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Thousands of runners tied their running shoes and rushed out from the starting line while crowds cheered along the course. Marathons (马拉松) in China are getting popular again.
According to the Chinese Athletics Association, a total of 133 marathons across the country have been registered (注册) for the first six months of the year. On March 26, more than 300,000 runners took part in 26 marathon races nationwide, reported China Daily.
Teenagers have also taken part in marathons. Xu Qian, a 15-year-old from Suqian, Jiangsu, loves running. He got first place in the 5-kilometer Happy Run of the Jingdong Suqian Marathon held on April 2. For Xu, the race meant months of training and preparation. He ran about 30 to 40 kilometers in local stadiums each week ahead of the run.
"Unlike the 800-meter run at school which is more about speed, a marathon tests a runner's endurance (耐力) and psychological quality (心理素质)," he told Teens.
When he felt tired during the race, he told himself not to give up. "In long distance running, the only opponent you have to beat is yourself," Xu added.
Apart from one's willpower, kindness from the crowds also plays a big part in helping runners get to the finish line. Li Zhouzi from Shanxi took part in a 3-kilometer Kid Run of the Berlin Marathon in Germany in 2019 when she was 10. The cheers from the people along the course really encouraged her.
"When things were hard, people from across the world cheered me on. Even if it was just the words, ‘keep it up', it meant a lot to me and enabled me to keep going to the end," Li told Teens.
She believes that running a marathon is about focusing on the final goal, not the suffering along the way. "Similarly, our life is also a marathon," Li said.
