On April 21, Zheng Jiawu will step onto the Boston Marathon course to compete against runners from around the world. The 30-year-old never imagined that his first marathon, despite being a lifelong sports enthusiast, would be on the global stage.
The Boston Marathon isn’t something you can just sign up for — getting a ticket isn’t easy.
Zheng Jiawu, a native of Wenzhou who works in foreign trade and has returned from the United States, once traveled as a backpacker, spending two months walking from the east to the west coast of America. “I’m really into sports,” says Zheng without modesty. Hiking, diving, swimming — he excels at them all. Even looking at his photos gives off strong athletic vibes. “I make sure to run at least one day every week.”
“At the time, I was living in Vanke’s Liangzhu Cultural Village, where they were holding an event to win tickets to the Boston Marathon,” Zheng recalls. To enter, participants had to download a running app that tracked their mileage. “The top ten Vanke homeowners across the country with the most mileage would win entry tickets.”
To boost his mileage, Zheng started running non-stop — not only on the school tracks nearby, on the village’s running paths, or in his neighborhood back home, but even swapped his car for his legs when running errands.
He ran so much that sometimes he pulled muscles. “Relying on my own efforts alone, the mileage was growing too slowly,” Zheng felt going solo wasn’t the right strategy. “One of the event rules stated that participants could ask friends and family to donate their running mileage.”
So, he adjusted his ticket strategy to “asking for mileage donations,” though things didn’t go smoothly at first.
“I thought my family and friends could definitely help out, but my parents use old-style phones that can’t install the app. Friends and colleagues aren’t sports enthusiasts either, so the mileage they could donate was minimal.” Zheng says his younger sister was the sweetest, adding dozens of kilometers toward his running dream.
When family and friends couldn’t help much, he had no choice but to turn to strangers on the track. “Running isn’t really a team sport, and most runners don’t interact much,” said Zheng, who may look trendy but is actually introverted. Speaking to another runner for the first time took all his courage.
“I picked a runner I often saw around,” he described himself as quite shy back then, and spoke softly. His opening line was: “Would you support me in going to Boston?”
Runners who love the sport instantly understood the meaning behind “Boston” — short for the Boston Marathon. After a brief chat, the person readily agreed, and Zheng’s confidence soared.
“I don’t know if it’s because the running gods favor us, but almost every runner I asked to donate mileage agreed,” Zheng even set up a WeChat group specifically for those who contributed to his mileage, which now includes over 30 runners.
“I never thought running would help me make so many friends,” Zheng says. Most of the runners are aged 30–40, and many have become good friends. “They’re all really nice, and some even introduced me to potential dates.” But Zheng feels dating is something he should handle on his own.
In total, runners donated over 4,000 km in mileage to Zheng, adding to his personal 700+ km, bringing his total to over 5,000 km. This earned him 5th place among Vanke homeowners nationwide and secured his Boston Marathon entry.
Running the Boston Marathon in April was actually Zheng’s first marathon ever. “I’m a bit nervous — the furthest I’ve ever run before was over 40 km in a mountain trail run, and I almost passed out from exhaustion.”
To ensure Zheng’s first marathon would be a memorable one, a 40-something female runner with extensive marathon experience volunteered to be his amateur coach. “She taught me how to pace myself, joined me for weekend runs, and it really boosted my confidence!”