In the long-distance running community, everyone knows Japan’s “Hakone Ekiden” — countless people have been moved by that sweat-soakedtasuki. But we want to talk about the roots of those two characters — “驿传” — which are 100% of Chinese origin.

The spirit of “passing baton to baton, day and night, never stopping until the finish” is a legacy carved into the bones of Chinese runners. This time, Shanghai’s young distance runners will run it out along the Huangpu River.

The event was launched by three Shanghai high school students (Lü Xingzhi, Zhao Xuran, Jia Buwei) after a moment of “passionate impulse” on the track.

As long‑distance fanatics, we know that under heavy academics and endless practice-test pressure, high school students badly need a pure stage to completely drain their dopamine and let pace do the talking. If the existing races aren’t thrilling enough, we’ll stubbornly build one ourselves!

Jiaoda Fuzhong (Affiliated High School of Shanghai Jiao Tong University), Shanghai High School, the Second High School Affiliated to East China Normal University… In just one month, 10 top high‑school teams and 2 school‑union representative teams filled their rosters. Not for fame or profit, but to experience that pure feeling of burning out the final kilometer for the team, with strong wind whipping past your ears.

Features:

To make this race happen, the three members of the executive committee spent more than two months taking “self‑organized racing” to the extreme:

• Zero sponsorship, frugal organization:We have no commercial backing. To ensure every yuan is spent where it matters, the committee produced a hardcore budget that balances accounts down to the last few mao and is fully open to all participants.

• Safety line: we hold it ourselves:To avoid the intense heat of early July, we set the gun time at 07:30 in the morning. But at that hour the public AEDs at the Wangjiang stations along the riverside are not yet open. To strictly protect the life-safety baseline of the 72 athletes, the event committee’s students went and earned the Red Cross “Basic First Aider” certificate themselves and provided the race medical coverage.

We honor this course with the rigor and professionalism of runners.

Runners often say running is a form of cultivation. For our generation, the state’s call for a “strong sporting nation” is not a slogan on paper — it must be embodied by young bodies taking action.

When this group of future scientists and engineers, still in high school, not only possess physiques that can run hard under the scorching sun and the grit to never give up at the limits, but also the audacity to self-organize a large-scale event, this is the most vivid portrait of China’s distance running and youthful resilience!

Looking ahead: next year, we will make all of Shanghai sit up and take notice.

This year is the inaugural edition — a seed of wild, organic growth.

Our ambition goes far beyond this. Next year and the year after, we will keep this race going, passed down from generation to generation.

【Race Communications and Spectator Guide】——We warmly invite you to come and watch in person!

The young athletes need your cheers and support!

• Race time: July 11, 2026 (this Saturday) — gun at 07:30 sharp.

• Venue: Shanghai Pudong riverside running path, start and finish at 梅奔,The route follows the riverside path, from Wangjiang Station No.6 to No.21 (we recommend staking out the handover points at each Wangjiang Station to watch the moment the youngsters pass the black sash — it will definitely get your blood pumping!).

• Event scale:10 high school representative teams + 2 student-union representative teams, each team four men and two women, a total of 72 elite athletes.

This Saturday morning, Pudong riverside — bring your wind-breaking pace, see you on the course!