Petite but driven Hong Kong marathoner Marcia Zhou on catching the competitive running bug
Born in the US and raised in China, Marcia Zhou can’t say no to a challenge, especially when it comes to running. She talks about her training and what drives her
“She is too small.” This was the verdict of the organisers of the Mt. Gaoligong Ultra in Yunnan when Marcia Zhou was recommended to participate as an invited elite athlete. “She won’t be able to finish a tough 100-mile race like ours.”
A few weeks later, Zhou won the women’s category hands down. The petite (she is 155cm tall) American-born Chinese marathoner’s approach to running is adventurous. On her own admission, she races too much because she can’t say no to new experiences. She is also a driven, even ruthless, competitor.
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She defines herself as a marathoner, even if she still runs trail despite feeling it has too many distractions compared to road running. “In trail running, there is this extra fun – it comes from the beautiful scenery, or from how high you climb. You get this sense of achievement from conquering terrain or surviving horrible weather, but road has none of that,” she says. “All road comes down to is one thing: time.”
And her times are excellent, culminating in a ‘PB’ (personal best) of 2 hours 54 minutes she ran in the Berlin marathon. Her appetite for racing and travel drives her to do race after race – perhaps, she admits, not allowing to recover properly, and so a new PB keeps eluding her.
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