Zhao Jiaju’s Ten Years in Trail Running — a Different “Journey of a…

On September 16, 2026, under the night sky of the Italian town of Courmayeur, 31-year-old Zhao Jiaju ran through the long streets to reach the finish of the 330 km Tor des Géants.65 hours 55 minutes 22 seconds — he shaved a full 13 minutes off the previous course record., becoming the 330 km category'sfirst Asian champion, while breaking a 16-year monopoly by foreign athletes in the event.

From a young man running deliveries on the streets of Hangzhou to standing on the highest podium in world trail running, Zhao Jiaju spent nearly ten years getting here. Every step was hard, but every step counted.

Ten years, 11,803 km,running toward the summit of the Alps

Looking back at Zhao Jiaju's career, the victory was backed by extraordinary dedication.

According to publicly available information, he has completed122 trail races，1 solo challenge event, claiming a total of51 victories，14 DNFs；a cumulative distance of 11,803 km，a known cumulative ascent of 554,198 m。

In terms of race frequency, preferring to "race as training," he has overall maintainedan average of more than 1 race per month— and with an average distance of 97 km per race, that level of race load is substantial.

There were two peaks in his racing frequency:20 races in 2019, the most in his career.2023 and 2024 each saw 18 races, forming a second peak before a decline. This year he competed in 8 races; after the Giants' Journey he said he would take a good rest, so it’s foreseeable that his race count this year will fall further compared with last year.

Notably, Zhao Jiajun’s fewest races occurred in 2021, the year Liang Jing left. During that special period, coupled with the broader trail-running environment, Zhao entered only 7 races that year. His victory at the Giants' Journey is undoubtedly the best consolation for Liang Jing.

Across his high-frequency racing, Zhao Jiajun recorded 14 DNFs, a DNF rate of 10.3%.The DNF peak came in 2023, when his participation hit a second peak; five DNFs pushed that year’s DNF rate up to 27.8%. Between 2023 and 2025, those years accounted for 71.4% of his DNFs,which became the biggest hurdle of his career. Fortunately DNFs declined year by year and returned to zero this year, marking a comeback after setbacks.

Over ten years, Zhao Jiajun ran nearly 12,000 km in competition, equivalent to280 marathons; at the same time he accumulated 554,198 m of ascent, equivalent to climbing62 Mount Everests. His annual competition mileage and ascent mirrored his number of races — all three showed the same trend, with twin peaks in 2019 and 2024.

This consistency reflects Zhao Jiajun’s steady preferences in race mileage and ascent, with an overall focus on 100 km and 100-mile events.

Of course, behind these impressive numbers is the moving story of how Zhao rose from grassroots to world champion.

Rise: the domestic circuit’s “title machine”

In 2017, Zhao Jiajun officially transitioned to a full-time trail runner, and his path was set.

In the second year after the transition, Zhao saw a full breakout, claiming 4 trail titles at distances from 50 km to 100 km. That same year he entered the 800 Liusha Extreme Race — the 400 km Gobi endurance challenge — and finished second in the individual category in 87 hours 14 minutes 56 seconds,setting the event record for youngest finisher.。

In April 2020, Zhao completed a special race — “A Solo Jiangnan Hundred Miles.”At Fenghua Xikou he soloed the 168 km course with 7,100 m of ascent, finishing in 18 hours 35 minutes 45 seconds, cutting the previous course record by 3 hours 14 minutes 54 seconds.

Among the countless domestic titles Zhao Jiaju has won,winning the 168 km category at the 2020 Chongli 168 Super Trail (19:28:42) is unquestionably the most important — and an oft-cited milestone in his career.Because this was not only his first-ever 100-mile victory, it also marked the beginning of his achievement of becoming a four-time champion at Chongli 168.

Standing on the podium with him as runner-up was his big-brother figure and teammate, Liang Jing.Being able to ascend the top step of a major race with a brother-like figure watching undoubtedly carried special meaning.

Breakthrough: Establishing a foothold on the world stage

In December 2021, Zhao Jiaju won Thailand by UTMB (Inthanon 6 category, 100 miles) in 21:56:24, improving the course record by more than four hours. This was his first overseas international win in trail running, and he successfully defended the title the following year.

If the competition level at the Thai race can be said to lag behind top-tier events,then Zhao Jiaju’s gold at the 2023 Mt. Fuji 100 carried real weight. He claimed the men's title in 19:35:24. The race invited non-Japanese runners for the first time since 2019, and Zhao’s victory was seen as the best tribute to his fallen teammate Liang Jing.

©Fuji Trail Runners Club

That same year, he finished second in the 103 km category of the Hong Kong 100 in 10:44:22; he was still fourth at CP7 but pushed late to overturn the field and take silver.

However, campaigning on the world stage was not always smooth. That year,from West 100,to Thailand’s Inthanon and his first UTMB, Zhao experienced the setback of withdrawals/DNFs, but he did not give up.UTMB witnessed his steady progress.

At the 2024 UTMB, Zhao Jiaju showed the most resilient side of an athlete; despite physical discomfort, he persevered and still reached the finish,behind the finishing time of 31:07:10 wasa self-transcendence completed at the edge of his limits.

In August of the following year Zhao returned to Chamonix; this time he showed strong form and successfully finished inside the world’s top ten in the UTMB field. He thus overcame countless difficulties and gradually climbed out of the trough.

Peak: A giant’s journey, making history

Zhao Jiaju’s connection with the Tor des Géants began last year. But fate seemed to be playing a joke: just like at two other top events, the Western States 100 and UTMB, his first Tor des Géants also ended in failure — after reaching 200 km he was forced to withdraw due to exhaustion.When he left, he left only one sentence: “I will be back.”

A year later, he truly returned.

This year’s Tor des Géants course is 336.1 km long, with cumulative ascent exceeding 24,000 m — equivalent to the height of three Mount Everests — a 150-hour cutoff, and a historical finish rate below 60%. For a full build-up to Tor des Géants, he deliberately stepped down a category to race the OCC at this year’s UTMB,using races as training to fine-tune his condition for Tor des Géants.

Zhao Jiaju began to push on the third day of Tor des Géants; after retaking the lead at 236 km, he gradually extended his advantage.In the end he crossed the line first, becoming the first athlete in history to finish inside 66 hours and cutting the course record by 13 minutes — not only writing a new chapter in his own legend but also bringing endless encouragement and inspiration to every friend who loves Chinese trail running.

From a young man running deliveries on the streets of Hangzhou to a champion on the highest podium in world trail running — Zhao Jiaju completed a comeback that can be called legendary over more than ten years. At 26 he was once the ITRA’s highest-scoring runner in Asia; now, at 31, he has carved his name onto the winners’ list of the world’s toughest trail races.

As he wrote in his autobiography Run Forward, those days running deliveries on the street prepared him for this day. Congratulations to Zhao Jiaju — we look forward to even more spectacular performances from him in the future!

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Text/Editor: HP

Image source: Paoye Dabaozha.Tor des Géants, Fuji Trail Runners Club, Jiangnan 100

Visuals: Max

RUNYEAH 跑野大爆炸

Zhao Jiaju’s Ten Years in Trail Running — a Different “Journey of a Giant,” 10,000+ km and 500,000 m of Climbing