Both male and female champions of the half marathon will be awarded a cow, the organizers announced.
A half marathon in China is using unusual prizes to attract participants and promote local produce, with a cow as the top prize, and fish or poultry prizes for those who finish in the top 30.
The 2nd Nong‘an Taiping Pond Ice and Snow Half Marathon will take place on Dec. 29 in Taiping Pond Tourist Resort of Nong’an County, a major agriculture producer in China’s northeast province of Jilin.
The organizers, local authorities, and a local tourism company, announced that both male and female champions of the half marathon will be awarded a cow or 6,000 yuan (around $825) in cash.
The runners-up and third-place winners will receive wild fish and cash prizes, competitors ranked fourth to 13th will receive cash prizes and either a goose, a duck, or a rooster. Those ranked 13th to 15th will be awarded five kilograms of eco-friendly rice or whole wheat flour.
The prizes sparked intense online discussion in China to become one of the top trending topics on the Chinese social media platform Weibo on Dec. 10.
“If the first place person lives overseas, do you need to buy a high speed train ticket for cattle?” asked one user.
Related Stories
The response from the organizers was that the winner can trade it for cash instead.
Another joked that taking a cow home would be quite an achievement and would make one the center of attention in their WeChat group.
The fact that the race will be held in winter, rather than the usual marathon seasons of spring and autumn, is another point of attraction.
The 1st Nong’an Taiping Pond Ice and Snow Half Marathon was held in January 2024 with more than 2,000 participants. The trail for a half marathon is 21 kilometers (13 miles) long.
According to the “2023 China Road Running Races Blue Book” released by the Chinese Athletics Association, the number of road running competitions has grown consistently between 2016 and 2019, before they plummeted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The running events began to recover in 2023, with 699 competitions held, much lower than the pre-COVID level of 1,828.
This year, more than 30 marathons and other road-running events were held across China between Nov. 2 and 3, at a rate of nearly two per day on average, drawing approximately 400,000 participants, according to state media the Xinhua news agency.
Reuters contributed to this report.
