Zhengzhou Marathon to Open on Nov. 3
When people get ready on the starting line for the marathon where they would see the bustling Erqi Square and the graceful Zhengdong New Area and have a feel of the time and space between the "Big Corn" and the Art Center. Thousands of people will start running on November 3rd, overwhelming the hustling and bustling of the city and treading uniform rhythms.
当人们满怀着憧憬集聚在起跑线上，去经历二七广场的繁华和郑东新区的优雅，感叹“大玉米”与艺术中心间时空穿越的感觉，城市的喧嚣与繁杂将在2018年11月3日的这个清晨覆没于万千跑者的脚步之中，带着不变的节奏在城市的血脉中奔流前进。
Scenery along the race course郑马赛道风光 Photo: Wang Xiuqing
The popularity of marathons is the result of rapid economic development and a symbol of economic and social transitions. They're gradually becoming festivals of cities, as they can bring out what carnivals can do. And cities in fast development need such platform to present their own images and enhance social cohesion. Marathons have become a culture, reflected not only in the events themselves, but also in the participants and the splendid cities that hold the events.
热爱马拉松是经济迅速发展的产物，是经济与社会转型的标志。马拉松比赛正渐渐成为城市的节日，是因为它承担着嘉年华、狂欢节的作用。快速发展的城市需要这样一个展示自身形象和凝聚人心的平台。马拉松已经形成文化，这种文化不仅体现在赛事本身上，也体现在参赛者的素质上，更体现在举办城市的魅力上。
Scenery along the race course郑马赛道风光 Photo: Liu Yuping
2018 Zhengzhou International Marathon runs through the Convention and Exhibition Center, the Green City Square, and other city landmarks both old and new, as well as Zhongyuan District, Erqi District, Guancheng Hui District, Jinshui District, Zhengdong New Area and other core areas. The 42.195 kilometers that it covers is an epitome of Zhengzhou as a political, financial, historical, and sport cultural center of Henan.
2018郑州国际马拉松将途经会展中心、绿城广场等新老城市地标，跨越中原、二七、管城、金水和郑东新区等城市核心片区，用42.195公里的距离浓缩了对郑州作为河南省政治、金融、历史、体育文化中心的理解。
Scenery along the race course郑马赛道风光 Photo: Wang Xiuqing
Zhengzhou where the Marathon is to be held is a city of inclusiveness, openness, intelligence, integrity, innovation and harmony. Runners can have a feel of the cultural legacy of the city, its modernity as a commercial hub, and its glamour as a city with vitality, warmth and culture. Zhengzhou Marathon documents the legendary culture of the city.
奔跑在包容开放、智慧诚信、创新和谐的郑州，体会文化传承与现代商都的城市发展脉络，感受这座“活力之城”“温暖之城”“文化之城”的魅力。跑马郑州，记录一座城市的文化传奇。
Scenery along the race course郑马赛道风光 Photo: Wang Xiuqing
Marathon has been a symbol of perseverance since a legend came out that a warrior ran to deliver messages. It was included as an event in the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. The mileage that the warrior run was confirmed as the official distance of the event which was named after a place in Greece. The organizers of the event hoped to use it as the one suitable for the public to revive the glory of the ancient Greek civilization. Over the past 100 years and more, marathon has evolved from a sporting event into something that can demonstrate the culture of a city.
从一个战士奔跑送信的传奇至今，马拉松是坚持不懈的精神符号。在1896年举行的现代第一届奥林匹克运动会上，设置了马拉松赛跑这个项目，把当年战士送信跑过的里程数作为赛跑的距离，而赛事名称则取自希腊的一个地名马拉松。赛事组织者希望借助这项适宜大众普及的运动，唤起希腊古老文明的荣光。100多年来，马拉松已经由一项体育比赛演变为彰显一座城市文化的载体。
Scenery along the race course郑马赛道风光 Photo: Wang Xiuqing
Marathon is the only sport that can display the architectural essence and culture of a city in the competition. Marathon race course planning and design is the core of the entire event, while the scenery on both sides of the course can drive competitors both physically and spiritually, as if the civilization of thousands of years flashes in front of them.
马拉松是唯一能够在赛事途中完美展现一座城市的建筑精华、人文内涵的运动，而赛道的规划设计就成为整个赛事的核心，跑动中掠过的风景，穿越千年的文明，给予跑友们前行的动力和内化于心的温暖。
The unique history and culture of each city have endured the time to gradually become the soul of the city. As an important part of culture, sport has always been exerting influence on it. Sporting events and urban cultures are mutually reinforcing. On one hand, the former promotes the economic and cultural development of a city. On the other, unique urban cultures shape unique sporting events.
每座城市都拥有独特的历史和文化，历经岁月的积淀与洗礼，渐渐凝聚为城市的灵魂。体育作为文化的一个重要组成部分，无时无刻不对文化产生影响。体育赛事与城市文化是相互作用与发展的，一方面，体育赛事促进城市经济文化的发展；另一方面，城市文化特色形成了城市特色体育赛事。
Zhengzhou, as a commercial hub, is an ancient capital with a time-honored history and a profound culture, a national central city in the making, and a city sitting on one of the important positions along the Belt and Road. The time-honored old town in the city reminds people of the age old memories of the Chinese civilization, while the flourishing Zhengdong New Area demonstrates the vigor of a modern city in development.
商都郑州，是一座有着深厚历史文化积淀的古都，又是一座正在建设中的欣欣向荣的国家中心城市，也是“一带一路”重要节点城市。历史悠久的老城区传递着华夏文明的古老记忆，朝气蓬勃的郑东新区展示着现代城市的发展活力。
It has city walls of the Shang dynasty with over 3,000 years of history, intact Town God Temple, architectural complexes of the Ming and Qing dynasties, Erqi Memorial Tower with the "red memories", and Henan Art Center of international style... A marathon competition in Zhengzhou would allow you to experience an unprecedented travel and leave you with good memories of the city, whether you are a native living here for many years, or one of the Zhengzhou drifters contributing your time and effort to building the city, or a tourist coming from other cities or countries who has never paid a visit to the city but has been longing for it.
这里有3000多年历史的商代城墙，有保存完好的明清古建筑群城隍庙，有饱含红色记忆的二七纪念塔，有尽显国际范儿的河南省艺术中心……无论你是已在这里生活多年的“老郑州”，还是正在为这座城市奉献青春与汗水的“郑漂”，乃至从未来过却对郑州充满向往的国内外游客，一趟郑马跑下来，体验一次前所未有的旅行，留下你对这座城市的美好记忆。
On October 8th, an article titled Seeking the Cultural Gene of Sporting Events was published on the People's Daily, lauding the three highlights of Zhengzhou Marathon. As marathons get trendy in cities, the article said, each city should seriously think about what a sporting event can do to help inherit its culture. The marathons are not only about the runners, but also about the cities. It's important that runners are provided with good event services and organizing sporting events as a platform to promote the resources of a city is necessary for the events to get more popular. Zhengzhou is making great efforts to organize its marathon competitions. In terms of race courses, Zhengzhou International Marathon (the Marathon) has the most beautiful course on both sides of which are its landmark architectures. In terms of service, the Marathon has turned the potential advantage of using the synergy of the public and private sectors to organize events into excellent sporting events. In terms of culture, the Marathon has taken advantage of the profound Zhongyuan culture to introduce running groups with surnames which is a groundbreaking move, in an attempt to inject the traditional cultural gene into the fashionable marathon. Urban marathons were born to meet the demand of public fitness and urban development, and the development of marathons in cities hinges on the prosperous development of nationwide fitness and great progress made in urban governance. And the cultural gene that is found in the self-perfecting process of marathons should be the reason why urban marathons are to be sustained. Urban marathon has to evolve from an extensive operation to an intensive one, and seeking and confirming the cultural gene of the event is the only way to elevating its values.
10月8日，《人民日报》发文《找寻赛事的文化基因》，肯定了“郑马”的“三拼”精神。文中写道，在城市马拉松赛事渐成潮流之际，每一个城市都该认真思考办赛能为传承文化做些什么。城市马拉松赛一头牵系着跑者，一头牵系着城市，为跑者提供良好的赛事服务是办赛的要义，为城市搭建宣传推介自身资源的赛事平台同样是赛事发展壮大的必要支撑。郑州谋划将城市专属的马拉松赛事办好可谓尽心尽力。拼赛道，郑州国际马拉松将拿出串联起城市地标建筑的最美赛道；拼服务，郑州国际马拉松将把政府与社会力量联手办赛的潜在优势转化为实实在在的赛事品质；拼文化底蕴，郑州国际马拉松依托厚重的中原文化推出颇具开创意义的姓氏跑团，试图将传统文化的基因注入时尚的马拉松运动。城市马拉松赛因满足群众健身需求与城市自身发展需求而生，城市马拉松赛的发展依托的是全民健身的蓬勃发展与城市治理的长足进步，而能够让城市马拉松赛持续办下去的理由，则应是马拉松赛在自我完善过程中找寻到的那一份文化基因。城市马拉松赛的发展，有一个从粗放式经营到集约式经营的演进过程，而找寻并确立赛事的文化基因则是升华赛事价值的必由之路。
The Zhengzhou International Marathon has taken advantage of the profound Zhongyuan culture to introduce running groups with surnames which is a groundbreaking move, in an attempt to inject the traditional cultural gene into the fashionable marathon. Zhengzhou, as one of the eight ancient capitals and well-known as the center of China, has a history of more than 3,600 years and is the cradle of the Chinese civilization. Despite being the newcomer, Zhengzhou Marathon has explicitly taken the competitions as a platform to showcase its image and allow people to have a feel of its profound culture through competitions at the very beginning. The surname culture is unique to Henan, from which 82 out of the top 100 Chinese surnames originated. Such cultural gene determines the uniqueness of Zhengzhou International Marathon with the surname culture embedded. The organizing committee of Zhengzhou International Marathon organized running groups of surnames, in a bid to make the surname culture derived from Zhongyuan better known via the Marathon and allow more runners to have knowledge of their own surname origins for better understanding of the Zhongyuan culture.
郑州国际马拉松依托厚重的中原文化推出颇具开创意义的姓氏跑团，试图将传统文化的基因注入时尚的马拉松运动。位居八大古都之列、“中国之中”的郑州，有着3600多年的历史，是华夏文明的发祥地。虽然是城市马拉松的后来者，但郑马在办赛之初，就明确了比赛作为展示城市形象的平台作用，通过比赛让人感受到郑州深厚的文化底蕴。特别是河南独有的姓氏文化，在前100个中华大姓中，有82个直接起源于河南，这一文化基因决定了，将姓氏文化融于其中的郑州国际马拉松具备着唯一性。郑州国际马拉松组委会特意组织了“姓氏跑团”，让根植于中原的姓氏文化，借助郑马得到更广泛的传播，让更多跑友了解自己的姓氏起源，从而深刻理解中原文化。
Running in Zhengzhou Marathon is not only a work-out activity and a chance to challenge oneself from the personal perspective, but more broadly a journey to seek one's origin, understand the culture and find one's spiritual peace. So running in Zhengzhou Marathon would make you more affectionate to the city.
跑友参加郑马，不仅是一次健身活动，一次自我挑战，更是一次寻根之旅、文化之旅、心灵之旅。跑过郑马，你将更爱郑州！
Managing Editor：Xiong Vivi
Interviewed by Wang Yipin
New Media Editor：Wang Zhiyu
