Running on the track of the Olympic 10,000-meter finals, Li Ji might never have imagined that more than a decade later, she would be so exhausted at a 24-hour outdoor race on Shenzhen's Dapeng Peninsula that she "couldn't even find herself."
If grueling mountain trekking is about "bravery," then the subsequent nighttime orienteering showcases the essence of "both brains and brawn" — a crucial trait for building a championship team. Within a 1-square-kilometer jungle that was "pitch black," participants had to rely solely on a compass and a map, using checkpoint punches to locate five mandatory points and thirteen optional ones as quickly as possible. The GW Precision Team secured a solid foundation for their eventual victory by excelling in this segment — with the fastest overall time of just 40 minutes, they built up a significant 1-hour-and-15-minute lead after the first day’s competition on the 15th.
"We didn’t rush into the nighttime orienteering course. Instead, we sat down first to assign everyone’s roles. According to the rules, all four team members must reach and punch the mandatory points, while only one person needs to punch the optional ones. So, clarifying each person’s task was key," said Guo Qingsong, a member of the winning team. He added that orienteering differs from regular cross-country running — it mainly involves reading maps, which actually offers a bit of a mental break. Charging in blindly only wastes time. As he pointed to his head, he said, "This is about judgment and teamwork, not just physical brute force."
Red Bull Adventure Team’s Xinjiang athlete Pajula also agreed with this view. Outdoor sports, he believes, should not be a reckless endeavor. "Especially the Red Bull 24 Hours Beach Race — there are many physical and mental challenges. You constantly switch between muscle memory and brainpower. The process might not always be enjoyable, but that’s precisely what makes it fun."
Pajula has competed in the Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge and is one of the few internationally competitive off-road athletes in China. However, he doesn’t want to be seen as just a "muscle-bound" running machine: "For example, during the Jenga-style block-stacking challenge after the mountain biking leg, I knew everyone was fired up and eager to grab the blocks, but I still called out, 'Calm down.' Once everyone settled, I finished the whole stack in just five minutes — the fastest in the entire competition!"
Since it’s a beach challenge, coastal characteristics are naturally part of the experience. The nearby Dapeng Fortress on the Dapeng Peninsula was a key military coastal defense site during the Ming and Qing dynasties and is the only national-level key cultural relic protection unit in Shenzhen. The city’s nickname, "Pengcheng" (City of the Roc), originates from this site. To allow participants to better experience Lingnan culture, this year’s "Red Bull 24 Hours" Beach Challenge featured a more engaging "Discover Dapeng" orienteering project. Contestants had to use keys obtained from previous challenge stages to access the orienteering map and complete ten unique intellectual challenges inside the ancient city, covering subjects such as math, physics, Chinese language, and local folklore.
"The questions were all over the place, really pushing us to think outside the box," said Ye Junchu, who looked gentle and bookish in his glasses. "Some were couplets, some related to the Five Elements, and some even involved the NBA — I was totally baffled!" he laughed. The easiest one, he said, was the couplet: "What phrase isn’t complete?" Of course, it was "Spring Festival couplet." Another tricky one was "A thousand-year-old tree loses one leaf." What does that mean? "It must have something to do with trees, so you have to look around the area for something tree-related — maybe a tree species, or it could even be just a single leaf," guessed Ye, a student from Shenzhen University. He suggested that this segment could be further developed into a dedicated intellectual challenge event.
Under extreme fatigue and oxygen-deprived conditions, these "brain-burning" intellectual questions posed quite a challenge for many teams. But after enduring this grueling mental test, many participants found that the payoff was happiness — discovering unseen landscapes across different times and spaces. French competitor Guillaume, representing the Oriental Climbing Gym team, said that the sudden emergence of the ancient city’s scenery beyond nature, along with the unfamiliar yet fascinating Chinese culture, made him feel like he had "fallen in love with the place."
"I felt I had almost time-traveled. In France, when we talk about 24 hours, we think of the Le Mans endurance race. But here, in Shenzhen, beyond the surface-level hardship, there’s so much worth striving for — and the emotional reward makes it all worthwhile. It’s a happiness that makes you want to experience it again."
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