Running towards the end of their lives

Huang Yinbin’s watch recorded the moment his last heartbeat went to zero

The final trajectory in the watch

The watch that Huang Yinbin recorded sports data, now records the last track of his life.

After struggling, his heart rate rose briefly, and after about half an hour, it dropped rapidly and then rose again. Huang Yinbin finally can’t top it, 5 hours 02 minutes, the red line nearly vertical fall to zero.

It was 2:02 p.m. on May 22, and the GPS data from his sports watch showed that in the last 37 minutes of Huang Yinbin’s life, he was spinning in place at 33 kilometers into the race route, with a track as chaotic as a ball of string. A runner’s analysis, at that time, he had been seriously out of temperature, hallucinations, looking around for road signs, “where the life boiled over.”

About 100 meters in front of the remains of Huang Yinbin, is the last place where Liang Jing GPS signal stopped. The runner who visited the scene remembered that Liang Jing was killed in two deep depressions, is the knee knee marks left, there are still residual blood, the side left half a bag of energy gel did not eat.

After the heartbeat data was zeroed, the GPS of Huang Yinbin and Liang Jing were highly overlapping. The runners judged according to the pace data retained in the watches of the two until more than 7 hours later, the rescuers carried the remains of the two into the kiln, and the next morning, transported down the mountain by helicopter.

Huang Yinbin, who was lying in the casket, still had traces of his struggle with fate. His clothes were floating on a layer of dust, tightly closed eyes were surrounded by sand, and his knees were worn with scars. His fists were clenched tightly, and grass was still held in his fists. The family could not break his hand, so they had to pull the grass away one by one.

From the remains of the storage, Huang Yinbin’s father hammered a broken table placed at the door, he was angry and regretful, “If I knew he came here to run such a long race, I’m sure not to let him come! “One sentence speaks to the state of mind of the families of the many professionals who were killed, most of whom had no idea what their loved ones were going through, only that it was a sport that had to do with making a living.

In the circle, the ages of 26 to 32 are generally considered the pinnacle of the profession. Last year, Huang Yinbin just graduated from Xi’an Sports Institute as a professional runner, and now is his prime time.

Before the start of the race, Huang Yinbin called his brother Fang Yinxin, he looked a little excited, thinking that his recent state “particularly good”, may be able to take the title. Huang Yinbin plans, if the results are good, go to France to participate in the Tour de Mont Blanc cross-country running, which is the international cross-country world’s top event.

Coach Wang Weibiao is most interested in Huang Yinbin hard work, can practice the strength. When training in Qinghai Provincial Sports School, the players are six o’clock in the morning, Huang Yinbin 4:30 a.m. appeared in the stadium. In an interview five years ago, the reporter asked him what he liked to do outside of training. “In addition to training or training,” said Huang Yinbin.

Huang Yinbin rarely talked about his financial situation with people around him. Brother Fang Yinxin recalled, Huang Yinbin study in the gymnasium, often in training to the teacher to take time off, go out to run cross-country race with prize money, sometimes also go out to work, earn some living expenses. Learn sports energy consumption, hungry at night, Huang Yinbin often brought out from the canteen buns, on boiling water in the dormitory to eat.

The cruel thing is that Huang Yinbin is “not talented enough”, which always makes him a step away from the top runners in the field of marathon, more “Can’t make any money”. Cross-country running has become a more realistic choice for Huang Yinbin. Fang Yinxin said, domestic cross-country running to amateur runners, Huang Yinbin’s endurance, and self-discipline, which gives him a great advantage in the field of cross-country running.

In the circle, Huang Yinbin is known as “50 km trail running championship reaper”, he has taken more than 200 medals, his mother made a special for her at home He has won more than 200 medals, and his mother has made a special “medal display area” for her at home. After becoming a professional runner, Huang Yinbin has a decent income, a runner estimates, Huang Yinbin a year about 20 races, can earn 300,000 to 400,000 yuan in prize money every year, not counting the cost of sponsors.

But parents always feel that this is not a stable job. The company’s main goal is to provide the best possible service to its customers.

For the professional runners in the circle of fame more Liang Jing, participate in cross-country running is not just “get the bounty” so simple. Netizen “Mo Ming Qi” in a marathon cross-country event company work, for filming the race promo and Liang Jing met. She recalls, in 2015 began to race full-time Liang Jing has not too many signings and endorsements, he will study which race prize money is high, the opponent is weak, and then choose to participate. At that time, Liang Jing limit rush, “such as May Day Golden Week, the 1st run a (game), the 4th run a, the 5th run a. “After the run, Liang Jing may not even have time to participate in the award ceremony, to say hello “gone gone! “, rushed to the next race site.

Later, Liang Jing’s performance gradually reached the level of “God”, in In the opinion of “Mo Ming Qi”, he would not have had to run so much. As he grew older, many professionals would go on to work as personal trainers for business tycoons, or to promote sports brands. Liang Jing’s standard far exceeds that of most people in his circle, and he could have chosen this easier way to make a living, but he still competes with high frequency, “it’s more like a feeling of defending honor “.

Two couples

On the track, compared to the professionals, amateur runners do not carry as much on their backs.

Yellow River Stone Forest is the first 100 km cross-country race that Chongqing girl Wen Jing participated in, before the start, she took to social media to cheer herself up, “choose a first 100 that is said to have the least climbing, just to finish safely. Little sister, go! “

In the impression of her friends, the 25-year-old Wen Jing is big-hearted, a little girl with little trouble. Accounting work in the bank is boring, tedious, two years ago, she began to run, which gradually became a flash point in her two-point life.

Participating in marathons and cross-country races has created opportunities for her to go out and explore the world. Last year, she took advantage of a race in Guizhou to get out of Chongqing for the first time. A week before her trip, she had just been to Li County, Sichuan for a marathon and saw snow-capped mountains for the first time. This time to the Yellow River Stone Forest, the farthest she has ever been from home.

Her husband, Chen Xiaotao, did not support Wenjing’s participation in the running group at first. After she got hooked on running, Wen Jing became “homeless”: sometimes she went out for training at 5:00 in the morning, and went out for running at night after work, and came back only after 10:00. Every Thursday night is a regular training day for the running team. At first, the two also had a conflict over this, and then, Chen Xiaotao “no way”, can not argue with the realm, can only compromise.

In order to participate in the Yellow River Stone Forest cross-country race, the realm and met more than four years Chen Xiaotao, the license time from “520” ahead of time to May 10, the wedding banquet is scheduled in October. She took the initiative and Chen Xiaotao said, after marriage, you have to return to the family, not so much opportunity to participate in the race – after all, she intends to have two children it. Now, she wants to seize this last free time.

In the matter of running, Yan Jun, who is more than half a century old, has received more understanding from his family. He and his wife Liu Ge both love outdoor sports, and for the past two years, they have been participating in the Yellow River Shilin 100km cross-country race together. This race has a government endorsement, and in the couple’s opinion, is worthy of trust. But this year, Liu Ge’s legs had some conditions, Yan Jun had to come alone to participate.

Half an hour before the start of the run, Yan Jun gave his wife a phone call, less than 10 minutes of the call, he told Liu Ge, “the wind is very big”. Liu Ge, who has participated in two races, knows that the wind in the northwest is very “hard”, and she urged Yan Jun to run slowly and not to rush. Yan Jun told her not to worry, “I have my own plan”.

Liu Ge trusts her husband, a man of science who has always been rigorous in his approach to competition. He likes to plan ahead, print out memos, and prepare the items needed accordingly. This time, too, on A4 paper, printed the route from Beijing to the Yellow River Stone Forest scenic spot: he needs to take two trains and then a three-hour scenic bus ride. The memo also listed more than 60 items of daily necessities and a list of items for the competition, ready for a piece, on a check mark.

More than two o’clock that afternoon, Liu Ge saw her husband in a video of a group of runners, Yan Jun lying in the arms of a runner, his hands wrapped in a silver insulation blanket, a large bloodstain on his right forehead, his eyes closed and his brow furrowed. In the video that followed, the player holding Yan Jun carried him up and put him in a sheltered place, during which Yan Jun did not open his eyes.

The next morning, Liu Ge arrived in Gansu by an early morning 8:00 a.m. flight. After landing, an unfamiliar silver number called in with the news that her husband had been killed.

These days, she and Yan Jun parents in Jingtai County to deal with the aftermath. Once and the government staff to talk about the follow-up treatment, Yan Jun’s 78-year-old mother suddenly fainted and sent to the hospital for resuscitation. Liu Ge, on the other hand, has been suffering from insomnia, headaches and high blood pressure.

The company’s first day of operation was May 30, the 52nd birthday of Yan Jun. The two of them had planned to eat cake and go to see the movie “Love Letter” which is in theaters.

After life is zeroed in the track, leaving the people around you all such regretful hate. Chen Xiaotao also and the parents came to Baiyin to take care of the aftermath, the afternoon of May 25, back from the funeral home, he was lying in bed in the hotel, clutching Wen’s phone in his hand, looking through the messages sent to her by friends. After the accident, the small red dots in the phone prompting messages keep flashing, she received thousands of messages, “the character of the realm, who look like, she has too many friends”. Chen Xiaotao said, and fell into silence.

Wen’s father, Wen Rongbo, sat aside and repeatedly looked at the 361 videos in Wen’s Jitterbug. He handed over his phone from time to time, pointing to the video, “This is the first time she danced square dance,” “She went back home on vacation to work, this is in the rice planting it, very capable child. “……

In the top video of Wen Rongbo’s own Jitterbug account, he made a collection of photos of Wen Jing on the field, writing “field style. Little realm, dad support you! He repeatedly said that Wen Jing had told him several times that her current half-marathon time was 1 hour and 31 minutes, and she wanted to run into 1 hour and 30 minutes, “but no longer have this opportunity “.

950,000 compensation disagreement

On the track, they are runners, off the track, they are the pillars of their respective families.

When he received the news that his only son Zhang Weibo was killed, his father Zhang Rui Chun at first thought it was a fraudulent call, “How could he run to this place in Baiyin, Gansu? “

From the time Zhang Weibo could not remember, Zhang Rui Chun and his wife left their home in Chongqing to work in Guangzhou. Zhang Weibo junior high school dropout, then into the electronics factory, also worked as a waiter, security. These jobs always did not work long, he and his father complained that the work was tired and not much fun.

Only in running, he found his interest. Behind the motorcycle store where he works now is a mountain, and he usually goes climbing after work, running a small loop of more than 20 kilometers if it’s early, and a big loop of 50 kilometers if he has enough time.

Zhang Weibo’s salary is around 4,000 yuan. Friends Zhang Guijun said, he usually spend very little, only in the running nothing stingy, a set of cross-country race from head to foot equipment is 20,000 to 30,000. When participating in marathons around Chongqing, we generally arrive at the scene a day early, Zhang Weibo often rides a motorcycle on the day of the race, saving accommodation, food and transportation costs.

Come to the Yellow River Stone Forest scenic area, this is the first time Zhang Weibo came so far to participate in the race. In the publicity of this race, finishers have 1600 yuan prize money, which is not a small temptation for Zhang Weibo. Zhang Rui Chun did not quite understand his son, once he asked Zhang Weibo, what is the use of so many medals, can be turned into money? Zhang Weibo retorted him that he just likes running.

Since they grew up not living together, father and son do not communicate much. Every two or three days, Zhang Rui Chun will call Zhang Weibo, most of the time the theme is to hope that he can stabilize, early to talk about an object, get married and have children. Zhang Weibo on the other end of the phone is always busy, often hanging up the phone without saying a few words.

Five years ago, Zhang Rui Chun to Zhang Weibo in Chongqing to buy a second home, but also owed a loan of more than 200,000 yuan to be paid off in 10 years. In addition, in order to build a house in the hometown, also borrowed 200,000 from relatives and friends. In Guangzhou, Zhang Rui Chun in the car sales store as a car washer, his wife in the store canteen as a helper. In addition to daily expenses, the two saved more than 3,000 yuan a month to pay off the mortgage.

After the death of his son, Zhang Rui Chun felt that the future no longer seemed to have anything to look forward to, thinking about the debts of more than 400,000 and the days of old age, has weighed him down a bit.

The company’s main goal is to provide the best possible service to its customers. The “big fly”. As a great runner, after training everyone flocked around him for advice, he always patiently answered.

Behind the glamour, the money earned from running is almost the entire income of the family. Last year, the epidemic during the game is not much, the income is unstable, really can not turn over, he borrowed money from friends around the emergency, each time not much, a couple of thousand yuan, the bonus down, he immediately returned, “he will not give others trouble. “Runner Tao Lei said.

Cao Pengfei was killed, leaving behind his lover who did not work and his daughter who was in elementary school soon, as well as his mother who still lives in a thatched roof in his rural hometown. Tao Lei began to take the lead and raise money for his family.

The accident compensation agreement obtained by the reporter at one time in the deep agreed that a one-time payment of 900,000 yuan of compensation for the families of the victims, such as funeral expenses, family transportation costs of 50,000 yuan, a total of 950,000 yuan.

On the afternoon of May 25, Baiyin Mayor Zhang Xuchen introduced at a press conference, all 161 relatives of the 21 victims arrived in Baiyin, has signed and basically reached an agreement with more than half of the families of those killed. However, as of the evening of the 26th, according to the statistics in the family group, at least 14 families of the victims have not yet signed the agreement. In addition to dissatisfaction with the amount of compensation, a number of families of the victims said to Deep One that they would not sign before receiving the results of the accident investigation. Until now, many families are unclear about the time and place of the victims’ passing, and whether they had sent a distress message before.

On the morning of May 27, Zhang Rui Chun still signed the compensation agreement, followed by the cremation of Zhang Weibo’s body in the funeral home in Baiyin. Government staff promised him that they would find a stable job for him and his wife, plus further compensation according to the situation after the results of the accident investigation.

Now, Zhang Rui Chun hopes to bring his son home for burial as soon as possible, he is helpless, “further stalemate, the situation will not change”.

Before the race Zhang Weibo (first from left) and Wenjing (fourth from left) in the starting point of the group photo

The heartbreak of survivors

After experiencing the storm in the silver cross-country race, the hearts of those who survived are not easy.

A participant from Lanzhou was unable to sleep on the night of the incident and felt guilty that he was not able to save others enough during the race. He envisioned the possible situation, if the other party can still act, dragged down together, if they can not move, can only be placed in a sheltered place as far as possible, “reason told me, in that case, can save themselves is already the best result. “

A Chongqing girl in the most dangerous CP2 to CP3 stage, and two friends in the rock behind a long time to hide. The friend left the hiding place before the girl, and the two people supported each other, walking quite fast, the state looks good. After that, the girl carried through the toughest stage and continued to race until after 8pm. She thought her two friends were safe, but early the next morning, she received the news that they were killed.

In the following days, the girl fell into a long period of silence and crying, she blamed herself, always asking herself again and again, if she had not separated from her friends, is it possible that they would not have died?

The runner “South of the river” recorded a more straightforward process with words. A female runner in her 50s fell behind the pack at the beginning of the race and had enough equipment to keep her going in the bad weather. The woman saw three or four runners lying motionless on the ground one after another, and she used the word “bewildered” to describe herself at that time, feeling that there was no way to help anyone. I don’t know where my humanity went at that moment, but I suddenly realized that there is no human side in my body. “

Until later, the female runner met another girl who had lost her temperature and she stopped in her tracks. The female runner looked at the girl who was in tears just like looking at her own daughter, she encouraged the girl to eat the supplies, “you have to eat, do not eat you will die, eat it and you can go home to see your mother. “After that, she assisted the girl, all the way down the withdrawal. Afterwards the female runner felt that the mountain experience was like a mutual redemption process, “If I turned a blind eye to the situation around me, even if I finished the race, I will never be able to forgive myself in this life. “

As a senior cross-country coach, Zhao Lei understands those runners who are unwilling to give up even in extreme weather, to participate in cross-country running, is to challenge and breakthrough, the race is to be higher, faster and stronger. “Everyone is obsessed, from the heart, if there is no set of scientific judging system for early warning intervention, runners will not withdraw from the race, will choose to persevere. “

For the kind of guilt psychology after experiencing the ordeal, Zhao Lei tried to relieve from the perspective of the circle of bystanders, the first ability of the outdoors is autonomy, the prerequisite for helping people is to have the ability to take into account their own premise, trying to help others, will only add to the chaos. “This thing happened to who will be very sad, but things have happened, focus on the immediate, after all, life goes on, life goes on. “

“Some things have a heart, some things have a heart, as long as there are no regrets. The same runner, Zhao Lei hopes that the surviving runners can return to the present as soon as possible, do what can be done in front of them, work well, eat well and live well every day.

After pressing the “pause” button

The trail running community has pressed the pause button, and “mourning” is now the biggest theme.

Zhao Lei did not expect that cross-country running was first known to the public because of such a thing, he admitted that this is a very heavy blow, “it is possible to return to the situation in 2013, 2014, there is no competition, and there is no one involved. “

There have been a series of “race postponement” notices issued, all the way from off-road events to road marathon events. 2021 The “Silk Road” Ningxia – Yinchuan Marathon Organizing Committee issued an announcement that, affected by the epidemic and weather and other factors, the Organizing Committee decided to start a large event meltdown mechanism, continue to postpone the original scheduled for May 30 The organizing committee decided to start the meltdown mechanism of large events and continue to postpone the race scheduled for May 30; the 2021 Lanzhou Marathon scheduled for June 13 was announced to be postponed; the Zhejiang Sports Federation issued an “Emergency Notice” to suspend the event activities such as middle distance running and cross-country races.

Preliminary statistics, the country has more than 60 related events have been postponed or canceled, which also has Zhao Lei’s company is involved in the training of the event. He said that in addition to individual provinces and cities were called off, all others were stopped on their own initiative. “The butterfly effect from this event, no one dares to do at this moment. “

The loss of input is obvious, Zhao Lei said, the greater impact is still in the future, the investment to hold the race is bound to increase, the difficulty of approval will also increase, how many runners are willing to sign up to participate also to put a question mark.

Several off-road circle insiders have expressed a similar view to the reporter once deep, this incident may bring “reverse” and The role of “cooling down”. The whole circle of pomp and chaos, a variety of “pheasant” competition is indisputable fact, if the relevant departments and associations to come up with more detailed, more stringent regulations and approval process, a “big” race If the relevant departments and associations come up with more detailed and strict regulations and approval processes, a “major reshuffle” is bound to happen.

In the Chongqing cross-country running community to which Wen Jing and Zhang Weibo belong, “Wild Wolf Warriors”, the captain The team’s captain, “Wild Horse”, once banned the 500-member group chat for three days. After opening, also asked everyone to stop discussing the topic of the accident, “and then discuss, the atmosphere of sadness will continue”.

The runners spontaneously changed their avatars to black, and the team’s activities were recently suspended. However, the “horse wild man” firmly believes that the hobby of running will not stop, and some people have already re-run the route they experienced with the deceased, and show their tracks to express Memorial.

For two consecutive days, memorial activities were held near the Chongqing Olympic Sports Center, where the running team often trains. Starry candles and chrysanthemums formed a circle, two bouquets of flowers leaned on the ground, and in the middle were numbers arranged with candles: “522” representing the date of the incident, and “21” representing the 21″ for the victims.

The hundreds of people who came to pay their respects formed a larger circle, each holding a bunch of chrysanthemums in their hands and bowing their heads in silence. After the silent mourning, the crowd dispersed quietly.

A survivor also came to the scene, the captain hugged him, “nothing to say, just come back alive”.

(At the request of the interviewee, Chen Xiaotao in the text is a pseudonym)

Reporter: Han Qian, Zhang Rui / Intern: Qi Jiani, Wang Yiran, Yi Yingzi, Peng Velvet Wen, Zhang Ji / Editor: Liu Miliao