Coronavirus outbreak: runner completes 100km indoors to avoid infection, but community not convinced by his feat
- When a runner went viral for completing 50km around his flat, to avoid to virus, another stepped up to the plate and doubled the distance
Cheng Yanchun, whose internet moniker is “Cheng Dadu”, announced on his Weibo on February 4 that he completed 100km in his flat in the city of Xi’an. Cheng’s feat was reported in the Chinese media but many in the running community are not convinced.
The coronavirus, which started to spread out of Wuhan, China, is now infecting people across the world. Many people in China are unable to venture outdoors at the risk of infection.
Cheng claims to have done an eyebrow-raising 12,500 laps in his flat, but the most surprising statistic was the time he took to run 100km – in his Weibo post he attached a screenshot from a running app which showed eight hours, six minutes and 22 seconds.
Cheng, before he discovered running in 2018 was a “190-pound fatty”, according to media reports. He has since lost 27kg. Together with his “pao you” (running buddies), he ran the three circular roads of Xi’an in succession – 130km in 15 hours and a 500km loop of the city in just over 100 hours. For these exploits Cheng became known as “Du the Madman”.
Cheng made several videos he said were filmed during his 100km run. He runs in socks and in one video is eating out of a bowl on the go. Many netizens judged Cheng’s speed on the videos to be too slow to complete 100km in just over eight hours.