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. Since it first start in 1999, the race has grown to several hundred participants. Aside from the main marathon, a half marathon, 10 km and 5 km runs were also held until 2012. 2013 marked the debut of an 8.5 km "fun run", replacing the 5 and 10 km distances. The course is much tougher than traditional marathons with participants challenged by 5,164 stone steps and many steep ascents and descents.
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2007
The winner was Salvador Calvo, whose time of 3:23:10 broke the previous course record by four minutes.
2008
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.
2009
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, 3:40:54Joanna Gosse, New Zealand, 4:03:232010
Saturday May 15, 2010: 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, 3:24:44Inez-Anne Haagen, The Netherlands, 3:56:382011
Saturday May 21, 2011: The fastest runners in the marathon were:
Yanqiao Yun, China, 3:18:48Mari Kauri, Finland, 4:11:192012
Saturday May 18, 2012: The fastest runners in the marathon were:
Luis Alonso, Spain, 3:39:28Mari Kauri. Finland, 4:10:432013
Saturday May 18, 2013: The fastest runners in the marathon were:
Jorge Maravilla (USA), Dimitris Theodorakakos (Greece) and Jonathan Wyatt (New Zealand) who crossed the finish line together in record time, 3:09:18Silvia Serafini, Italy, 3:32:12 (a new women's record)The half-marathon was won by Geoffrey de Bilderling with a time of 1 hour 38 minutes 56 seconds.
2014
Saturday May 17, 2014: The fastest runners in the marathon were:
Men: Ernesto Ciravegna, Italy, 3:33:56Women: Sofía García Bardoll, Spain, 3:57:252015
The 2015 race was held on Saturday, 16 May. The Fastest Runners in the Marathon main event were:
Men: China's Shen Jason won. His finish time was 3:41:40
Women: USA's Eleanor fuqua Williamson won. Her finish time was 4:18:35