Beijing Int'l Marathon

This is now the third time I've run this race and each time the organization has been getting better and better: - The expo continues to get bigger and more sophisticated. There's now a few different vendors selling a reasonably good line of international brands of running supplies (but still make sure to bring anything critical from home if you're coming from overseas). - My race time and proof got me assigned to the proper corral and they seemed to be much better about checking bibs this time - in fact, the entire start seemed much more organized and much less like a mad crush than it has in previous years. - The aid stations seem even bigger than they were a few years ago - they keep going, and going, and going, so if you miss the first 10 (or 20, or 30!) tables just keep cruising. They might be the most extensive aid stations I've seen at a marathon. Definitely a plus for this race. - The finisher's medal is still extremely nice and classy and it alone is worth the race in my opinion. Otherwise everything is at an equal or better level than it was in 2015, it didn't feel like they've regressed at all. It seems like the organizers have figured out this should be a showpiece race for one of China's showpiece cities and they're trying to incrementally work their way to that level, so thumbs up to them. My complaints: - The course pretty much flat (like most of Beijing) but not especially exciting aside from the start on Tiananmen Square followed by the left turn past the big portrait of Chairman Mao. You finish near, but not in, the Bird's Nest stadium, which would be 10x as nice of a finish than on the vast concrete plain nearby that's sadistically called 'Olympic Green'. You also still do a LOT of walking to the start and especially from the finish - it's no exaggeration that you will probably cover close to 30 miles in total on race day. I was farther back in the pack than usual this year which made me realize something else: after about 6-8 km the race leaves the wide central east-west street of Beijing and for pretty much the rest of the race you're running in the width of two lanes of roadway....with tens of thousands of other runners. Needless to say it can be very cramped even towards the end of the race, and passing is often an exercise in finesse (and frustration). And those nice endless aid stations are set up in the course, so for hundreds of meters you'll be down to (at best) 1.5 lanes of road-width, with Chinese runners abruptly veering back and forth, speeding up, slowing down, stopping to walk, etc etc. (You could be charitable and say that distance running is still a new hobby here and so runners maybe aren't as familiar with aid station etiquette.) I had lots of near-collisions and some actual ones just trying to get through aid stations, even when I stayed to the far opposite side. Finally, in the past this race used to be held in October or even November, which would be much better than mid-September like it has been recently. It can still be very warm in Beijing then, and it was 30c+ and sunny for the race this year. Fortunately there is often some shade until the last few miles, but you may have to run a longer route to take advantage. If I was coming from overseas and determined to run a marathon in the Beijing area, I still might choose one of the several 'Great Wall' marathons instead for a more memorable experience. But this has become a decent race and seems to be getting better as time goes by.

D.Y.'s comments from 2012 are mostly still accurate. Expo is much larger than the first time I did this race a few years ago, but mostly just companies with display booths - there was a single shop selling supplies with a very limited selection, so if you're traveling don't forget anything important at home. They seem to be making a real effort to professionalize the race and I suspect they want to eventually be seen as one of the major world marathons like Berlin/Tokyo, but they're definitely not there yet. They've mercifully done away with the 10K and half marathon (which was a total joke, no timing chip/official times recorded, you started behind ALL of the marathoners, and it cost almost as much as the full marathon) so it's all marathoners at the start. I was quite irritated when I found that my previous race time had been ignored/overlooked and I was stuck in the very last corral...but as it turned out, it didn't really matter. The 'corrals' were mere suggestions with absolutely nothing more than signs on the side to mark them. So I was able to work my way forward...but of course so were thousands of other people. If you are in one of the first few corrals, get there early or you won't be getting to your designated corral at all. Typical for paranoid Beijing security, spectators are often kept way, way farther back than they need to be, so it's not a very spectator-friendly race in a lot of stretches. The crowds are there anyway (mostly before 30km at least) and supportive, though. One pleasant surprise was that the aid stations are big, and in the second half of the race, frequent. The first one was of course slammed, but otherwise I had no trouble getting water/gatorade and was even given an entire bottle a couple of times. I heard complaints from some slower marathoners that they ran out of supplies towards the end, though. Another pleasant surprise was the finishers' medal - arguably the nicest one of the dozen or so marathons I've run. You still have the long staggering walk to the nearest subway station though. Bag retrieval was orderly though a bit annoying to weave around all of the Chinese runners who decided that area makes a good place to sit down and spread out. All in all, for overseas runners I'm still not sure this is worth a special trip to Beijing just to participate, especially when there's so many marathons in smaller cities that might be a more interesting experience (Hangzhou, Xiamen, Haikou, etc etc). But it's better than it was before.

The race was pushed back due to the CCP 18th congress. It was held on Nov. 25th. The starting area is at Tian An Men square, you would think it's big enough to accomodate 30,000 runners but getting into the square, you has go through security check and then you have to squeeze through to get to the full marathon area. The Course is flat and winding through western Beijing . Crowd was there till you passed 30KM mark when you enter the Olympic park area then crowd disappeared. The finishing area is at the Olympic park which is huge and fenced. Your friends and relatives cannot get in and there is no clear sign to tell you where to return your timing chips. From the finishing area to reach the subway station is good one mile hike on either direction which is no fun after running 42.2KM. Volunteers are great they stayed to the end but the workers and police were very impatient they want to get it done and go home. Traffic started before all the runners were through, you have to watch speeding cars passing you. All in all, it was not a pleasant experience.