2015 campus marathon U-run: Run, students
On April 12th, 2015, the U-run Campus Marathon was held in Tsinghua. A total of 2227 students, teachers and alumni gathered on the Zijing playground and participated in this grand event.
The exquisite thoughts and preparation could be witnessed in this U-run Campus Marathon. Both the starting and the finishing lines were set on the Zijing playground, while the marathon routes were divided into big loop and small loop. Specifically, the big loop was the famous “John Ma Loop”, which covered the Jinchun garden, the Second Gate, New Tsinghua Xuetang, the Library, the Main Building and some other symbols, this route was 4 kilometers long, it desperately showed the campus scenes and historical heritages of Tsinghua. The small loop was just circling around the Zijing students departments; it was 2 kilometers long. Four groups were set up in order to ensure fairness; they were Men’s Half Marathon, Women’s Half Marathon, Men’s 10km and the Women’s 10km. The top 30 participators of each group would be awarded and all the athletes who successfully finished their routes within the given time would get certificates and medals. The organizing committee specially designed four different medals on the basis of the West Playground, the Second Gate, the Grand Auditorium and the New Tsinghua Xuetang. Also, if the participators join in the marathon event for 4 consecutive years, they will collect a full set of commemorative medals.
Ultimately, 2180 athletes (nearly 98% of the total participators) completed their U-run competition within the given time. The champion of each group was also elected. In fact, the participators didn’t really care about their grades as the sport fully expressed their sportsmanship—“the most important thing is to participate”, which could be incarnated in one man—the 75-year-old Professor Wang Fengsheng, who was fond of sports when he was working and he kept running regularly after retirement. Professor Wang has already joined the Beijing Marathon for the past two years, and this time he enrolled in the Tsinghua’s Half Marathon event and completed his routes within 2 hours and 18 minutes. There are many students who regularly throw themselves in sports events like Professor Wang; they are carrying Tsinghua’s “John Ma Spirits” forward with great efforts.
In order to encourage teachers and students to positively join in physical exercises, Tsinghua decided to set the second weekend of April as the “Campus Marathon Day” annually. With the efforts of integrating more activities into campus marathon events, Tsinghua managed to promote national fitness, campus association activities and teaching and administrative staff activities, hoping it will influence students’ lives in a positive manner.
(from Spotlight Group)
