A "Fool" Print

Just like Boston or New York Marathon, Xiamen Marathon has been hailed as the China's top marathon that must be attended beside the Beijing Marathon. A few years ago, I had heard pretty good reviews from my running kakis about the race. The typical comments about the marathon were well-organized, scenic, good support, clean air and a running route that reckoned on getting a PB.

The Xiamen International Marathon began in 2003 and is deemed by IAAF as a Gold Label Road Race, which is famous for its coastal scenic course. Every year, the race attracts around 70,000 participants. The registration of the Xiamen Marathon normally opens on Oct period. For the race website, you shouldn't expect it be to be as good as other international marathon websites such as Standard Chartered Marathon. After registering my particulars and making my payment through Paypal, I encountered problems in uploading my passport photo. Unfortunately, the registration process won't allow you to amend or retry. Thus, I had to contact the organizer for assistance.


On the race day itself, we woke up at 5am as we learned from the hotel staffs (Royal Victoria Hotel) that there would be a transport to send the participants to the race start point. It was freezing cold (9 degrees Celsius) in the morning. Apparently, we understood from the local that this year was the coldest winter that they ever experienced.

Once we had reached the race site, Toh suggested that we should move towards the start line together to avoid the "human" jam even though we were one hour earlier from the race start time. It was a unique experience joining the queue as all the runners huddled together to keep each other warm. From the experience learned from Hong Kong Marathon, I was wearing a disposable poncho to stay warm and protect myself from the chilly wind.


The Marathon is a major event to the Xiamen city and people. It attracted a lot of reporters and there would be "live" telecast of the race. Looking up at the sky above, I saw a helicopter hovering above us with energetic Chinese songs playing aloud to keep our spirit up. There was even a rehearsal by the organizer to wave off the runners! I was also amused by the local running group carrying a big flag represented their running club.


The race started at 8am promptly. As I bypassed the starting line, millions and thousand of supporters immediately visible to my eyes. It was a spectacular moment.

Foreigners in tradition Chinese Cheongsam

Although I had participated in many marathons before, but never would I anticipated such a level of support coming from the crowd. There were supporters, including grandpas and grandmas, all lining up to cheer for the runners. It was as if the whole city came out to participate in this great event. Volunteers, mostly school children, were lining up at the side lines waiting for the runner to pass by one after the other. To add to the atmosphere, there were old folk dances and Chinese drums to beat up our running spirit. The supporters (even monks!) were also kind enough to offer food (candy, sweets, bananas and biscuits) and hot tea.

For the running route, It was indeed as scenic as what the website had advertised. Even though there were about 70,000 over runners joining the race, but the lane was spacious enough for each runner to have his own running space. The route was relatively flat with occasional rolling slopes. The first 10 km would bring me to the highway (all lanes were closed for running), which then led to the city street. Everywhere, I could hear people cheering "Jia You Jia You". On the other hand, the school children would raise their hands to hi-five with the runners.

The weather was super as the sun slowly moved up. The cold, chilly body of mine had replaced with respiration, sweats and heat. There were wind blowing as I ran across the highway, but not too strong or cold. It was in fact quite cooling to run at the temperature.

I broke my record to complete my first 30km at 2:50hrs including a short toilet break. In my mind, I thought I might about to complete within 4hrs. Unfortunately, my cramps came and my run was resumed to a run-and-walk pace starting from 32 km. My powergels had finished and left off with Shotz which Toh had given me. Miraculously, my cramp seems to fade away after taking the Shotz. But my happiness was short-lived as I experienced the cramp again at 35km. This time, it was really bad that made me limping away. As l looked around, I have discovered that some of the runners had their unique ways to fight against their cramp. One of the amusing things I saw was a runner walking with his hands!!

At the last 1.5km, I had decided to make a dash to have a good finishing. The crowd was cheering aloud to spear up my running form. Eventually, I had crossed the finishing line in 4:28hrs.

At the finishing line, the volunteers passed me a big towel to dry myself and keep me warm. I was waiting for the rest of the guys but it ended up that all the rest were doing much better than me. Mak had achieved his PB. Subsequently, we were ushered into the stadium to collect our marathon certificate (with timing). Perhaps, it was due to the sudden drop in my body temperature, I couldn't keep my legs shaking as I am walking back to the hotel. The rest of the guys were mocking at me since I did a lot of mountaineering but couldn't withstand the cold. I just have to resign myself. Nevertheless, it was one of the best marathon  experience and I was secretly hoping I would come back to do the run again to achieve my goal.