Today, the first marathon in Suzhou began, crossing ancient and modern times, with extraordinary momentum. Although many people are as puzzled as I am: Didn't Suzhou just run a marathon two weeks ago, how come there are races again? Where did this title "inaugural" come from? ...... It doesn't matter if you don't understand, accept it first and then understand it slowly.
Outside of Suzhou, looking at the whole country, March 26, 2023 can be called the carnival day of the Chinese marathon. According to incomplete statistics, there are as many as 26 half-horse and full-horse races in the country, of which 17 are more than 10,000 events, and more than 300,000 runners have stepped on the marathon track.
Marathon starting on March 26
| The first Suzhou Marathon 2023 (Jiangsu) 25,000 people |
| 2023 Guilin Marathon (Guangxi) 30,000 people |
| 2023 Chengdu Double Heritage Marathon (Sichuan) 30,000 people |
| 2022 Hengdian Marathon (Zhejiang) 25,000 people |
| 2023 Jingzhou Marathon (Hubei) 20,000 people |
| 2022 Changzhou West Taihu Half Marathon 20,000 people |
| 2022 Shanghai Kunming Marathon (Yunnan) 15,000 people |
| 2023 Nanjing Lishui Half Marathon (Jiangsu) 12,000 people |
| 2023 Lishui Marathon (Zhejiang) 15,000 people |
| 2023 Shenzhen Yantian Half Marathon (Guangdong) 15,000 people |
| 2023 Shaoxing Shangyu Cao'e River Half Marathon (Zhejiang) 12,000 people |
| 2023 3rd China Women's Red Army Road Half Marathon (Guizhou) 10,000 people |
| 2023 Anhui Wuhu Air Marathon (Anhui) 10,000 people |
| 2023 Hangzhou Dream Town Half Marathon (Zhejiang) 10,000 people |
| 2023 Hangzhou Qiantang Women's Half Marathon (Zhejiang) 10,000 people |
| 2023 Yongchuan Marathon (Chongqing) 10,000 people |
| 2022-2023 Chongqing Matjiang Peony Marathon 10,000 people |
| 2023 Shanghai Yangtze River Half Marathon (Shanghai) 3,000 people |
| 2023 Meilin Lake Half Marathon (Guangdong) 2,500 people |
| 2023 Yangshan Half Marathon (Jiangsu) 5,000 people |
| 2023 Liangzihu Half Marathon (Hubei) 4,000 people |
| 2023 Hangzhou Lin'an Half Marathon (Zhejiang) 5,000 people |
| 2023 Ecological Qihe Yellow River Wetland Marathon (Shandong) 5,000 people |
| The first Chongqing Hechuan Fishing City Half Marathon (Chongqing) 5,000 people |
| 2023 Yuhuan Marathon (Zhejiang) 3,800 people |
| 2023 Zhejiang Baishuiyang 3rd Taohuayuan Half Marathon (Zhejiang) 1500 people |
The marathon is a low-threshold sport with high public participation, high media attention, and major cities competing to host the event. More than 1,000 marathons are held across the country every year, with nearly 10 million people participating. The benefits of running a marathon to individuals are self-evident, such as tempering a healthy body, a good mental state, developing self-discipline habits, and satisfying one's own psychological needs. For the host city, in addition to stimulating the enthusiasm of the national movement, the economic and social benefits behind it cannot be underestimated.
First, economic benefits
At present, marathon events generally operate in the mode of official hosting and professional event companies. The revenue from marathon events is divided into two parts: direct income and derivative income.
Direct income includes broadcasting rights, sponsors and entry fees, among which sponsor revenue is the main source of direct income. For example, the 2019 Changsha Marathon had more than 20 sponsors. The direct economic benefits of this event reached 128 million yuan.
Derivative income includes income from souvenirs, hotels, transportation, shoes and clothing. According to the "2019 China Marathon Crowd and Consumption Insight Report", in 2019, Chinese runners spent an average of 11,000 yuan, mainly on running equipment and event expenses.
Many runners also spend money at the venue. The data shows that half of the marathon runners have experience in other places, 71% of them will taste local food and special snacks, and 64% will choose to travel locally.
Derivative income is more substantial than direct income. Taking the Shanghai Marathon as an example, in 2019, the Shanghai International Marathon brought 328 million yuan in direct economic benefits, 1.145 billion yuan in indirect economic benefits, and 67.9409 million yuan in tax revenue. In 2020, despite the impact of the epidemic, the Shanghai Marathon still brought direct economic benefits of 49.43 million yuan, and the pulling effect of related industries reached 140 million yuan.
At the same time, marathon fever has also driven investment in related sports industries. There are currently about 470,000 sports-related enterprises in the mainland. In the past five years, the annual registration growth rate of sports event-related enterprises has been stable at 30% to 40%, and the annual registration volume has increased from 40,000 in 2018 to 110,000 in 2022.
2. Social benefits
Many cities use marathons as a window for city promotion, and through route settings, not only can competitors from all over the world feel the charm of the city, but also allow the audience who follow the competition to follow the video screen to enjoy and experience the city's changes. Step by step, the marathon has become a "good tour guide" for modern cities.
2023 Suzhou First Marathon The First Suzhou Marathon "Feast", the race route passes through Suzhou Industrial Park, Gusu District, High-tech Zone,
Passing through Jinji Lake, moat, Panmen Scenic Area Grand Canal, Hanshan Temple, Pingjiang Historical and Cultural District, Ganjiang Road, Oriental Gate, Suzhou Center and many other urban landmarks and characteristic landscapes, it is like a "double-sided embroidery" of the city reflecting ancient and modern, allowing runners to fully feel the beautiful scenery, profound cultural heritage and prosperous development vitality of Suzhou. It has both a modern economic highland and a thousand-year-old cultural heritage, with the ingenious design of "double-sided embroidery" through ancient and modern times, connecting China and foreign countries.
There are also cities that use events as opportunities for city promotion. For example, at the 2017 Shaoxing Marathon, the local government announced that 3 days before and after the race day, 19 attractions in the city will be open for free. As a result, the competition attracted contestants from 34 provincial-level administrative regions and more than 225 cities across the country.
The origin of the marathon
The marathon is a long-distance running event with a distance of 42.195 km (it is also said to be 42.193 km, but the race is carried out in 42.195 km). The competition originated in the Greco-Persian War, a battle that took place on September 12, 490 BC.
The battle was fought by the Persians and Athenians on the shores of the Marathon Sea, not far from Athens, and the Athenians finally won a victory against aggression. In order to let the people of his hometown know the good news of the victory as soon as possible, the commander Milledi sent a soldier named Fidipitz back to report the message.
Fidipitz was a famous "Scud", and in order to let the people of his hometown know the good news, he ran as fast as he could, and when he ran to Athens, he was out of breath and excitedly shouted "Huan... Happy, Athenians, we... Victorious" After saying that, he fell to the ground and died.
In order to commemorate this event, at the first modern Olympic Games held in 1896, the marathon running program was established, and the mileage of the 42.193 km that Fidipitz sent the letter run that year was used as the distance of the race. Marathon was originally a place name in Greece. 30 km northeast of Athens. Its name comes from the Phoenician word marathus, which means "polyanise", and is named after the many fennel trees that grew here in ancient times. This is where the marathon run in sports gets its name.