Runners flood Huaihai Road Middle for the 19th Shanghai International Marathon Sunday. Photo: Yang Hui/GT

Everyone was exhausted. Outside the first-aid tent near the finish line, many of the runners who huffed and puffed to the end of this year's Shanghai International Marathon spent their first few minutes after Sunday's race trying to recover from the 26-mile (42.2-kilometer) run.

Some hugged loved ones. Some stretched out. Some just walked back and forth outside the Shanghai Stadium, staring straight ahead. The few participants who ran in costumes stripped off their sweat-soaked clothing. It takes drive, tenacity and a none-too-trivial amount of training to run a marathon.

Non-runners might wonder why they do it. To answer this question, and get a sense of what it's like to run for three or four hours straight, the Global Times staked out a spot near the finish line and waited for the runners to return.

Aidan Ryan, forklift company employee, Ireland

This is my eight or ninth Shanghai (marathon). I'm not too sure. I did the half once, but most of the time, it's the full. I usually do races in Asia: Xiamen, Dalian, Seoul, a couple in the US, one or two in Europe. This is marathon number 27. I enjoy it. Running is quite social, you know. You do a lot of it on your own, but you usually go out with a few people. I used to play football for years and that's a nice social game with 20 people. It's a lot easier to get two or three buddies to go out, have a run, have a chat. Go somewhere, have a beer.

It was hard today. I'm not fit. I'm not as fit as I used to be. The thing is, I've run so many of them that at this stage, I know what it is going to be like. And I know I'm not fit. So we're in costume, and I was ahead of (my friends) and I just waited for them toward the end. And then we kind of trotted along. So, it was just for fun today.

Bill Karz, LA Tourism Board, the US

I'm in a lot of pain. It was a long race.

This was my third marathon, but this one definitely hit me the hardest. I don't think I trained for this one as much as I trained for the previous two. As number three, you would figure that this would be easier than number two, right? But it just comes down to training. You have to log those long runs beforehand.

It's always mile 20. It's like a wall. You just hit the wall at mile 20. It's pretty brutal. You just have to keep working through it to get to the finish line.

Christi Braun, teacher, the US

I ran the 10 kilometers. This is my first race. I just started running in January. My boyfriend is doing the full. He's a runner. And this was my New Year's resolution. It was tough. I felt like it was a lot longer than I was expecting, but once it was over, I felt good.

One part that was difficult was at the very beginning, because it was raining, so the ground was a little bit slippery and you had to be really careful. And there were lots of people, so there was lots of shoving, but it worked out. It was a little more shovey than I thought it would be. After the first 5 kilometers though, it calmed down.

Tal, Australia

It was really excellent getting the kids up and coming down to see my wife cross the finish line and we got there in 45 minutes but we missed her. We got a phone call from her to say she'd finished already. A local Chinese person gave me a giant inflatable hand to help cheer her on. And I had one of my daughters on my shoulders and the other was sitting on the fence and my wife was on the other side of the road. But do you know what's more frustrating than missing her cross the finish line? Getting a taxi after the race.

Scott Jervis, engineer

It was okay, it was tough. The last 5 kilometers always hurts. I ran the Beijing marathon this year too. My time today was a minute slower than my time in Beijing. Beijing was better organized to be honest, but today was cleaner with less pollution.

Vincent Raes, project manager

There were good conditions, not too polluted, with a little rain at the beginning. It was quite well organized. Just maybe for the last 10 kilometers it was difficult, you maybe had to wait 3 kilometers for water. I feel pretty good though. I did it in 3 hours and 10 minutes. This was my fourth marathon.

Doug DeJong, avionics engineer, the US

This was my fastest marathon so far, my time was 3 hours and 39 minutes. This is my fourth marathon. My first was Chicago in 2011.

I live in Shanghai and the start was just across from where I live, so I thought why not? I'm a regular runner. Last year the air quality was much worse. I was surprised because this year I didn't slow down. I have a GPS watch so I can run against a virtual partner, and I ran ahead of it.

Dirk Verwimp, project manager, Belgium

I'm a little tired but still okay. I was expecting worse. This is my second marathon. I think I did very well. I was happy finishing within 4 hours. I did it in 3 hours and 45 minutes. The first one I did in 4 hours and 10 minutes. The whole event was extremely good. It was a little bit wet and cold at the beginning, but it didn't bother me at all.

Henric Hoglind, project manager, Sweden

It was well-organized. I've run a few before, but this was my first one in Shanghai. It was better than I expected and also my result was somewhat better than I was expecting. I did it in 3 hours and 18 minutes. Of course I'm tired, but that's okay when you consider you've just run a marathon.

Johan Salovius, analyst, Finland

I'm feeling surprisingly good. I think it was a really good temperature. The only bad thing was the rain at the start, which gave me wet shoes. This is my first marathon. The whole experience was absolutely fantastic, the crowds were really supportive and the volunteers were giving you drinks very actively and so on. It was very well run.

My time was 4 hours and 14 minutes. I've run half marathons before but never tried a full one, so I didn't really know how I would do, but I'm reasonably satisfied.

Carrie Priebe, consultant, the US

It was my first marathon. I did the full marathon. I feel a little defeated because I was on pace and my knee crapped out at 40 kilometers. But I walked the rest of the way and I made it. I crossed. I didn't have a goal other than to finish.

It was on my bucket list. We moved to Shanghai for my husband's job, so I decided I was going to train for something on my bucket list.

Kilometer 25 was totally mentally tough. You know, it's a long run. It's not the longest compared to what you've done in training. But you start to get a little bored. You've been running for a while, and it's exciting because you're just over the halfway mark, but then you realize you still have 17 kilometers to go.

Your body would love to stop right then and go have a burger, but that wasn't an option. There was no burger stop. It's probably a good thing.

At 37 kilometers, I had this realization that I knew I was going to finish. I have to say it's super emotional. You see people actually well-up. So I was really excited. Then right when my knee gave out, everyone came over to help.

I actually had someone come over and offer to carry me over the finish line. And there was all this camaraderie amongst the runners, and everyone was like "you can do it" as literally I'm stumbling over the finish line. Everyone was just so supportive and awesome. It was a cool experience.

Global Times