Welcome to the Adventure Marathon Blog

When you are not flying Business Class on a 9 hour night flight is not giving you the best of rests... But we arrived on time at the impressive Beijing Int. Airport, they are definitely ready to receive the masses of the Olympic Games in August. Perfect sign guiding, spacious terminals, effective passport control and fast bagage delivery helped us get through the vast airport in just 30 minutes. All good except for one little hurdle... Customs!
Arriving with several huge boxes including radios, time keeping equipment, medical equipment and other nescessities for a marathon of course wakes the attention of customs and although all the papers have been checked and confirmed a thousand times from home it still isn't always enough... So the 30 minutes suddenly grew till 4½ hours before we could leave the airport, still leaving a few things behind waiting for final clearance...

The Danish Athletic Federation Team and Officials went directly to Huangyagun to start setting up the route and preparing for Inspection Day tomorrow (Thursday). They will be joined by the Medical Team later today as well as the Photo Team. The bulletins from the Wall states that everything is under control. I will go tomorrow and check it out for myself along with all the runners who are going for the inspection of the route.

Today the remaining runners will arrive while those on the longer itineraries are on sightseeing in Beijing. Here they can see that the city is getting ready for the Olympics although there is still a lot of construction going on, but compared to last year they have come a long way.

As mentioned a couple of times, tomorrow is Inspection Day and this is when the runners start realising what they have actually got themselves in to...

Little more than a week and the start for The Great Wall Marathon will go off for the 9th time.
Runners will start arriving in Beijing this weekend where they will be up for city sightseeing and jet lag adjustment before the challenging and astonishing race next Saturday, May 17th.
During the past couple of weeks the Great Wall Marathon staff has been working full time to get everything set and ready for the big event. It has been another great experience this year to get everything ready in time as the Great Wall Marathon once again breaks the record of participants; 1664 runners (1197 particiapted last year) will go for the challenge of either Full- or Half Marathon or 10 or 5 KM. 135 family members and friends has taken the trip as well to cheer along the route and give moral support to their loved ones. Also along the route runners will be praised and supported by the local population of Huangyaguan who are proud and honoured that this big event takes place in their district.
It is going to be a festive event, which we all look forward to!

You can follow the events before, during and after the marathon on this blog starting from Tuesday when the International Staff & Officials arrive in China.
We will keep you updated!

Now you can sign up for the Polar Circle Marathon 2008. This amazing race that takes place just north of the Polar Circle in Greenland, gives the participants a unique running experience.
Astonishing glaciers, vast tundra, reindeer and musk oxen and of course the Ice Cap itself is some of the amazing sights waiting for the runners.
The route itself will be a good challenge as well as the cold and dry air will contribute to the "adventure" feeling. It is, however, a marathon that can be completed in a fair time although one shouldn?t expect to set a personal record.
The race takes place October 18th and we have put together a Basic Package and an Optional Package for those who wish to explore more of beautiful Greenland.
For all details, please go to our website: www.polar-circle-marathon.com

Yesterday, January 14, Adventure Marathon Manager Rune Nortoft paid a visit to the head office of Danish Red Cross. Here he met with Robert Kwesiga, Head of Region for Red Cross in Southern Africa, who was visiting from Zimbabwe.
On behalf of Adventure Marathon and Albatros Travel, Mr. Nortoft handed over the profit from The Red Cross Big Five Marathon 2007 - a cheque of 100.000 Danish kroner (corresponding to approx. USD 20,000).
The money will be used to build up the South African Red Cross Society (SARCS) creating a solid base for future support and promotion of the society. The Red Cross in South Africa works on very small means and needs more attention in order to help improving health, preventing disease and mitigate suffering in South Africa.
The South African Red Cross Society will also receive the profit of The Red Cross Big Five Marathon in 2008 - the more runners in the marathon, the more funds the South Africans receive.

Labels: africa, big, charity, five, marathon, south

The Great Tibetan Marathon, half marathon, 10 km and 5 km will in 2008 take place 19th of July. All packages and prices are ready. Please have a look at www.great-tibetan-marathon.com where all details are to find. Again in 2008 the marathon will start in an altitude of 3800 meters in the monastery of Hemis. 42,195 km later you will cross the finish line in an altitude of 3400 meters in the courtyard of the Spituk Monastery. A breathtakingly beautiful route in the Indus Valley past ancient monasteries, small Tibetan villages and majestic snow covered mountains.

The Big Five Marathon ! The wildest of them all !
Its a pleasure to announce that all packages and prices for The Red Cross Big Five Marathon 2008 are ready. on www.big-five-marathon.com you can find all details needed to participate in the marathon or half marathon.
28th of June the marathon will start at 8 o?clock. We guarantee you an adventure and a marathon you will never forget. Running among the wildlife on the African savannah, is indeed something to remember.
We have a maximum of 500 runners in this event. If you like to run on 28th of June we advise you to sign up soon to make sure that you will get a start number.Again in 2008 The South African Red Cross Society will get all the money earned on The Red Cross Big Five Marathon. We are happy to continue the cooperation with them.

Returned from Berlin Marathon Expo a few days ago. It was great talking to all of you who came to our booth to talk about our marathons and it was also great to hear about your running experiences from around the world. Hope you all had a good marathon. I didn?t run this year but was one of the many spectators along the route. It was a big experience to watch all you runners and even though not running, being a part of the event was a big experience. Due to the big success this year, we will be back again next year for the expo in Berlin.