Once again, it’s that time of the year for the Xi’an City Wall Marathon. This year’s marathon was another great event. This time I actually had friends running in it with me, instead of just waiting for me at the finish line. It almost didn’t happen though. While reading the official rules online about when, where and how to sign-up I made  a mistake. I thought that registration for the race started on October 10th, turns out that registration ended on that day. In my defense the English on the website wasn’t very clear, and others agreed it was possible to make that mistake. However the Chinese was clear, October 10th was the last day, after that you were out of luck.

For a few days, I was a little disappointed. The event I had talked up and told other people about, wouldn’t be happening for me. Well fortunately things in China can still get done with a slight greasing of the palm. A buddy of mine called up and said that he had 10 people who wanted to sign-up for the race, they said “no, it’s too late”. After an explanation of how they’re all foreigners who couldn’t understand the website (not entirely true), and an offer to pay an extra 10 RMB per person, we were golden. So for the low price of 10RMB per person we were able to sign-up late for the race, yeah, the extra 10 RMB was a 33% increase in the race fee, but really 40 RMB for a shoe bag, a nice sweat-wicking shirt, and a city wall ticket is still a good deal.

» Read more: 2010 Xi’an City Wall Marathon