Xie Wenjing is a teacher at Shenzhen Vocational and Technical College. Fellow runners in Shenzhen describe her as “obsessed,” while she calls herself a “running addict.” “I can’t even eat if I don’t run for a few days.”
Berlin was Xie Wenjing’s third overseas marathon, after Athens and Osaka. Just back in Shenzhen from Berlin, she received a confirmation letter from the United States — she will be running the Boston Marathon next year. The letter thrilled her because the Boston Marathon is the most prestigious city marathon in the world, with a high entry threshold — a time under 3 hours and 40 minutes.
3 hours and 36 minutes was Xie Wenjing’s finishing time in Berlin, somewhat off her personal best (3 hours and 29 minutes, set at the Xiamen Marathon). She explained that she started out too fast, making slight pacing errors. For training in China, she wears foreign-brand running shoes, but for competitions abroad, she specially outfits herself with domestic gear and brings two national flags. She said that although she’s an amateur, she still represents China’s image.
Three overseas marathons, plus more than ten domestic ones, have given Xie Wenjing a unique perspective for comparison. The most memorable detail of the Berlin Marathon for her was how tens of thousands of runners started in orderly zones based on their registered times, and how cyclists followed along the route to provide mobile hydration. These details are often hard to achieve in domestic races. In a previous interview about the Xiamen Marathon, she heard that many runners arrived two or three hours early to stake out a good starting spot — only to find that while they secured a place, there was nowhere to relieve themselves when nature called.
Xie Wenjing got into marathoning thanks to a book a friend gave her, “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.” It’s hard to imagine that someone who only took up marathons at 44 would fall head-over-heels for such a “self-punishing” sport. In 2009, when she ran her first marathon (the Beijing Marathon), she met the national second-class standard. Now, her goal is to reach national first-class level (a time under 3 hours and 20 minutes) before she turns 50. Her best training time is 3 hours and 22 minutes — a reachable gap that keeps motivating her to “push herself to keep running.”