The Great Wall Marathon is an annual marathon race held in May along and on the Huangyaguan or Huangya Pass (Chinese: 黄崖关; Chinese: 黃崖關; Pinyin: Huángyáguān； Literally: "Yellow Cliff Pass"), Tianjin section of the Great Wall of China East of Beijing. The race has grown over the years to several hundred participants. Aside from the main marathon, a half marathon, 10 km and 5 km runs are also held. The course is much tougher than traditional marathons with participants challenged by over 5,100 stone steps and many steep ascents and descents.
The winner was Salvador Calvo, whose time of 3:23:10 broke the previous course record by four minutes.
Saturday May 17, 2008: Again, the previous race record was broken, this time by Great Wall Marathon first-timer Romualdo Sanchez Garita from Mexico. His finish time was 3:18:48. The fastest woman in the field was South African Leanne Juul, who finished in 4:09:10.
Saturday May 16, 2009: There were 1,363 runners in the four distances. More than 40 countries were represented. The two winners in the marathon category were:
- Justin Walker, USA, 3:40:54
- Joanna Gosse, New Zealand, 4:03:23
Saturday May 15, 2010: A a record number of 1,748 participants from around the world ran the four distances.The fastest runners in the marathon were:
- Qiang Tong, China, 3:24:44
- Inez-Anne Haagen, The Netherlands, 3:56:38
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