As we've alluded to in previous reports, Kunming is a great place for training for endurance sports, such as running and cycling.

Kunming, at around 1900m above sea-level, is high enough to add an extra test, but isn't high enough to increase the likelihood of altitude-related illnesses. The city's weather remains fairly well-behaved all year round, with November and December delivering bouts of sunny weather. Then there's the air quality - for a Chinese city of its size, the air quality is surprisingly good, and is among the best for Chinese urban areas.

If you're interested in training full-time, Kunming's low cost of living makes the city a great option.

So, if you're feeling it, but need a goal to get going, here's some events in the region that might provide the impetus you need:

Xiamen Marathon, 5 January 2008
In 2008, this race is being held rather earlier than in previous years, so this is may be one for any readers already in training. In GoKunming's experience, Xiamen is the best marathon in the country - great crowd turn out, fairly interesting course (including a section on elevated road over the sea) and a host city that offers something a little different. Comprises full marathon, half marathon, 10km and 5km races.

Hong Kong Marathon, 2nd February 2008
Full marathon, half marathon and 10km races, organised well, and with massive turnout, but run over an uninspiring course.

Green Power Hike, 1 March 2008
Trail hike along the 50km Hong Kong Island Trail. Most participants walk, but there's always plenty of runners too.

Ironman China, 20 April 2008
This is the biggie - an 'iron-distance' triathlon (that's consecutive 4km swim, 180km bike and 42km run) held in Haikou, Hainan province. For those with more down-to-earth goals, there's a half-ironman too. There has been trouble with getting this event off the ground for the past two years - fingers crossed they get the go-ahead this time around.

Great Wall Marathon, 17 May 2008
This race in partly run along a section of the Great Wall in Hebei province. The official website is down right now, but might be worth checking up on if you're looking for something 'different'.

Bintan Triathlon, 24 & 25 May 2008
A bit further afield, this triathlon (Olympic and Sprint distances) is held on Bintan Island, a short ferry ride from Singapore.

This is just a selection - please feel free to leave a comment if you find another event that might suit GoKunming readers.

Triathlon's first appearance at the Asian Games has brought gold for Kunming's Wang Hongni.

Triathlon is an endurance event consisting of a swim, which usually takes place in open water, followed by a bicycle ride, and then a run. The clock stays running the entire time, meaning that 'transition' is sometimes referred to as the sport's fourth discipline. For an Olympic distance race, such as the one in Doha, the swim course is 1.5km, the bike 40km, and the run 10km.

Wang was second out of the water, close on the tail of Malaysian Yap Fui Li. A fast swim-to-bike transition took her to the front, where she stayed. After the bike leg, she had build up a solid 5:43 minutes lead over Asian champion and pre-event favourite Ai Ueda of Japan. Ueda was able to reduce this over the run, but the gap was too great, with Wang taking gold in 1:59:44, Ueda having to settle for silver, 4:21 behind.

China's Xing Lin also performed strongly - again transitioning fast after the swim to follow Wang out on the bike but was reeled back in by Ueda, Yap and Lea Langit of the Philippines, working together - this being a draft-legal race. Xing crossed the finish line in fourth place.

Although 24-year old Wang claims that cycling is her strong point, cycling more than 200km a day in training, she attributes her win in Doha to her strong swim: "today I won because of the swim. I am very persistent because it is a long distance." This seems to have given her the mental edge to go all the way.

"Even though cycling is my strongest point, I felt a lot of stress and it was very difficult. I took the initiative to overcome the others and I was leading at the beginning and I kept it in my mind that 'I am in the lead'".

In the men's race, which was won by Kazakhstan's Dmitriy Gaag, Daniel Lee Chi Wo of Hong Kong took silver, with James Andrew Wright (also of Hong Kong) placing seventh and the mainland's Jiang Zhihang eighth.

This performance once again shows the idiosyncracies of Chinese endurance sport. China's women perform more strongly than the men - the Beijing marathon being a good example, with Sun Yingjie winning from 2003 to 2005 and Sun Weiwei taking the 2006 top slot. But, put these women in an international field and something goes wrong - Sun Yingjie never performed to her best outside her home country. Wang Hongni's place in the September Beijing triathlon was also nothing special - a solid performance, yes, and the highest placed Chinese female, but nineteen names are above hers in the results table. So, we wait for an altogether different competition in Beijing two years from now.

Yunnan has for a long time been a favoured training ground for Chinese triathletes - the good weather and high altitude make it an ideal place for a sport which involves such large volumes of bicycle and run training time. Unfortunately, a year ago the news was very different - a group of triathletes training on the expressway near Kunming was hit by a car, injuring five athletes and killing one.

Related links:
China Triathlon Sports Association (Chinese)
Asian Triathlon Confederation