Comment: The hot marathon is not just a ＂business scripture＂

Source: Beijing News

From a amazing data, 127 years after the marathon movement was born, it was welcoming its prosperity in China -only on October 15th, a ordinary Sunday, at least 24 marathon nationwideRunning.

Flowers, onlookers, and runners around the world appear on the city tracks from south to north.These grand scenes will appear in the circle of friends of TV, players and audiences, and may also appear in the future promotional video of the city.

On this day, some concentrated episodes have destroyed the original warm and festive atmosphere.At the 2nd hour 9 minutes and 55 seconds after the Dalian Marathon started, the pickup truck of the event organizer was only more than 1 kilometer away from the end of the end, and it was in front of a professional runner.The players had to bypass the vehicle and waste valuable sprint time.Within a few hours before and after, when the champion of the Linyi Marathon in Shandong rushed across the finish line, the two lineers blocked the road with a banner.The passage is narrow and someone snatches the medal, which causes the trample incident ...

On October 19, the China Tianxiao Association made an emergency document to regulate the competition organization of the national road running event.

In the past 10 years, the marathon industry has developed rapidly in China.The road running scale (more than 800 people) increased from 22 in 2011 to 1828 games in 2019, 83 times in 8 years.This move that was only connected with the names of the big city has now sank to the county seat.

But for the organizer, it is not easy to organize a successful marathon. In addition to "selling", you also need to "applaud".

"Business Card"

One morning in late October, the weather was slightly cool. Yi Weixin stood on the streets of a large city in a large city in the north, quietly waiting for the shot to make a shot.He is the person in charge of a marathon operation company. For this event, he has changed for 3 weeks.

His "Party A" is a district government in this city. This is the first time they sponsored the full marathon.The other party told Yi Weixin that now the economic recovery, they hope that the event of super 10,000 people can bring opportunities for investment promotion.

The emphasis on this marathon in the district is obvious: a few days before the start, the district party secretary went to the starting point, along and the end of the event; at the end, the workers cleared 6 tons of roadside miscellaneous objects in advance, trimmed 460 460The remaining trees also planted more than 200 ginkgo ginkgo; on the day of the competition, almost every government agency in the district was dispatched to provide guarantee for the 10,000 marathon.

The starting point of the marathon is set at an industrial park in the district. This was jointly finalized by Yi Weixin and the district government because "the most reflected positioning in urban areas."However, the park's location is embarrassing, and it is two or three kilometers away from the subway station.It happened nearby to build the road, and Yi Weixin, the connection solution alone, negotiated five or six times with the Traffic Management Bureau.

At 6:30 on the day of the race, 50 bus reached the subway station and nearby parking lots in advance, waiting for the players.Earlier, at 3 am, the cleaning staff cleaned the main road of the route and sprinkled the dust.They must ensure that when runners from various places arrive, the roads under their feet are clean and tidy.

4 ambulances were transferred in the area on the day of the competition, and Yi Weixin rented 16 more.A total of 1,650 volunteers and 1,360 security personnel guarded both sides of the road, set up a medical volunteer for each 100 meters, and 186 medical security personnel were put into the competition.

The activities of the day were set up in Malaysia, Half Malaysia and Healthy Run, and the end points were located in several towns in the district.According to Yi Weixin's understanding, at least 500 staff members supported the marathon on the day of the competition.

Even so, there is still a leak.Due to the narrow channel, the end of the marathon was congested during the period when the runner reached the "finishing package".Yi Weixin's measure is an open channel to get the players to get the medals themselves.

10 minutes later, this measure was urgently canceled -some runners took two or three medals. Even if Yi Wei prepared 200 medals before the new game, more than 100 people still did not get medals."Later, we could only send a text message to those who did not receive the medal." Yi Weixin was helpless.

It is not easy to want to do a marathon. The marathon that participated in 20,000 people often consumes tens of millions of yuan.

There are thousands of security teams required for the event.Yi Weixin encounters the most outrageous one, and a security personnel are arranged every 10 meters along the route, which means that a whole Malaysia requires at least 5,000 security personnel. Based on a minimum of 200 yuan per person, it takes 1 million to 1 million.Yuan.

But doing a marathon seems to have become the "compulsory course" of each city.In 2019, in 337 cities (333 prefecture -level city administrative units and 4 municipalities) across the country, a total of 300 cities have held large -scale events, accounting for nearly 90%.

Marathon has gradually become a "business card" for cities to create. This sport sinks from saving to the city, even county and streets.

On September 24 this year, the first half of the small river dripping half of Marathon in Miyu County, Dali Dali, Yunnan; on October 15th, the first Songhua River Half Marathon was held in Jingyu County, Baishan City, Jilin Province; on October 21, Zepu, XinjiangThe county held the first "Golden Lake Yang" marathon ...

Yi Weixin now has hundreds of organizational experiences. Prior to this, he moved around the country to operate sports meetings for local governments. He slowly discovered that the marathon event and the sports meeting.In order, all provinces, cities, districts, and even the streets want to do. "

"Gold absorption" marathon

Large investment and high organizational operations, but this does not affect the enthusiasm of hostels in various places.

In 2015, that is, China's "Marathon first year", Yi Weixin officially entered the marathon operation industry.This year, the national approval policy was "loose" to cancel the approval of the event, relax the access conditions, and simplify the access process; on the other hand, the per capita GDP of China exceeded 8,000 US dollars.

"From the perspective of academic research, when a per capita GDP of an economy exceeds $ 8,000, it will often usher in consumption upgrades. The former niche sports may suddenly be sought after.The blowouts appeared after that, "said Bai Yufei, a professor at Beijing Sports University.

Most of the foreign marathon is hosted by the club or track and field association. The Chinese marathon organizer is generally local governments. The organizer is a local cultural tourism bureau or sports bureau.The degree is related.

The person in charge of a event operation company, Ji Shi (pseudonym), felt that in recent years, the machima, mountaineering festivals, or City Walk (city roaming) directional challenge have been vigorously established in various places."Each city is looking for a breakthrough, fighting for everyone to go to the attractions to travel, stimulating consumption."

"For local governments, Marathon is the most prone to achieve political competition." Yi Weixin said, "Because it is difficult to have a sports event that can gather tens of thousands of people across the country."

The first is the most intuitive economic benefits brought by the marathon.

After many marathon events, the organizers will invite third -party agencies to evaluate the benefits brought by the marathon.In 2019, the Shanghai International Marathon brought direct economic benefits of 328 million yuan, indirect economic benefits of 1.145 billion yuan, and tax revenue of 67.949 million yuan.

This year, the economic benefits generated by the audience and athletes from Wuxi Marathon were 195 million yuan.GinsengThe total flow of the competition and watching area has a total of 220,000 people, and 83.14%of the age of 23 to 55 is the main consumer group.

"Participating in a marathon, the average cost of transportation, accommodation, and catering for runners in foreign countries." With the experience and data of previous competitions, Yi Weixin successfully lobby a group of government departments to set up marathon.

I have contacted more contact with the organizer. In addition to direct economic income, local governments also care about the traffic and exposure capabilities of the event."This is how many people can you attract to see the marathon, so as to drive local cultural tourism or rural revitalization work."

As for the sports attributes of the marathon, how the event is more friendly to runners, etc., it is more backward in the priority of many organizers, and it has not even appeared in their demands.

In order to show the local characteristics, the marathon is planned in the best place in the landscape. Local specialties are allocated on the supply station: Qingdao's trotters and prawns, Sichuan bowls, chickens, Harbin's red intestine large Lieba, supplies, suppliesStanding into a buffet.

In addition to the 42 -kilometer road, the local characteristics can be displayed. The expo before the marathon starts, the end of the Film Festival and the end of the packet can reflect the local characteristic industries.

In August this year, Yi Weixin held a half marathon for a county in a county in the southwest.Here the household registration population is less than 1.6 million, with an average altitude of 2200 meters, and the sun is sufficient.If the players reach the results set by the organizing committee, they will get a local specialty agricultural product package including ham, bacon, sausage and ham moon cakes.

This is the second time the county holds a marathon competition. The post -match propaganda draft evaluation: The successful holding of this event, the marathon event that cultivates the influence of tourism in the future, and strive to create the "Bronze Medal" of the Chinese Field Association "Copper".It has a solid foundation; it brightens the business cards of local sun and grasslands, and integrate the "sports + tourism" industry into a new driving force to promote the transformation and upgrading of the local sports tourism industry and high -quality development.

Beyond traffic

After successfully operating several marathons, Yuan Shi received some "Party A" that came from, and the smallest government agency came from the street office.

"Purely follows the wind." Shi Shi said.

In 2020, Yuan Shi held a half marathon for a street in a cities in a capital of the north.This is the fourth marathon in this street, focusing on rural revitalization.

This marathon attracted 1200 players to participate.More than 1,000 volunteers from the 30 volunteers in the street participated in the event guarantee.

The routes planned by the street office must go through several local agricultural parks and beautiful rural demonstration villages.Shi Shi knows that this kind of track runner will not like it very much: run back and forth along the two main roads along the street, there are two folding points on the way, and the track is boring.However, there are not many wide fields suitable for running in the street. To meet the half -horses of 21 kilometers, you can only turn back.

The total cost of this marathon is more than 800,000 yuan, and the security expenditure alone is nearly 100,000 yuan."In the past three times, the cost of three sessions was about 400,000 yuan. This time it was doubled to build a brand in order to build a brand.

I have dealt with the government too much, and they know the preferences of leaders: the competition specifications must be high, the propaganda must be large, the project must be complete, it is best to be the name "international".

"The government wants to do a marathon, but it is easy to ignore the carrying capacity of their own urban infrastructure and track." Several industry insiders said that the root cause of serious congestion in a domestic marathon this year is that there are too many people.

In addition to the large scale, some leaders named the players who run fast, and Zhen Shi had to invite elite athletes to run, most of which were African players.In this way, the press release can be brilliant, and it can be crowned with "the highest track" and "urban acceleration".

Other leaders are obsessed with internationalization, and the operator needs to spend money to ask international students, embassies or foreign companies to join.A senior runner revealed that a marathon's funding only had a fixed amount. When it was invested, it was easy to ignore some of the most basic guarantees.

In 2016, in a marathon event in Guangdong, the soap packaging in the racing bag was like the egg yolk school, and there was no Chinese logo, which caused many runners to eat it by mistake.The bread is moldy, and some people have diarrhea. This year, a district -level marathon in the north, the shortage of shuttle bus after the game, the tired runner can only go back. On the day, the local 12345 hotline received more than 10,000 complaints.

In 2018, when Chinese professional player He Yinli competed with African players in the sprint stage, she was disturbed by the volunteer "hand in the national flag" twice, and she lost her championship with the championship in 5 seconds.Tianxie immediately issued a document to prohibit any ritual activities from interfere with the track.A few days later, the same incident appeared in another international marathon in another city.

Yang Qidong, a runner who participated in more than a dozen marathon and hundreds of off -road races, knew that there were too many accidents in a game, and it was difficult for immature operators to deal with it.

In Yang Qidong's view, the marathon operation requires sufficient professional personnel. There are many professional details in volunteer training: wearing gloves to twist the bottle cap, otherwise it is easy to get blisters with too much.To put 1/4 or 1/3, about 50 ml; when handing it to the athletes, hold it on the palm of your palm or on the desktop to facilitate the runner to get it;Convenient for players to eat quickly ...

After the marathon is more, some people are overcrowded, but some are not asking.Liu Chen (pseudonym), the head of a Beijing running group, once saw more than 20 "Liu Chen", "Liu Yang" and "Liu Yang" in a exhibition wall known as a marathon, which is known as a marathon.Found 3 "runners" with the same name in the brand -the organizer copied the name several times, and it seemed a lot of people.

"After the competition is more, most of the runners choose elite events. Local small events are not available, and even the big students or civil servants come together." Liu Chen said.

Many marathons are in a hurry and have no long -term planning.With the market reshuffle, some of the once -promoted events, the next year, disappeared and became a "short -lived" marathon.

Get hard on quality

Although the marathon has a history of 66 years in China, the "blowout" is only in the early 10 years and is still in the initial development stage.According to Bai Yufei, the number of domestic marathon supply is close to the upper limit, and the future marathon organizers can only work hard on quality.

Among the more than 30 cities Marathon he participated in Liu Chen, Hengshui Lake Marathon is his favorite "PB (Personal best score) track".This track design is very friendly to the runner -42 kilometers run around the lake, the runway is straight and flat, the detours are small and large, and the legs will not be too heavy on the leg.Even Liu Chen's friends knew that if he wanted to break his personal marathon, he went to Hengshui Lake.

After the 11 -year event, after making IP, Liu Chen felt that the recognition of the local residents of Hengshui has improved.The players who run the marathon are often thin and wearing sportswear, which can be easily recognized."When you arrive at Hengshui, whether it is a restaurant owner or a taxi driver, it will be proud of a local well -known marathon brand."

Liu Chen lives in order to welcome the marathon, and will make breakfast time early to four or five in the morning.Breakfast is scientific, not big fish and meat, but porridge, bread slices, and eggs prepared for runners."The whole city is serving you."

In addition to the flat road, the route planning and design are also greatly valued by the runner."When entering and exiting, don't let people go too far, and don't let people go. It is even better to see local landmark buildings on the road." Liu Chen said.The starting point and end point of the Beijing Marathon are located at Tiananmen and Bird's Nest. Public transportation is convenient, runners are convenient, and will not give the city roadAdd block ".

The Beijing Marathon is known as the "National Horse". It can start from Tiananmen. Running on Chang'an Street is the desire of many runners.Each time he sang the national anthem before departure, Yang Qidong was moved to tears.

In addition to early service, Beijing, Shanghai, Harbin and other Marathon prepare the ice pool area for runners.After the runner put on his foot, put his feet in ice water.When the legs are immersed in ice water, the blood vessels in the legs will shrink, so that the lactic acid in the blood will be discharged smoothly, thereby achieving the effect of rapid recovery.

Shatha, a runner of the "Six Grand Slam" marathon in the world, feels that some domestic marathon brands have gradually approached the old foreign marathon cities."Domestic supply and finishes are much better than foreign countries, but the atmosphere of the marathon is also very important. This is jointly created by the organizers, runners and audiences."

When running a marathon abroad, Shasha will see that local residents take out a lounge chair, or stand in a dragging locomotive, and even put a children's swimming pool.Play.

If the weather is particularly hot, the residents will take out the spray gun in the garage to help the runner cool down. The child will take out the banana and orange at home to hand it to the runner, and then the palm of the hand.In the evening, the players will hang the medals to eat, and everyone who comes on the face will be happy to them.

In 2018, when Shasha participated in the New York Marathon, she met a disabled girl and moved forward with her cane only with her arms.Later, she learned that the girl had been chased by the gangsters, fell from the cliff and was raped.

When the girl took 11 hours to reach the end of Malaysia, it was that night.People standing on both sides of the road with a fluorescent stick, shouting her name loudly like a welcome hero.

In 2017, when participating in a domestic marathon, a friend of Shasha spent 6 hours and 5 minutes to complete the game. It was 5 minutes later than the prescribed finishing time. At the end, I found that there was only a lonely arched arches left.The volunteers who issued the medals and the finished packets were withdrawn, and the organizer was packing.

"The weather was very high, and everyone did their best to run, but when they saw the end, they were disappointed." Shasha understood that the road was to unblock and the city had to restore operation.

"After the" barbaric growth "stage, some cities have a rational choice, and they are based on the actual situation of their own cities.

The Beijing Marathon, Shanghai Marathon and Xiamen Marathon canceled the half -way group and happy running in 2015, 2017 and 2018, and only retained the full marathon project, becoming an event for elite runners.

In 2022, the Marathon was canceled, and only half Malaysia, 5 kilometers happy running, mini running and family running.Bai Yufei believes that this is a marathon in the broad sense. Marathon, which is positioned with national fitness, is widely the audience and is suitable for small and medium -sized cities.

After running the marathon for a few years in a small city, Yi Weixin saw the lively and experienced "one place", but some things finally left: return to these small cities again, he feels that the morning park and JiangjiangThere are more people running.Among the small town runners he knew, some people wrote to the government, hoping that his city could run a marathon.