In 2013, three Chinese running stars and 62 of their fans and more than 20 families participated in the Grassland Marathon. After the storm passed through Yurt City on Saturday night, three super beautiful rainbows appeared in the sky and stunned everyone. “This is simply paradise on earth “, one participant exclaimed. In 2014, Nordic Ways will continue the event ambassador’s programme and promote Genghis Khan Grassland Marathon in more places in China.
Our first new ambassador is from Beijing, Yu Jianhua (sina weibo ID: 梅奥托利_8600), he achieved 330th place in the 2013 Beijing Marathon. He is involved with Outdoor adventure magazine, and is also one of the active leaders of the famous Chinese Running Site – Runbible
Network. Meanwhile, he is also a hiking and mountaineering enthusiast. Every Wednesday, he organizes interval running and sprint training on the playgrounds of the Beijing Construction Engineering University. On weekends, he sets up “LSD” (long slow distance) training with his friends and fans in the Olympic Forest Park or goes trail running in the Fragrant Hills. Each session sees more than 30 people participating. Although the young man has only been running for three years, he has always ensured to keep himself in shape and is very familiar with the outdoors. He has completed 21 marathons, and three 50 km races, and with his team he won the 2013 Beijing International Triathlon Company Relay championship. In early 2014, he will go to Hong Kong to participate in the HK100 ultra run.
（Yujianhua,LSD training in Olympic Forest Park）
Our second Grassland Marathon ambassador is Helen Gao (sina weibo ID:鲶567). She belongs to the New Balance running club on the mainland. Organizing The Colour Run, and other fun runs (such as 6 km, 10 km) in China, she is also a long distance trail run fanatic, and has been running for 15 years with a monthly running distance of more than 300 kilometers. So far, she has participated in 51 marathon & trail running races and got good results in two 100 km events in the past year. As relatively few women used to do cross-country running in China, her achievements and her spirit of sharing experiences has encouraged thousands of female runners to pick up the sport. She has repeatedly been profiled in domestic media and has her own CCTV-4 column. Two months before 2014 Genghis Khan Grassland marathon, she will campaign in Japan UTMF (Ring Mount Fuji): a 161 km cross-country race!
（Helen Gao was in 100K trail race）
The third ambassador is David Liu (sina weibo ID:乐跑david) from the Shanghai Lepao club. It is the second time he acts as an ambassador for the Genghis Khan Festival. He created Lepao club in June 2009, and has seen his creation grow in popularity ever since. After that, he often assists his club members to participate in marathon events at home and abroad, and the same time he is also actively organizing charity activities including donating blood, cleaning up trash left behind by tourists in mountain and park areas, and promote running activities in community. The headquarters of Lepao club is in Shanghai, and now also has a branch in Singapore. Members are mainly Chinese white-collar workers, as well as some ethnic Chinese foreigners. Every Monday night at Shanghai Jiaotong University campus and every Thursday night at Shanghai Stadium they have running activities, so if you live in Shanghai and have yet to find a proper running club, everyone is welcome to join them and have fun! In addition to running, cycling and triathlon are also David’s hobbies. In June last year he participated in a triathlon in Shanghai, a month after that he rode his bike from Chengdu city to Lhasa, Tibet, in total 2,166 kilometers, which lasted 21 days. In next year’s Genghis Khan event, he will also take part in the 3-day mountain bike stage race!
(David is an optimist runner)
If you are a fan of them, or if you have any questions about running, you could interact with them on Sina weibo. Next July, we hope to see all of you again in the grassland in Xiwuqi!