Marathons set for race to the top

China's growing appreciation of healthy lifestyles has seen long-distance running soar in popularity. Millions are now participating regularly, and host cities and businesses are looking to exploit a fast-growing new revenue stream, as Sun Xiaochen reports.

Two months before the 10-kilometer mini-marathon began at the 2015 World Athletics Championships in Beijing on Saturday, the competition had already started for amateur runner Li Zhiqiang from Qingdao, Shandong province.

Demand for the 220 amateur places was so high that Li had to compete against almost 2,000 other runners from Shandong who had also filed applications to be among the 10,000 competitors in the race, which was introduced as a sub-event of the full 42.195-km event for the first time in the championship's history.