Taiwan's Taroko Gorge the backdrop for marathon

Beneath a picture of tumbling rocks, signs urged us to "Please Pass Quickly" and "Do Not Linger". A few metres farther, hard hats are laid out on a table, free for any runners who believe a sturdy bit of headwear will be a match for chunks of rock falling from high above.

Hitting the wall is a common fear for an average marathon runner like myself, but running the Taroko Gorge Marathon on Saturday is the first time I've been worried the wall will hit me.

With its soaring marble and gravity-defying rock often overhanging the whole road, the 18-kilometre ravine in eastern Taiwan is the setting for one of Asia's most stunning marathons. But with the mind-blowing scenery also comes the slight, but very real, risk of potentially crushing rockslides. Near the entrance to the gorge, a huge boulder on the side of the road, at the foot of a deep scar in the hillside, serves as an early warning to the dangers the route can hold.

"There are always some rocks coming down somewhere in the Taroko Gorge, so you may want to consider wearing one [of the hard hats]," jokes Jerome Hainz, a runner in Hong Kong who took part in the marathon three years ago.

Although I suspect I am likelier to pass out with exhaustion during the latter stages of the race than to "pass quickly" to avoid falling rocks, I decide to take my chances without the hard hat - as do most of the 13,000 other runners who took part that day.

Set in Taroko National Park, the gorge is often lauded as having the most spectacular scenery in Taiwan - quite an accolade given the island's abundance of beauty originally prompted the Portuguese to name it Formosa (beautiful).