May 22 – The Darkest Moment in The History of Running! Three off-road gods have passed away one after another. On the morning of May 23, the gods of China's cross-country running circle swept the screen in the circle of friends with a sad mood, and many people could not believe or want to believe this bad news - Liang Jing, Huang Guanjun and Cao Pengfei...
On the morning of May 22, the Yellow River Stone Forest Mountain Marathon 100-kilometer cross-country race held in the Yellow River Stone Forest Scenic Area in Chengtai County, Baiyin City, Gansu Province, encountered extreme weather, and as of the time of this writing, 21 people had been found dead.
In the words of the running circle, "The first group of China's cross-country running group and the top few people have all been killed." ”
"Look how windy this mountain is." At 8:20 on the 22nd, Liang Jing sent a circle of friends, and the video was full of wind noises. At the time, he was on his way to the starting point, with 40 minutes left before the start of the race.
Image from the web
This is Liang Jing's last circle of friends.
At 9 o'clock on the 22nd, Liang Jing set off. At 10 o'clock, he ran steadily in front. About 3 hours later, a strong wind wrapped in hail struck, and he fell on the cold ridgeline.
What happened to the weather at that time?
After reviewing the relevant information, the orange persimmon interactive reporter found that the Gansu Meteorological Bureau had issued an important weather tip on the afternoon of May 21: Affected by cold air, on the 21st to 22nd, there was another strong wind and dust, precipitation and cooling weather process in our province, and the temperature in Gannan, Linxia, Dingxi, Longnan, Tianshui, Pingliang and other prefectures and cities had light rain, moderate rain in the local area, and moderate to heavy snow in the Qilian Mountains; the five cities of Hexi had about 5 northerly winds, gusts of 6 to 7, and local sand and dust; the temperature of the five cities of Hexi dropped by 4 to 6 °C. It is necessary to guard against the adverse effects of strong local precipitation and windy sand and dust weather.
According to the witnesses of the game: No one expected bad weather to hit
In the eyes of the runners, this Gansu Yellow River Stone Forest Mountain Marathon is only a relatively easy event, the difficulty coefficient of the race is not too high, there are high prize money, the champion can get 15,000 yuan, in addition to the completion award, that is, you can get 1600 yuan after running the race.
However, no one expected that a bad weather would strike. According to the official briefing, at about 13:00 on May 22, at the high-altitude stage of the 100-kilometer cross-country race, 20 kilometers to 31 kilometers, affected by the sudden extreme weather, there were hail, freezing rain, strong winds and other disastrous weather in the local area, the temperature plummeted, the participants were unwell, the temperature was lost, and some participants were missing, and the race was stopped. The local government immediately organized a multi-party force to search for and rescue the missing people.
Contestant Zhang Lei (pseudonym) recalled to Tianmu News that at about 9 a.m. that day, the game was about to start, but suddenly there was a strong wind, but everyone did not care much at that time. By the wind blowing up the sandstorm, such a picture Liang Jing has also been filmed and released in her circle of friends.
According to several contestants, the weather was normal for the next two hours. By about 11:00 a.m., it was raining heavily on the mountain again. "The rain hit the body like a bullet," said Zhang Lei, who was running at an altitude of more than 1,000 meters above sea level, feeling that people's vision was blurred, but he did not receive a notice from the organizing committee to cancel the race, so most of the runners continued to run forward.
At about 2,000 meters above sea level, Zhang Lei said he saw many runners wearing short sleeves falling to the ground in the wind and not moving. He called the rescue number of the organizing committee for help, but no one answered. Subsequently, during the retreat, he saw more than 10 players fall to the ground, and heard people crying "help", and three or four people gathered around to warm up. At about 15:30 on the afternoon of May 22, Zhang Lei withdrew to the foot of the mountain, saying, "Fortunately, there is an abandoned house at the foot of the mountain, where many out-of-temperature players keep warm." ”
Withdrawn contestants (courtesy of respondents)
Tianmu News reporter noted that a contestant published an article on the public account "Wandering South" that the weather forecast for the day did not show extreme weather, and the wind and sun were beautiful on the morning of the 22nd, but the sky turned cloudy and windy before the start of the run. He introduced that there are many players stranded in the mountains, and they are in different situations. There is a loss of temperature, there is a loss of temperature led to a more serious situation, a few people found a corner of the slightly sheltered place to huddle warming and other rescue.
"There is also the fact that a friend I am very close to, a girl, is out of temperature in a place that is about to reach the top of the mountain.". She later introduced that she lost her temperature, sat down, and was later woken up by another female player, after which she found that her leg was broken and bleeding, but she had no memory of how it was broken. It shows that she lost consciousness during that time...
Introduction to Liang Jing
Liang Jing, born in 1990 in Hefei, Anhui Province, is a Chinese male marathon runner. The record holder of the Chinese Super Horse, known as "Liang Shen" in the runner's circle. Associated with him is a string of numbers and records.
Liang Jing won the first Jinan Super Horse with a time of 149.51 km in 2014, and set a new 12-hour super horse record for the Chinese people.
On October 1, 2018, in the 2018 Eight Hundred Quicksand Extreme Race, Liang Jing won the championship with a time of 85 hours, 46 minutes and 43 seconds.
On October 21, 2018, Liang Jing won the "2018 Jinan 12 Hours Ultra marathon" with a time of 151.2 kilometers and broke the Chinese 12-hour super marathon record held by herself.
In the 2018 China100 Mountain Off-Road Series and the 100km Mountain Outdoor Sports Challenge around Simingshan, Liang Jing won the championship in 11 hours, 12 minutes and 46 seconds.
The 2018 Jinan 12-hour ultramarathon broke China's 12-hour super marathon with a time of 151.2 kilometers.
Some friends who know him well say that his style of competition is radical and has the title of "Desperate Sanlang".
Cao Pengfei, the god of running from the road to fighting off-road
In this competition, Liang Jing and Cao Pengfei are roommates who live in the same dormitory, and the last two of Liang Jing's circle of friends are the "Cao God" in his mouth - "I don't know if I stole the chicken when I came back late at night, and I got up at four or five o'clock in the morning..." I can see that the two friends are joking while cleaning up the competition equipment. According to friends in the circle, Cao Pengfei is a road running god, and the time to fight in cross-country racing is not long, "the experience is not particularly rich." In October 2020, at a Zhongshan "Pear Capital" marathon, Cao Pengfei also won the men's championship. "His road running performance is within 220 (two hours and 20 minutes), and he is a particularly good road runner, and the national amateur group can rank in the top 20."
And a runner who resolutely chose to withdraw from the race in the middle of the race due to low temperature sent a circle of friends at noon on the 23rd: "Yesterday we stood together at the starting point, today..." Many of her friends failed to come back," When going to school, the geography teacher said a word; for every kilometer higher altitude, the temperature dropped by 6 degrees. It was so cold down the hill that it would be even colder in the face of a 900-meter climb, so I resolutely withdrew..."
Huang Guanjun would often have a smile on his face
Among the runners who were killed this time, there is one who also makes everyone particularly sad, that is, Huang Guanjun, the champion of the hearing impaired group of the 2017 National Paralympic Games.
His last circle of friends was frozen at 13:21 on May 21, and the content was "The scenery is beautiful." The circle of friends posted the Nine Palaces map, all of which are famous scenery of the Stone Forest National Geopark, from his photo state at that time, the temperature is very hot, he is in a good mood. Now all that remains is "brother, talk back" to each other.
Huang Guanjun has loved running since he was a child, practicing long-distance running since 2015 and participating in the Sichuan Provincial Paralympic Games many times. Huang Guanjun is very famous in the circle of runners in Chengdu, and long before he "became famous", his training ground was Chengdu University of Electronic Science and Technology. The playground, which was covered with ginkgo biloba leaves in the autumn and was often hit by footballs during night runs, became a training ground for him and many gods. According to a teammate who participated in the 2017 National Games with him, Huang Guanjun was still particularly difficult to get to this road, "Although he could not speak, he always had a smile on his face, which was particularly infectious." In 2018, Huang Guanjun participated in the National Para Athletics Championships and also won the 10,000-meter event.
According to another famous illustrator who ran the circle of friends recalled in the circle of friends, "Everyone is brushing Liang Jing, and there is a little brother named Huang Guanjun, who is deaf and dumb, we once needed a master of embroidery, or he helped find it, and later learned that he was still the champion of the Paralympic Games." Today, I learned that he was also unfortunately killed, and I feel sorry that this is his first challenge to a 100-kilometer cross-country, and I wish the deceased rest in peace. (Comprehensive media coverage)