The 2023 Xiamen 6 Day Race was recently held in Xiang'an District, Xiamen City. During this international ultramarathon event, which is awarded by the International Association of Ultrarunners (IAU) with a bronze label, Cheng Dadu (original name Cheng Yanchun) from Xi'an achieved a finish of 850 kilometers, setting a new national and Asian record and refreshing the annual world best record of this event.

Pic from the official WeChat Account of 2023 Xiamen 6 Day Race

The 6 Day Race, which spans 144 hours across seven days, is the longest track road race in China and Asia. On the first day of the race, Cheng Dadu reached 208 kilometers. Afterward, he completed 326 kilometers in 43 hours, 20 minutes, and 09 seconds, successfully surpassing the national record for this distance. In the 48th hour, he completed 350 kilometers, setting a new record in China and achieving the best world record for 2023. 

"How did I start running? Two reasons: one is to lose weight, and the other is to participate in the first Xi'an Marathon." As Cheng Dadu recalled, in the four months before the first Xi'an Marathon in 2017, he started his "running life". "In fact, at the beginning, I was too heavy (95 kilos) to run. So I started with slow walking, then fast walking, and then slow running. After four months of exercising, I lost more than 30 kilos and turned into a different person."

As he lost significant weight, Cheng Dadu fell in love with the feeling of running. He would go out for a run every morning at around 5 o'clock and, at the same time, took on the role of team captain of a local running group, leading others to run together.

As a long-distance running enthusiast, Cheng Dadu's total running distance has now exceeded 30,000 kilometers, and the equatorial circumference of the earth is about 40,000 kilometers.

When talking about the future, Cheng Dadu said he will keep running and participate in the ultramarathon. "Ultramarathon literally means 'surpassing oneself in marathons'. It sounds really amazing to run for a lifetime and find the true self during this process. While traveling around, one can also experience different local customs and encounter different people. "