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Visitors to China's Great Wall on May 19th are sure of a big surprise - the sight of hundreds of hardy marathon runners scaling the world's largest man-made edifice as they bust a gut to beat competitors to the finish line.

The course of the marathon takes runners up and down six kilometres of the Great Wall and over 3,700 stone steps.

In places, the steep mountainside rises to 10% gradients, although there is some downtime for both runners and spectators in the lush countryside of Tianjin Province, the route cutting through the picturesque scenery, dotted with villages and paddy fields.

The element of challenge is unbeatable the arduous task of taking on the wall lets even the best runners make the route in only five or six hours, much slower than the speeds they might usually aspire to.

Meanwhile, the more leisurely-inclined can simply spectate, as well as walking the stretch of the Wall used for the run just before the event.

Last year, four men aged over 70 ran the full marathon three Americans and one Dutch alongside two women aged between 65 and 69 from New Zealand and Japan.

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