The Orange Runners Club members competed in The Great Wall Marathon race in China, alongside 2500 runners from around the world.

The fit crew signed up with the intention of competing in the half-marathon event, but a few weeks into training upped the ante to the full marathon, or 42.2 kilometres.

Renai McArdle said all six had completed a 40-kilometer trail event in Sydney earlier in the year, which "changed the discussion."

"We thought, 'well if we're going to fly all the way there and spend a lot of money we might as well do the whole thing'," she said.

Race day started for the crew with a bus from a busy, polluted Beijing at 2.30am.

From the start line, the Orange runners went straight into a 5-kilometre uphill, before taking on 7-kilometres of The Great Wall.

During the wall run the competitors stepped up 5164 stairs, with an elevation gain of 1035-metres.

Organisers flew a team of doctors to the event to keep people safe.

With all six completing their first international race with a time range between 5.15-minutes and 7.30-minutes, Mrs McArdle said the locals got them to the end.

"They basically lined the whole 42-kilometre course giving us high fives and cheering us on," she said. "They wanted us to stop and take a selfie - especially the little kids - they were so genuinely excited."

The team trained hard in the Mount Canobolas State Conservation Area in the lead up to the race.

Each Friday morning they met at the Pinnacle to stomp out as many stair repeats as possible in an hour.

Mrs McArdle said on average they would run the 448 stairs six times a session, performing 97 repeats over three months.

She said she had her tracker recording during that time and clocked up 41,000 stair steps up and down the Pinnacle.

"If that didn't get us ready we had no hope," she said.