Great Wall Marathon: leaders finish on hands and knees as brain cancer survivor wins to complete long rehabilitation
- Australian runner Douglas Wilson takes on famous race 10 years after first attempt
- American Kali Cavey shocks herself with first-place finish
Douglas Wilson did more than beat all the other runners to win The Great Wall Marathon on Saturday, he beat the odds too. The Australian’s first ever marathon was the same race 10 years ago, but over the last decade he has been fighting brain cancer and used running as part of his rehabilitation.
“I used it as a benchmark. Running a marathon was what I wanted to get back to and I used it as a goal to get myself back, and I did it to a level I could never have imagined,” he said.
He finished his first race in 2009 in four hours and 55 minutes. Yesterday, he won in 3:25.
The race follows steep sections of the wall, and by the final climb even the fastest runners are forced to resort to using their hands to crawl up the massive stair cases.
Watch: Taking on the Great Wall Marathon
“Without running it would have been easy to get into that dark spiral,” Wilson said. “I was very depressed when I was ill and was on a lot of medication. I think without that target to get back to run a marathon I could have stayed in that place.”