomorrow.

YELLOW: If its yellow, which is the 50-100 reading I won’t worry much about being outside, but won’t run unless its on the lower end like in the 50’s or low 60’s.

ORANGE: This is the 100-150 reading. Its getting fairly high pollution levels now. I probably won’t wear a mask, unless its getting close to 150. I’m not running in this, too high. I would walk around, but I would avoid physical activity. The more sensitive westerners I know start wearing masks at this level. At this level you can start to see that the air is getting a bit hazy.

RED: This is the 150-200 range. The mask is going on, but I probably won’t avoid going out shopping or to dinner unless it starts to get near 200. Definitely not going to bike or run in this. Last year Paris got to this level and it was a sensational story, this happens regularly in Beijing and many people don’t wear masks (there is a good reason for this, the rating system they look at is different, see below).

PURPLE: This is the 200-300 rang. The mask is on, but I won’t go outside unless I have to, which is the 60-80 minutes I spend going back and forth to work. If I have plans for the evening, I postpone them. At this level the air is visibly thick. Chinese people will begin to don masks at the is level, some of the more conscientious and sensitive westerners will. If I don’t wear a mask at this level I get a bit dizzy and have a headache, but I always wear a mask mom. Don’t worry.

DARK RED: This is 300-500 or >500. At this level it is considered hazardous for anyone to breath this air for any amount of time. Almost all westerners wear masks at these levels. Around 50% of Chinese will be wearing masks at these levels. Supposedly schools close if this level remains for more than 3 days in a row. This is not true.

The most interesting thing is the difference between the Chinese and the U.S. readings.

The Beijing City government on the other hand considers levels up to 115 to be “light” and up to 150 to be “moderate” for reference, the WTO considers 10 to be acceptable and anything beyond that to be a high level. Much has been made of the difference between not only the scales used, but from the actual reporting differences between the US embassy in Beijing, which regularly posts automated air quality measurements at @beijingair on Twitter, and the City municipality readings.

On 18 November 2010, the feed described the PM2.5 measurement as "crazy bad" after registering a reading in excess of 500 for the first time. This description was later changed to "beyond index". By January 2013 the pollution had worsened with official Beijing data showing an average figure over 300 and readings of up to 700 at individual recording stations while the US Embassy recorded over 755 on January 1 and 861 by January 12. On that same January 12^th the Beijing municipality reading was 700.

We also use two filters in our apartment. The Philips AC 4074 and the Sharp KC 860U. We got the Philips first and it was about 500 dollars while the Sharp was about 450 dollars. Since they were both big purchases I was a bit reluctant, but they are needed on certain days. Many people have posted on how to construct your own much cheaper devices, more or less by strapping a HEPA filter onto a fan. They may be on to something, but I’m pretty happy with the ones I have. The Philips we keep in the bedroom and use it mostly when we are sleeping. It has a sleep mode to lower the noise it makes and 4 color levels which I am enamoured with. As the air gets cleaner, the color changes. It is supposed to have a 99% filter rate for PM 2.5 Its seems to do a good job, but I also think that when I have my humidifiers on its picking up those as well. I’m not sure.

The Sharp we keep in the living room as this device also has a built in humidifier. So far so good, it does seem to work pretty well and I am happy with the purchase. In both cases I lament the cost, but in home air filters are a must in Beijing. We have also bought a number of large plants, which we hope are also helping with the air along with making our home look pleasant.

The Chinese are aware of the pollution problem. The difficulty is both the balance between growth and development in the economy and the fact that government leaders are not elected. Average citizens have little power to sway government policies, but even so the government is aware that it needs to make reforms as people are even suing the government over the pollution levels.

The government has begun to change things to bring pollution levels down. Many new measures in including closing coal fire plants, promoting greener energy, mandating greater fuel efficiency, and taking millions of older vehicles off the roads. These measures must be working to some degree as pollution levels are supposed to be down 4% from 2013 to 2014 and a lot of the expats I have talked to here have said that this year has been better than in the past. By 2017 the city is scheduled to close its last coal fire plant and there are lots of infrastructure programs in the pipeline so hopefully the next few years will just be getting better. Beijing says it plans to be within WHO guideline levels by 2030. Certainly I will be long gone from  China by then, in the meantime I wish they would speed up the process.