At 8:00 a.m. on November 5, the 2023 Beijing Tongzhou Canal Half Marathon officially started!

More than 10,000 runners started from Ziyun West Road in Tongzhou District and ran to experience the humanistic landscape along the canal and the historical heritage of Beijing Tongzhou.

Beijing Tongzhou Canal Half Marathon

Beijing Tongzhou Canal Half Marathon has become an important sports event in Beijing as well as a well-known marathon competition in China, and it was honored as a gold medal event by the Chinese Athletics Association in 2019. Since its inception, the event has always been based on the inheritance and development of the "cultural core of the canal spirit" as the main line, and through the event, more people hear the voice of the sub-center and see the sub-center's attitude of openness. The 2023 Beijing Tongzhou Canal Half Marathon, with the theme of "Run Along the Grand Canal to Show the Vibrant Sub-center" and a course of 21.0975 kilometers, has gained a lot of support from runners since the start of registration on September 27th.

Course setting

The course is 21.0975 kilometers long. It closely surrounds the urban section of the North Canal and runs through the Beijing (Tongzhou) Grand Canal Cultural and Tourism Scenic Area and Canal Business District. It connects urban landmarks and humanistic landscapes such as the Grand Canal Forest Park, the Urban Green Heart Forest Park, the Cao Yun Dock, and the Canal Ecological Park. Runners can not only enjoy the unique green scenery of the sub-center but also feel the historical heritage of Tongzhou, which is a blend of ancient and modern times. The event has optimized the track line scientifically and reasonably to fully enhance the running experience of the runners. At the same time, the marathon full-process digital management platform was used to assist the event security, participation management, coordination, and command by intelligent means. The event optimized the process of receiving the goods, monitored the schedule in real-time, guaranteed the rescue of the event, and strictly adhered to the bottom line of the safety of the event.  

Specially customized medals

The specially customized marathon medal is proof of challenging oneself, is the medal of 21.0975 kilometers, and every kilometer is the perfect embodiment of the sweat and persistence of the players. The idea of this competition medal comes from the canal culture. The front side takes the shape of the Tongzhou map as the design background, and the spray element is added at the bottom, which means the business card of canal culture. On the top of the medal is the logo and the name of the event, while on the bottom are the Tongzhou landmark Randeng Tower, the Canal Culture Square, and one of the representative projects of the sub-center, the Qian He Xie Lu Bridge, reflecting each other. On the back of the medal, there is a special nameplate design, which allows runners to engrave their names on the nameplate when receiving the goods, and embed the nameplate into the medal when finishing the race, so as to have an exclusive medal.

To ensure the safety and smooth progress of the event, and to ensure the health and safety of the participants and spectators, the organizing committee has built up a strong safety line of defense for the event in terms of volunteer services, medical support, security and stability, and logistical support.

It is worth mentioning that the event opened 100 public welfare runners' quotas, and a total of 50,000 donations were collected through the marathon from the "Children Protection Charity Special Fund" of Tongzhou Charity Association, and a donation ceremony was held at the site of the event to donate all the collected funds to the severely disabled or seriously ill children from low-income families to escort their growth.

Run along the Grand Canal to show the vibrant sub-center. Through this event, Tongzhou demonstrated the fruitful results of building the city's sub-center, spreading the culture of the Northern Canal under the historical inheritance, boosting the pace of the construction of a leading sporting nation, and contributing to the power of Tongzhou for the sports cause of the capital.

Translator: ZHOU Huilin

Reviewer: LIU Siqi