Running Bad
Posted: Tue May 25, 2021 10:09 am
I assume that's the lesson from the 21 people who died in this Chinese ultramarathon race.
One of the last things Zhang Xiaotao remembered before passing out was a fierce wind, freezing rain so dense he could barely see and a numbness that left him unable to control his body.
In accounts given to Chinese state media and posted on his social-media account, the veteran runner said he was in the toughest leg of a grueling 60-mile mountain race in northern China on Saturday when a freak storm hit, catching many of the racers by surprise. He wrapped himself in a foil survival blanket he was carrying, pressed the SOS button on his GPS locator, and then blacked out.
When Mr. Zhang returned to consciousness, hours later, he found that he had been rescued by a local sheep herder, who had brought him to a cave stocked with quilts and firewood. Mr. Zhang didn’t answer messages to his accounts or calls to his phone. The Wall Street Journal confirmed the authenticity of Mr. Zhang’s account with a colleague.
Many of Mr. Zhang’s fellow racers weren’t so lucky. By the time rescue operations had concluded on Sunday, 21 athletes—including some of China’s top trail runners—had died from exposure, in an incident that is sparking anger and consternation throughout the country.