Hello Steem Blockchain!

My girlfriend, Lillian, is an exceptional runner. She frequently participates in marathons in Northern China and this was the first time I got to see a marathon happening in China!

Picking Up Supplies

The previous day we had to come to the Olympic stadium to pick up her supplies that she needs for the marathon: name tags, timer, etc.
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I bought her a protein bar from one of the vendors for good luck and then we returned back home.

The Marathon

The day of the marathon, she arrived to the gate very early and was preparing. Unfortunately, I couldn't meet her because there were so many people and I arrived a little late. I don't think I would be allowed to stand where all the runners were and Lillian had her phone put away minutes before the marathon commenced. Instead, I stood on the main street called Hebei Street. Hebei is the name of the province that the city of Qinhuangdao is located in.

There were a lot of people there as spectators that I had to weave my way through. Chinese people are not afraid to push and shove others hahaha.

They closed down Hebei st. to give the runner exclusive access to it. It's one the major streets in the city so there was a lot traffic in other places.

At 8:00am, the marathon commenced and because I was located near the beginning of the race, it only took a few minutes before I started seeing the runners.

There were people of all different shapes in sizes. There were regular runners like Lillian there and also some amateurs as well. Anybody could participate in this race. In fact, there were some African people competing in this race whom I assume live/study in Qinhuangdao.

I was excited to film and shoot photos of the main wave of runners. Unfortunately, I never got to see Lillian running but I am sure she passed by with the other runners; it's just hard to notice her in a crowd of other people.

After most of the runners passed by, I returned home to wait until the runners would reach the finish line. Lillian told me it would take her 5 hours to finish the marathon. She has finished previous marathons at around 5 hours and 20 minutes and told me she wants to finish this one is 5 hours.
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When I came back to the finish line, I was too late so I couldn't see who the winners were. Fortunately, I was able to find Lillian waiting in line for her free massage after the race. What really sucks is that just before her turn, the workers said they are leaving now! She waited in line for nothing lol.

Lillian told me that it took her less than 6 hours to finish the race and she was a little disappointed because she was aiming for 5 hours but seemed to have lost track of time. She told me that during the race, she thought she was ahead of time and started taking it slow. Yikes!

As always, I am just proud of her for finishing and staying fit. I have never ran so long and I don't know if I could finish a marathon if I started now. I would probably need to train my endurance for a while before I could do what she did!

That pretty much sums up this post. I hope you check out the video to get even more footage of this event.