Beijing to the sea
by Kellen Moore
When 22-year-old Chris Wehner of Boone set a goal of running
2,011 miles in 2011, he didn't imagine that he would complete more than 70 of those miles in rural
China — in only three days.
Wehner, a midshipman first class at the U.S. Naval Academy, had completed about 1,400 miles when he arrived in Beijing to study abroad in August.
The idea of running from the capital city to the Bohai Sea started as a joke among friends, he said. It quickly turned into a real plan.
“I don't particularly like running, actually, I just wanted to see if I could do it,” Wehner said.With two other study-abroad students, Becky Tisherman of Connecticut College and Samantha Wolfe of Kalamazoo College, Wehner started preparing for the trip.
The trio decided that Tisherman and Wolfe would ride collapsible bikes while Wehner ran the route, stopping overnight in the cities of Baodi and Ninghe and filming a documentary along the way.
So the trio set off Nov. 4 on the first 30-mile stretch, the first test of their endurance. The bikes were loaded with five liters of water, five backpacks, laptops, clothes, food and supplies.
“None of us had done anything close to this, so none of us knew if we could do it or not,” Wehner said.Along the way, he also distributed pamphlets on diabetes, a major health issue for numerous Chinese, as part of an internship with Project Hope, an organization that brings awareness to chronic diseases.
That focus on health care tied in with another of his long-term goals: attending medical school.
“All I really ever wanted to do as a final goal for my life is do Third World medicine,” Wehner said.
Despite frequent stops to talk with residents they encountered, the trio ended their first day in Baodi exhausted. They sat silently in their hotel room that night, trying to decide whether to proceed.
The group needed to cover more than 45 miles the second day to get to the next hotel, along a road with no buses and no hospitals in case the trek got the better of them.
They eventually decided to take a taxi for the first 16 miles to shorten the second leg.
The second stretch was just as difficult as the first, and by the end of day two, Wehner had serious pain in his hamstring he hoped would subside by morning.
The pain didn't stop.
Still, the team pushed forward the morning of day three through the most desolate area they had yet encountered. The final 13 miles to the ocean were still and void, he said, and the students' presence came as a shock to residents.
“They're all staring at us like, why are there people here?” Wehner said.
After traipsing under a highway overpass through thick grasses, the trio finally arrived at their Emerald City.
“I pictured like sand and running into the ocean, but it was gravel and dirty brown water,” Wehner said.
The three had planned to travel a couple of hours up the coast to where the Great Wall touches the sea, but the mentally and physically taxed trio nixed that plan and headed back to Beijing.
They hopped a bullet train and covered three days' worth of running in only half an hour.
Wehner, Wolfe and Tisherman spent the next several weeks editing their video, which is now available on YouTube under the title “CET Chinese Studies: Beijing to the Sea.”
On Dec. 7, Wehner completed his 2,011 mile at Tiananmen Square with Tisherman at his side.
Another tremendous goal accomplished, Wehner returned to Boone for the holidays for four days before departing for Chile and then Antarctica. His visits there — which mark his 30th country and seventh continent visited — will put him closer to more of his “bucket list” goals.
After graduation in the spring and Navy service, Wehner said he plans for more adventures before medical school.
But those adventures may not include another epic running trek.
“This was the farthest I've run and the most I've run in a three-day span, and it's probably going to stay that way for the rest of my life,” he said.
While his wanderings might sound crazy to some, Wehner's mother Linda said she's come to expect that her disciplined child will do whatever he puts his mind to.
“I just always pray for him, and he always comes through,” she said. “Everything he's done, he's done by his own strength, so I just trust his judgment.”
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story included incorrect information in the photo caption. The article has been corrected.
Wehner, a midshipman first class at the U.S. Naval Academy, had completed about 1,400 miles when he arrived in Beijing to study abroad in August.
The idea of running from the capital city to the Bohai Sea started as a joke among friends, he said. It quickly turned into a real plan.
“I don't particularly like running, actually, I just wanted to see if I could do it,” Wehner said.With two other study-abroad students, Becky Tisherman of Connecticut College and Samantha Wolfe of Kalamazoo College, Wehner started preparing for the trip.
The trio decided that Tisherman and Wolfe would ride collapsible bikes while Wehner ran the route, stopping overnight in the cities of Baodi and Ninghe and filming a documentary along the way.
So the trio set off Nov. 4 on the first 30-mile stretch, the first test of their endurance. The bikes were loaded with five liters of water, five backpacks, laptops, clothes, food and supplies.
“None of us had done anything close to this, so none of us knew if we could do it or not,” Wehner said.Along the way, he also distributed pamphlets on diabetes, a major health issue for numerous Chinese, as part of an internship with Project Hope, an organization that brings awareness to chronic diseases.
That focus on health care tied in with another of his long-term goals: attending medical school.
“All I really ever wanted to do as a final goal for my life is do Third World medicine,” Wehner said.
Despite frequent stops to talk with residents they encountered, the trio ended their first day in Baodi exhausted. They sat silently in their hotel room that night, trying to decide whether to proceed.
The group needed to cover more than 45 miles the second day to get to the next hotel, along a road with no buses and no hospitals in case the trek got the better of them.
They eventually decided to take a taxi for the first 16 miles to shorten the second leg.
The second stretch was just as difficult as the first, and by the end of day two, Wehner had serious pain in his hamstring he hoped would subside by morning.
The pain didn't stop.
Still, the team pushed forward the morning of day three through the most desolate area they had yet encountered. The final 13 miles to the ocean were still and void, he said, and the students' presence came as a shock to residents.
“They're all staring at us like, why are there people here?” Wehner said.
After traipsing under a highway overpass through thick grasses, the trio finally arrived at their Emerald City.
“I pictured like sand and running into the ocean, but it was gravel and dirty brown water,” Wehner said.
The three had planned to travel a couple of hours up the coast to where the Great Wall touches the sea, but the mentally and physically taxed trio nixed that plan and headed back to Beijing.
They hopped a bullet train and covered three days' worth of running in only half an hour.
Wehner, Wolfe and Tisherman spent the next several weeks editing their video, which is now available on YouTube under the title “CET Chinese Studies: Beijing to the Sea.”
On Dec. 7, Wehner completed his 2,011 mile at Tiananmen Square with Tisherman at his side.
Another tremendous goal accomplished, Wehner returned to Boone for the holidays for four days before departing for Chile and then Antarctica. His visits there — which mark his 30th country and seventh continent visited — will put him closer to more of his “bucket list” goals.
After graduation in the spring and Navy service, Wehner said he plans for more adventures before medical school.
But those adventures may not include another epic running trek.
“This was the farthest I've run and the most I've run in a three-day span, and it's probably going to stay that way for the rest of my life,” he said.
While his wanderings might sound crazy to some, Wehner's mother Linda said she's come to expect that her disciplined child will do whatever he puts his mind to.
“I just always pray for him, and he always comes through,” she said. “Everything he's done, he's done by his own strength, so I just trust his judgment.”
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story included incorrect information in the photo caption. The article has been corrected.