Liu Qinyue

    liuqinyue579@foxmail.com

    FAN FENGJUAN, an elite female runner in Shenzhen who is well known for her nickname Dahai (big sea), left Shenzhen yesterday to attend the 2016 Tor des Geants (TDG), the toughest endurance trail race in the world, which will be held Sept. 11-18 in Aosta Valley, Italy.

    Tor des Geants (Tour of the Giants), which started in 2010, is the first race of its kind with runners finishing 332 kilometers in seven days along spectacular paths at the foot of the highest Four-Thousanders of the Alps and through Gran Paradiso Natural Park and Mont Avic Regional Park.

    The race will start at 10 a.m. Sunday and runners must finish by 4 p.m. Sept. 17. The maximum time allotted for completion of the race is 150 hours.

    It is the first and only race to combine such a long distance with the individual choices of the runners: the organization does not impose any compulsory stages, and the winner will be the runner who completes the race in the shortest time, making his or her own decision on when and how long to stop for rest and refreshment.

    Fan will be the second Chinese woman to compete in the race, facing challenges brought by the 332-kilometer-long trek that includes 25 mountains, bare rock, steep cliffs and poor night-visibility, while trying to renew the Chinese women’s record in the event.

    This isn’t the first time that Fan has taken part in an international long-distance race, who has already achieved many remarkable successes at home and abroad. As an amateur, Fan started training and running in 2012 and finished her first marathon in Hong Kong.

    In the 2013 Shanghai Marathon, Fan ranked first among Chinese female athletes with her finishing time of 3 hours and 29 seconds for the 42.195 kilometers race, becoming a first-class marathoner. She has also championships in building climbing competitions in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Her amateur endurance trail race successes include winning championships in the 2016 Dapeng one-hundred-kilometer race, the Hong Kong UTMT one-hundred-mile race along with other competetive endurance trail races.

    “I attach great importance to TOR DES GEANTS as I had been thinking of participating two years ago, but it wasn’t until this year that I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity,” Fan said at a farewell party organized by the Luohu Long-distance Running Association on Sept. 2.

    “During my 18 weeks’ preparation, I trained in the gym, climbed stairs in my spare time and ran at night. I also prepared to get used to Italian food,” said Fan, adding that even with such a grueling training program, it may still be difficult to completely adapt to the challenges of the TDG, but everything she’s done will allow her to try her best to withstand the test.

    “The greatest significance of this journey is that I can celebrate my youth in the way I love. When I get back, I will try to slow down, so I can work better and live better,” said Fan.