The Great Wall Marathon: adaptive athletes inspire other runners by finishing ‘toughest one yet’
- Two Dutch runners climb over 5,000 steps, one with a prosthetic leg, the other on crutches
- Every time they set a new challenge they doubt if they can do it, but smash their goal anyway
Two Dutch runners inspired the rest of the pack at the Great Wall Marathon, by completing the half-marathon race despite each only having one leg.
“Every time, I say the same thing. Two years ago I said: ‘the Great Wall Marathon, I can’t do it’, and here I am,” said Michael-Robbery Brans, who ran on crutches, having lost his leg to cancer.
“Every time I finish a challenge I say: ‘this is the toughest one’, but for sure, this was the toughest one,” he added.
The Great Wall Marathon takes runners over some of the steepest sections of the famous wonder and even the fittest athletes are forced to use their hands to climb staircases. But for Brans, who was effectively single leg squatting and tricep dipping his way up the slopes, it was a whole new level.
Watch: Taking on the Great Wall Marathon
“My hands – they are burning. Every muscle is in pain. My skin is tough but it’s the pressure,” he said.