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DAXING, China — The runners were entering the final stretch on a recent Saturday morning. The air was muggy, but the atmosphere was electric, not least because elementary schoolchildren were banging out Queen’s “We Will Rock You” on traditional Chinese cowhide drums nearly as big as them. The runners had already passed locals in traditional attire performing dragon dances or playing the guzheng, the Chinese zither.

Some had even stopped on the course to smell the roses — literally. After all, the Daxing Half Marathon was branding itself as the “Beijing flower marathon” (never mind that it was not the full distance).

For many participants, running 13 miles in the boondocks of the capital city wasn’t their first choice. They would have much rather have joined the 20,000 runners who set off a week earlier from Tiananmen Square for the capital’s best-known half marathon.

But demand for running races in China is fast outpacing space in the country’s biggest events.

“This year it’s really popular to run marathons,” said Shine Zhang, a 36-year-old tech worker who had just run his first half at Daxing. Zhang attributes the running craze to the pandemic, which made people focus on health and seek out ways to be “happy at heart.”

Up next for Zhang is a full marathon, and he wants to run the Beijing race — but it’s a long shot. Even if he can go the distance, it takes a lot of “luck” to secure a place in one of the country’s best-known races, he said.

Gilles Sabrié

The country’s premier marathons — in Beijing, Shanghai and Xiamen — don’t yet draw the international elites that flock to Boston, London or Tokyo. But they are already hugely oversubscribed by local athletes and aspiring amateurs who don’t want to run any old race.

Beijing’s marathon in October saw 130,000 runners vying for 30,000 slots. But the marathon in Wuxi, a trial race for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, was even more in demand: A record 265,000 people applied for just 33,000 places. In the southwestern city of Chongqing, 100,000 people applied in a single day to enter the race, with only 4 percent of total applicants making it through the lottery and to the starting line.

In a single weekend last month, almost 500,000 runners participated in more than 50 marathons across China.

But races of shorter lengths are also becoming increasingly popular. A <a href="https://shipin.sportshow.com.cn/file/pdf/2023DZYD.pdf" target=_blank>report</a> from the China Sporting Goods Federation published this year found that running is now the most popular sport in China, with 58 percent of survey respondents saying they’ve tried it, up from 48 percent in 2020. It noted that running has evolved beyond exercise and relaxation and become “a burgeoning fashion trend.”

The boom is due in part to health concerns and the time created during the pandemic. “Another factor is the awakening of fitness awareness among China’s urban population, especially white-collar workers,” said Shang Na, vice president of Beijing Norton Sport Development Company, which hosts events including marathons. She traced the start of the craze back to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Beginners are also being inspired by the increasingly impressive performances of Chinese athletes. He Jie broke China’s 16-year-old men’s marathon record in 2023, then smashed it again in Wuxi in March with a time of 2 hours 6 minutes 57 seconds. He is now preparing for the Paris Olympics this summer. (He also attracted <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/15/china/china-marathon-finish-line-uproar-intl-hnk-spt/index.html" target=_blank>unwanted attention</a> last month when three African runners suddenly pulled back at a half marathon finish line to let He win. They were later said to be pacers, but all four were disqualified.)

There’s also an official push. The ruling Communist Party, which presented a five-year “<a href="https://english.www.gov.cn/policies/latestreleases/202108/03/content_WS61090b69c6d0df57f98ddfba.html" target=_blank>mass fitness program</a>” in 2021, is now viewing exercise through a “Chinese-style modernization” lens. A report from a think tank affiliated with the People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party, <a href="http://yjy.people.com.cn/n1/2024/0104/c440911-40152661.html" target=_blank>framed</a> the “high-quality development of road running events” as central to meeting these broader goals by promoting Chinese culture, technology, the environment and international cooperation.

Many second- or third-tier urban centers are seizing upon the marathon boom for more prosaic reasons: It’s a way to attract large crowds of people — and their cash — during an economic slowdown. Some are turning to gimmicks to attract attention.

Datong, a coal-mining city in Shanxi province, put on a “rock-and-roll half marathon” that drew 7,000 participants to a course that ended with a live concert with multiple rock bands. A <a href="https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_24940112" target=_blank>marathon in Qingdao</a> offered local delicacies including pork knuckles and 60,000 fried shrimp at aid stations along the route. <a href="https://www.zjim.org/p/hzim/multimedia/articleview.jsf?article=529385986" target=_blank>In Hengdian</a>, also known as the Hollywood of China, runners traipsed through movie sets and kept an eye out for celebrities.

In Daxing, an area most Beijingers visit only to fly out of the huge starfish-shaped airport, local villagers enthusiastically welcomed the runners, performing square dances and loud folk music involving drums, cymbals and the trumpet-like suona. The local sport bureau declared the event a success for the government’s “countryside revival” policy.

But with the clamor for more races come complaints about shoddy organization and overcrowding.

A decade ago, there were only 50 road races across China, but there are now nearly 700 every year. Many are organized by local governments in remote locations that hope a “mass sporting event,” to use the official terminology, can put their town on the map.

While some manage to be cheap and cheerful alternatives to the big races — and the participants in the Daxing race generally say it was well run, despite running through air pollution at six times the World Health Organization-recommended levels — many are slapdash affairs that leave runners frustrated. Common complaints: litter strewn across courses; bag checks that close too early, forcing participants to schlep their gear along the run; understocked water stations in blistering heat.

The poor management has sparked strong criticism from <a href="https://weibo.com/2299085584/NoKYKA9sv?refer_flag=100103010" target=_blank>state-run media</a>, which chastised the organizers for “prioritizing superficial aspects over the professionalism of the race.”

In the worst case, 21 runners died when a cold snap struck during a mountainous ultramarathon in northeast Gansu province in 2021. Seven organizers and local officials were <a href="https://www.hk01.com/%E8%B7%91%E6%AD%A5/972021/%E7%94%98%E8%82%85%E5%A5%AA%E5%91%BD%E9%A6%AC%E6%8B%89%E6%9D%BE-7%E5%90%8D%E4%B8%BB%E8%BE%A6%E6%A9%9F%E6%A7%8B%E4%BA%BA%E5%93%A1%E5%8F%8A%E5%AE%98%E5%93%A1%E5%85%A5%E7%8D%84-%E6%84%8F%E5%A4%96%E5%B0%8E%E8%87%B421%E4%BA%BA%E6%AD%BB%E4%BA%A1" target=_blank>jailed</a> for as long as five years.

Big city races have also come under fire. In the Dalian marathon, a pacing truck inexplicably crossed into the path of an elite athlete on the final stretch. In Qingdao, poor spacing of runners meant the final stretch turned into a crush of people, making a sprint finish impossible.

Then there is what Chinese state media calls “uncivilized” behavior, like repeat chain-smoking offender “Uncle Chen,” who was <a href="https://www.singtaousa.com/2024-01-19/%e8%b7%91%e9%a6%ac%e6%8b%89%e6%9d%be%e6%93%94%e4%bd%8f%e6%94%af%e7%85%99-%e3%80%8c%e5%90%b8%e7%85%99%e5%a4%a7%e5%8f%94%e3%80%8d%e8%a2%ab%e5%8f%96%e6%b6%88%e6%8e%92%e5%90%8d%e6%88%90%e7%b8%be%e7%a6%81/4734753#page4" target=_blank>banned from racing for two years</a> after puffing his way around the Xiamen marathon course in January.

Things got so bad late last year that the Chinese Athletics Association brought in more requirements for organizers and emergency response and it banned companies from putting on two marathons under eight days apart.

But for most participants — and certainly for those watching on their screens — the excitement of athletic achievement overcomes any such complaints. A video that Runyeah, a Shanghai-based media outlet that covers running, recently posted showing He powering across a marathon finish line attracted millions of views.

For Sun Ruiyi, Runyeah’s founder, the records have further boosted people’s interests in marathons. “You can see just how interested people are for the marathons now.”

<i>Chiang reported from Taipei, Taiwan. Pei-Lin Wu in Taipei and Lyric Li in Seoul contributed to this report.</i>

Human Rights Press Awards, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong, 2019

Oxford University, BA in Philosophy & Psychology

University of Nottingham Ningbo, MA in Contemporary Chinese Studies

Tsinghua University, diploma in Mandarin Chinese

Christian Shepherd is China correspondent for The Washington Post. He previously covered the country for the Financial Times and Reuters from Beijing.

Christian Shepherd

Vic Chiang joined The Washington Post’s China Bureau in 2022. He was previously a reporter at Deutsche Welle in Taipei, where he covered news of China and Taiwan with a focus on politics and human rights.

Vic Chiang

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Chinese runners flock to marathon races as health trends coincide

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China’s latest wellness trend? Marathons. But good luck getting a spot.