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Extreme weather kills 21 ultra-marathon runners in China


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Twenty one ultra-marathon runners have died after extreme weather conditions hit a 100-kilometer (62-mile) mountain race in northwest China.

The high-altitude Huanghe Shilin Mountain Marathon began on Saturday morning in sunny conditions. But by 1 p.m. local time weather conditions had turned, with freezing rain, hail stones and gale winds lashing runners in Gansu County.

Liang Jing, one of China's well known ultra-marathon runners, was among those who died, a Hong Kong marathon group called Hong Kong 100 Ultra Marathon confirmed via a statement released on Sunday.
The marathon group said Liang had been a "favorite" member of the Hong Kong trail-racing community. He regularly participated in the annual Hong Kong 100-kilometer trail race, and was the runner-up in the last two years, it added.

As temperatures dropped in the Yellow River Stone Forest, runners started reported suffering from hypothermia, while others went missing.

The marathon organizers called off the race and launched a search party of 1,200 people to scour the complicated terrain. The search operation continued after dark.
Most competitors were wearing thin shorts and T-shirts.


Janet Ng, a race director of the Hong Kong 100 Ultra Marathon, told CNN on Sunday that she was not in a position to comment on the importance or safety of the Gansu marathon, but noted that the trail-running community is mourning with great sadness.


One participant told local publication Red Star News: "At one point, I couldn't feel my fingers (because it was so cold). At the same time my tongue felt frozen, too."
He said he decided to abandon the race. "I retreated back to halfway down the mountain, and entered a wooden cabin at the direction of a rescuer. There were already about 10 more runners who came down earlier and we waited for rescue in the cabin for about an hour. Eventually about 50 runners came and took shelter in the cabin."
By Sunday morning, 151 of the 172 race participants had been confirmed safe, with eight in hospital. Another 21 were found dead, according to the state-run People's Daily.


The race's distance of 100 kilometers was more than double that of a standard marathon.

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Man that’s awful. 21 dead. Freak weather. 
 

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/23/extreme-cold-weather-hits-china-ultramarathon-kills-20-runners

“This incident is a public safety incident caused by sudden changes in weather in a local area,” he said, adding that provincial authorities will further investigate its cause.

 

 

 

Edited by Nicole44
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40 minutes ago, Nicole44 said:

Man that’s awful. 21 dead. Freak weather. 
 

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/23/extreme-cold-weather-hits-china-ultramarathon-kills-20-runners

“This incident is a public safety incident caused by [b]sudden changes in weather [/b]in a local area,” he said, adding that provincial [b]authorities will further investigate its cause.[/b]

Uhh...climate?

 

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17 minutes ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

So did anyone get the Iwon Man t-shirt?  

Crazy that the weather forecasters couldn’t see that coming.  Then again in the mountains shit can go south quickly.  

It was certainly a freak weather event but the whole, “we’ll get to the bottom of this,” stance...I mean shit, living in Texas it’s just a way of life. Sad deal to have so many die like that though. 

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19 minutes ago, MNLonghornFUKM said:

Should increase our chances in getting gold for speed walking in a couple of months


giphy.gif

I’ve always wondered, do they have Marshalls all over the course to make sure someone does t accidentally jog a step or LOD on their toes or whatever rules govern the form of speed walking?

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I’ve always wondered, do they have Marshalls all over the course to make sure someone does t accidentally jog a step or LOD on their toes or whatever rules govern the form of speed walking?

Yea I believe there’s judges all over to make sure they don’t break their walking stride
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54 minutes ago, Apep said:

A freak weather event that kills 21 runners? That's some Day After Tomorrow type shit.

It’s why I am not into mountain climbing and all that hiking stuff. We used to have a cabin in the mountains in Colorado in a  place called Pearl Lakes. It was beautiful but the altitude always kicked my ass for a couple of days and I only started feeling better right around the time we would be leaving. 
 

Anyway, according to info from the military when it comes to basic wilderness survival in the mountains:

Conditions greatly change with altitude, latitude, and exposure to atmospheric winds and air masses. Mountain weather can be extremely erratic. It varies from stormy winds to calm, and from extreme cold to warmth within a short time or with a minor shift in locality. 

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4 hours ago, Nicole44 said:

It’s why I am not into mountain climbing and all that hiking stuff. We used to have a cabin in the mountains in Colorado in a  place called Pearl Lakes. It was beautiful but the altitude always kicked my ass for a couple of days and I only started feeling better right around the time we would be leaving. 
 

Anyway, according to info from the military when it comes to basic wilderness survival in the mountains:

Conditions greatly change with altitude, latitude, and exposure to atmospheric winds and air masses. Mountain weather can be extremely erratic. It varies from stormy winds to calm, and from extreme cold to warmth within a short time or with a minor shift in locality. 

I was in Salt Lake and went up into the mountains to fly fish. Salt Lake was beautiful so I put on shorts and a t-shirt and grabbed my stuff. I started fishing and it was still warm but after maybe 30 minutes it started snowing. That sucked.

But apparently, I do stupid shit like that. I was in Milwaukee and it was a nice day so I put on shorts and a t-shirt and took the train to Chicago. It started out beautiful but as the day went on it kept getting colder and colder until... And I still had to take the train back to Milwaukee.

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