Li Zicheng was disqualified from the Shaoxing Marathon for starting in the wrong zone. According to the rules, this decision is justified. However, in terms of absolute performance, he was far ahead of the competition, and even without the zone violation, he would have easily won the championship.

This incident made me think of many other examples. For instance, in many races, although there are zone starts, black half-marathon runners are placed at the front. This positioning almost determines the winner. No matter how hard domestic runners try, starting 5 minutes behind and having to overtake all full-marathon runners makes it impossible to catch up.

Take today's Shaoxing Marathon, for example. It seems to have strictly adhered to the zone start principle, with half-marathon runners starting behind all full-marathon runners. But is this reasonable?

Clearly, this is a foolish one-size-fits-all approach. It makes management easier but causes many inconveniences for the runners, especially high-level half-marathon athletes.

Such a lazy approach is destined not to produce good race records. There are too many similar cases.

One of the main tasks of a race is to provide the best possible conditions for elite runners to achieve better results, not to set obstacles everywhere that prevent them from performing well. All one-size-fits-all zone starts for half-marathons face this issue.

I remember clearly the Wuhan Marathon this year, a major event in China. What was the men's half-marathon result? Outside the top 120. The official post-race announcements didn't mention it, but the results had to be published, so they are displayed in a small corner of the official website. Such results are truly shocking and embarrassing.Clearly, this is caused by unreasonable zone starts.

Yesterday, while eating hotpot, I got some accurate news. A certain top runner was running laps on a track at a 3XX pace and accidentally collided with an elderly man, resulting in a 50,000 yuan compensation. This is not a joke; it's a true story.From this example, we can see how dangerous it is to have these elite runners at a 3XX pace overtaking full-marathon runners who are just trying to finish. Although no major incidents have been reported yet, if something were to happen, it wouldn't be solved with just 50,000 yuan.

Such dangers are everywhere. They not only pose safety risks to ordinary runners but also increase the likelihood of injuries for elite runners. If the organizers don't think about solving these issues, what are they there for? For example, the Shaoxing Marathon did another thing: look at this starting photo. There are five Chinese runners at the front, two of whom look like officials. This is the usual formalism of 'Running China.' They prefer playing such formalistic games rather than addressing the concerns of the runners.

Domestic elite runners neither expect special invitations from the organizing committee nor seek special treatment; they just want a reasonable starting position. Such a simple request faces numerous difficulties. If you want to achieve good results, you need a suitable mechanism. Don't always complain about the low level of domestic runners; think about how much the race organizers have done for those who can achieve good results..

Starting runners with similar paces together poses no operational issues. Some races have already implemented this without any problems. Why not learn from these good practices? Instead, they just want to brand it as 'Running China,' which is truly lamentable. This is not the first time such an issue has occurred, nor will it be the last.