NuclearKitty during a marathon in Shanghai in June.[Photo provided to Shanghai Star]

Running never stops

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In addition to having fun together, some clubs have high expectation of its members, such as NuclearKitty, the country’s first women’s running club. The club with 14 core members organizes group runs ranging from 5 to 20 km twice a week and holds regular practice, including special exercises for core muscles and slow long-distance training.

Most of them participate in competitions all over the country and some get outstanding results.

“We want to prove that we’re competitive, rather than just a group of pretty faces,” says the 28-year-old group leader who gives her name as Zouzou.

“When we become wives and mothers in the future, we will form a NuclearKitty junior group and there’ll be a NuclearKitty granny group when we grow old. Running never stops,” she says.

Five running groups, including the three mentioned above, gathered together for a group run on June 22 and they called it “the first convention of the representatives of running groups in Shanghai”.

“All the amateur runners brought their medals and plaques from various competitions and it was like sharing and celebrating runners’ honors. At that moment we felt we all belonged to one group called Shanghai,” Shi says.

Li Li, who works for the organizing committee of the Shanghai International Marathon, says she has always been touched by runners in the games who dedicate their blood, sweat and tears to sports.

“Once I saw a grey-haired participant who was in his 80s crossing the finish line with two doctors by his side. That’s exactly what a marathon means: perseverance, willpower, breaking through and proving yourself,” she says.