Great Wall Half-Marathon (We survived!)

Does running 3 miles up a steep, winding mountain road, 3 more miles up and over 2,500 steps along the Great Wall and 7 miles through a small village and fields sound like fun??

For some reason it did to us!

Seriously, I have to start off with a praise for answered prayer. We had been training for this half-marathon for over 3 months and late on the night before the race, Samantha woke up with fever, chills and a severe stomach bug. She was resolved to stay in the hotel and wait for me to run it, but after taking it to the Lord, she felt better about 30 mintues before time to go and ended up completing the race!!

It was a wonderful time in some absolutely beautiful scenery!

We arrived on a bus Friday night to our hotel..clean & simple...no bugs, no hot water.

The 3 hour bus ride turned out to be 1.5 hours...that was great!

Well, it seems that the villagers were a little concerned with all the international travelers arriving, with possible Swine Flu!, so we were met at the door by two gentlemen in white coats (maybe doctors, maybe not) who handed us a thermometer and hand gestured to us that we needed to place it under our arm for 3 minutes...a little concerning...but at least it was under our arm ;-)

The hotel felt a little like a hospital, especially after the medical check.

The mountains were beautiful, this was the view from our room and there was a small Buddist monestary on the side of the mountain.

Here we are at the start, happy in our ignorance of what the next 3.5 hours would hold.

After some running & walking up the steep road, we arrived at the entrance to the Great Wall!

Nothing like knowing what lies ahead...steps...


and more steps...

Breath-taking scenery...


A quick photo-op...


More steps and scenery...

and steps...

This is for Caroline...no...we were not last...there were people behind us.

Things backed up at the top because everyone had to start going down single file on a small path with a drop-off on the left and a rope attached to the Wall on the right to hold on to.

This was amazing, I always thought of the Wall as being one straight line...

Okay, see the little square just to the right of the tree's point? That's where we started...

The villages were fun, alot of the children were out and would say "hello" and hold their hand out for a high-five.

The older crowd wasn't nearly as impressed...no high-fives from these gents...

Definitely some new sights that we hadn't seen before...

One last dirt road and back out to the main road to the finish.

We did finish, but don't have a picture yet. By that point, our main goal was to find food and water!

By the way, we ran into one of Caroline's teacher's from school, Mr. Murphy. So, when we got home we told Caroline knowing that she would be excited to hear that we saw him, because...he's really cool! She brought us down to earth quickly with these two questions:

1) He beat you, didn't he?

2) Did y'all finish last?

Thanks Callie Cat!

"A View From Here" - May 10th

Bicycles are one of the main modes of transportation and you see them all the time, everywhere. This shot is from one of the streets right after a rain shower.


Here's one that we have been trying to capture for a while. There are fewer around these days and so it's been difficult. The best way to describe these vehicles is a garden tiller with a seat and trailer attached. They are mainly used in the rural areas for heavy hauling.



This is a "clear" day in Shanghai and you can see the tallest building in China, The World Financial Center from the canal behind our neighborhood (that is our neighborhood on the right). It's also known as the "Bottle Opener" building because it kinda looks like one at the top. You can buy a souvenir model of the building that functions as a bottle opener...and yes...we have one.



Bicycles everywhere.

No big trash trucks in the neighborhood, these three wheelers come around at least twice a day.

All God's Children

Several families from our church visited a local orphanage last Saturday.

All of the children who live there have some kind of special need or disability. We really did not know what to expect, but felt that it would be a good opportunity to serve and help others.

It was a beautiful day and all the children enjoyed playing outside.

They certainly focus on keeping the children warm, it was about 80 degrees outside and most of the children were bundled up in two if not three layers!

Sarah Jane enjoyed the chance to be a "Big Sister".

It was a good experience for us all, we were amazed and humbled by how warm and accepting the children were. They were not shy at all and it I think they ended up showing us more of God's love than we did to them. We look so forward to going back and visiting again soon!