8-year-old marathoner runs and runs ... and runs

By EVAN OSNOS - Chicago Tribune

LINGAO, China --The clock above her bed read 2:24 a.m. - time for the 8-year-old to train for another marathon.

Second grader Zhang Huimin, who weighs 42 pounds and likes the Little Mermaid, sat up and gave a groggy glance around the one-room home she shares with her father, an out-of-work fish farmer with a singular goal: grooming his daughter for the 2016 Olympics.

"Don't dawdle," her father said softly, "or you won't be out the door by 2:55."

Next year, Beijing will host the 2008 Olympics, casting an unprecedented spotlight on China's athletes and the nation that shapes them. Huimin is too young for the Beijing Games, but she has already appeared in an Olympic promotion on state television, her first flicker of national fame.

On this Saturday, as she does most weekends, the girl will run more than 26 miles before school _ on top of dozens of miles she runs before school each week. Those statistics cry out for skepticism, but watching her run for more than four hours or interviewing marathon officials who recorded her recent races makes it hard to find any hints of a hoax.

To her adoring village in southern China, her image - pigtails and arms swinging, her father cycling beside her - embodies strength and sacrifice. But to others just learning of her story, she personifies a darker side of today's China: a culture of relentless competition amplified by a media hungry for celebrities.

The story of China's youngest marathoner is most likely not about the world's next great runner; her tiny body is almost certain to give out if she keeps running so much, experts in China and the U.S. say.

Rather, her story is most revealing about the conditions that created her: a father whose dream of sporting glory never materialized, an impoverished town dazzled by attention, and a nation where the transformative power of fame can make almost anything seem worthwhile.

"It's good for her," said Li Kequan, head of the running club in the nearby city of Haikou. "It's also good for the country and it's good for Haikou."

Indeed, this patch of the Chinese countryside has few other icons. Haikou is the capital of China's smallest and southernmost province, Hainan. On the edge of the city lies the rice-paddy county of Lingao, population 400,000, barely a speck by Chinese standards. Water buffalo amble across the highway. Farmers earn an average of $1 a day.

In China, the prospect of athletic fame holds unique appeal. In a nation of 1.3 billion people that never has enough jobs or university places to go around, sports is a path to success that does not require influence or money.

The most recent Forbes listing of Chinese celebrities ranked athletes in the top two, based on media appearances and income: Shanghai-born Houston Rockets center Yao Ming, who was a gangly 3rd grader when he was plucked by the state to play basketball, and Olympic gold medal-winning hurdler Liu Xiang, who earned an estimated $7.25 million last year in endorsements.

Among the residents of Lingao is Zhang Jianmin, a small, kindly 54-year-old laborer. He was a standout table-tennis player and runner when he graduated from high school in 1974, but the chaos of the Cultural Revolution stymied his hopes of entering China's Soviet-style sports schools.

He later found work as a bureaucrat but gave it up to try raising fish. That failed, and today his income comes from an adult son who sends cash each month. His wife left years ago, and they have lost contact, he says.

Zhang said he started running with his daughter when she was 4, adding distance each morning. By age 6, she could run 8 miles; at 7, she completed the Haikou marathon in 3 hours, 28 minutes and 45 seconds.

Most recently, she finished China's Xiamen International Marathon on March 31, with a time of 3 hours, 44 minutes and 51 seconds. Organizers waived the minimum age of 18 and allowed her father to bike beside her because "she is a special case," said He Xi, vice director of the race.

Local reporters hail Huimin as the "Haikou Prodigy." When Ding Yunfang, principal of the local private elementary school, caught wind of her running, she gave Huimin a scholarship.

"She can run more than 40 kilometers (almost 25 miles) in a day and look totally fine," the principal said. "Whether it is a scientific way (to train), we aren't so clear, but her father says it's no problem."

Zhang is blunt: He has staked everything on his daughter's running.

"My plan is that we will have a hard five years," he said, "and then, when she reaches 12 or 13 years old, she could take part in more national competitions. Hopefully, a professional team will take her."

As father and daughter headed out into the dark at 2:53, she grabbed a hair band adorned with a pair of short pink bunny ears. In red shorts and white T-shirt, she broke into a jog, her white cotton sneakers padding along the asphalt, with her father riding his banged-up mountain bike.

A crew from Chinese state television crept beside them in a gray sedan, cameraman poking out of the sunroof. Hours passed. Huimin and her father paused for a drink every hour or so. By dawn, the state camera crew had long since drifted off to a hotel, but a cameraman from a local channel had shown up.

Four hours and 35 minutes after they started, the father decided that was enough for the day.

"I like long-distance running because it's fun. It's not tiring," Huimin said a little while later, riding to school with freshly combed pigtails. "My goal is to be a winner."

What are her favorite things to do?

"Besides running," she said, "I like boxing, weight training, standing high jump and leg stretching."

Ask any health expert about her training regimen, and the answers are similar. "The long-term consequence is that she is going to be injured, and her career is going to be short-lived," said Dr. Kathy Weber, head of Women's Sports Medicine at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

Overtraining at such a young age can erode the cartilage in joints, delay menstruation, reduce bone density and cause a range of orthopedic problems, including stunted growth. At 42 pounds, Huimin is underweight, her father concedes, but she has never had a full check-up, so he does not know what toll her training has taken.

"I think this will be very detrimental to her physical and mental well-being," said Mark Plaatjes, a 1993 World Champion marathoner who like most of his peers did not run that 26.2-mile distance until his late teens.

There are precedents, of course, with few happy endings. A marathoning 4-year-old boy in India, Budhia Singh, became a sensation last year, until he collapsed from low blood sugar and authorities barred his coach from entering him in more competitions.

Until recently, Huimin and her outsize training had gone largely unnoticed. She is too young for China's sports academies, so coaches say they won't look seriously at her until she is 13, which explains why her father's homegrown training has gone unchecked.

Indeed, now that Huimin's story has begun to appear in Olympic promotions, even some of the country's athletic kingmakers are unnerved.

"I just heard about it recently," said Feng Shuyong, head coach of China's national track and field team. "But nobody in this field agrees with that kind of training. We think it's unimaginable."

Which are the world's cleanest cities

From Forbes.com

There is clean and then there is clean. In the world, as a rule of thumb, the North is clean and the South is dirty. Indeed only two of the top-25 cleanest cities in the world are below the Equator--Auckland, New Zealand, and Wellington, New Zealand.

The cleanest cities are largely located in countries noted for their democracy and their industrialization. The only Asian cities represented are in Japan. There are no top-25 clean cities in South or Central America, Africa and Australia. The U.S. has five of the top 25; Canada, a strong five, with the top spot its city of Calgary; Europe has 11 of the top 25; and Japan has three.

The 25 cleanest cities are located in 13 countries. It may not be accidental that these countries are among the highest in purchasing power parity according to the World Development Indicator database of the World Bank. Twelve are in the top 20, and only New Zealand lags in wealth, at No. 37 on the list of world's wealthiest. So clean may also mean well-off.

There is clean and then there is clean. In the world, as a rule of thumb, the North is clean and the South is dirty. Indeed only two of the top-25 cleanest cities in the world are below the Equator--Auckland, New Zealand, and Wellington, New Zealand.

The cleanest cities are largely located in countries noted for their democracy and their industrialization. The only Asian cities represented are in Japan. There are no top-25 clean cities in South or Central America, Africa and Australia. The U.S. has five of the top 25; Canada, a strong five, with the top spot its city of Calgary; Europe has 11 of the top 25; and Japan has three.

The 25 cleanest cities are located in 13 countries. It may not be accidental that these countries are among the highest in purchasing power parity according to the World Development Indicator database of the World Bank. Twelve are in the top 20, and only New Zealand lags in wealth, at No. 37 on the list of world's wealthiest. So clean may also mean well-off.

To be clean a city has to face and solve many problems that otherwise lead to unsanitary conditions and poor health as well as possible economic stagnation. Producing energy for industry, homes and transportation has to be planned and executed reasonably, and this means some form of regulation and control.

To be clean means organizing what is done with waste. Landfills are being closed or filled up. Recycling is the only long-range answer, but this takes civic discipline, a system and preferably a system that turns a profit. Green only works well when it results in greenbacks.

In addition a city has to look closely at its transportation infrastructure (roads, rail, air, subways) and their impact upon being clean or going dirty or staying dirty. The logistics infrastructure is also critical in terms of efficiency that can translate into money and fuel savings that in turn affect cleanliness (air quality, water quality and ground quality).

Taken all together as with clean energy generation, waste control, recycling and various levels of infrastructure reorganization, the challenge is formidable. Some will recommend taking on one challenge at a time, and this may be what President Bush has in mind with ethanol.

Bush's advocacy of ethanol is a step towards cleaner fuel and in turn cleaner cities. The idea is also controversial as the resources available for ethanol are directly related to the food supply chain. There can be great friction over sharing such resources. Some are advocating inputs beyond corn grain.

"One of the most abundant potential resources we have is the nonfood parts of the corn plant, including the stalks, leaves and husks,” says Dr. Michael Pacheco, director of the National Bioenergy Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

The figures for the cleanest cities are derived from studies by the Mercer Human Resources Consulting that cull from 300 cities, identifying overall quality of living as well as special reports on regions. It is interesting to note that size does not appear to be a factor either in terms of size of population or physical size of the city. The most common trait in common to each is a focus on high tech, education and headquartering of national and international companies along with an extensive public transit system.

In Pictures: The World's Cleanest Cities

New Feist video

'Lost' classes taught at university

Students at Tufts University in Massachusetts never seem to have a problem finding their way to class, thanks to the power of television.

The pop culture hit that is Lost has been captured in school program form as the well-attended class —"The Future is Lost: The TV Series as Cultural Phenomenon"— which is taught as part of the Experimental College's Peer Teaching Program, which began in 1966.

The 13-week syllabus explores topics from the show, such as thematic complexity and the show’s impact on society. Student Lost fanatics can enjoy the 75-minute class twice a week as well as participate in lively debates.

Course creators were shocked at the amount of interest the class received, explaining that students who aren’t enrolled often ask to sit in on lectures.

The class has even garnered the attention of the executive producers of Lost, who have agreed to hold a speakerphone conference call with the students.

Naturally, the class does have several rules. All students must respect the opinions of everyone in the class, and there is a strict “no spoiler” policy.

Watercooler talk must also be kept to a minimum: the class is deterred from analyzing the latest episode each week, and is instead encouraged to focus on the show as a whole.

Seat-belts on school buses

A 10-year old boy died last night following a school bus crash near Toronto...the children were not wearing seat-belts since seat-belts are not required by law on school buses. Turns out seat-belts on buses may actually cause more harm than good...

(from www.safety-council.org)

School buses transport almost three million Canadian children a day, travelling millions of kilometres in both rural and urban areas. Would these children be safer with seat-belts?

Statistically, the school bus is the safest way for children to get to school. On average over the past 10 years there has been less than one fatality per year inside a school bus. Most injuries happen outside the bus.

Research Proves No Safety Benefit

Installing seat-belts on school buses is not a new idea. There is a wealth of research from across North America on whether such a requirement would improve safety. Surprisingly, no safety benefit has ever been proven. In fact, crash tests have shown seat-belts could create more drawbacks than advantages.

In 1984, Transport Canada crash tested three different sizes of school buses (one small bus, one van conversion type bus and one large bus), each containing unbelted and belted test dummies. The tests indicated that the use of a lap belt on forward-facing seats could increase the risk of head injuries during a severe frontal collision. In a head-on collision, the most common type of school bus crash, the occupant's head could hit the seat in front, resulting in severe or fatal head and neck injuries.

Further investigation showed that the combination lap and shoulder belts would require stiffer seats, which could increase injury to unbelted students. Moreover, the shoulder belts increased the chance of abdominal injuries because of submarining. Tests showed children would slip down, risking injuries to organs covered by the lap belts.

In 1986, Transport Canada designed, fabricated and tested five different types of seats, each using a seat-belt, in an effort to improve protection for riders. The rearward-facing seat provided the greatest potential for occupant protection during frontal and near-frontal collisions. In a head-on collision, the crash forces are spread over the back of a rearward facing occupant instead of being concentrated on the head. However, motion sickness was found to be a drawback of the rearward-facing seats. There is no intention to make rearward facing seats mandatory.

A 1999 study by the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) suggests that adding seat belts to school buses will cause additional head injuries and probably additional deaths in some crashes. It says school buses built since 1977 rely for safety not on seat-belts but on the close spacing of seats with padded seat backs, called compartmentalization. Seat-belts, by holding a child's pelvis firmly in place, allowed the torso to crack like a whip, with the head striking a seat back or a hard object with greater force than if the whole body has been thrown. The NTSB found the evidence ambiguous enough to avoid recommending seat belts, but was also not persuaded to endorse taking them out.

Some US states require seat-belts on school buses. However, none of them, fortunately, has experienced a crash that would demonstrate any benefits of adding seat-belts to school buses. There is still no scientific evidence that lives would be saved.

Perspectives on the Issue

Seat-belts were designed for cars, and have saved thousands of lives. School buses are designed with safety (but not seat-belts) in mind; they are not built like cars. Buses are much larger, higher and heavier than other vehicles on the road, so they have a body-on-frame design. For seat-belts to enhance rider safety, the bus body would have to be completely re-engineered with seat-belts integrated at the design stage.

Beyond the engineering problems someone would need to ensure the seat-belts are used, adjusted properly between uses by small and larger children, and repaired when damaged. In an emergency, seat-belts could hinder evacuation. Young children should not be placed in a situation where they must become responsible for their own safety.

School bus standards vary between countries. In Canada, almost 40 federal standards apply to the design and construction of school buses. These standards combine to make Canadian school buses an extremely safe mode of transportation. A school bus does not have safety belts like a passenger vehicle, but it does have many passive safety systems engineered into it.

The real safety issue is not seat-belts, but reductions in school bus service. Without the bus, more children are exposed to risk by walking to school or using alternate forms of transportation. Yet pedestrians account for almost 40 per cent of road fatalities to children aged 5 to 9. This is an issue worthy of attention by those concerned about children getting to and from school safely. Children are 16 times safer riding in a school bus than in a passenger vehicle.

358 lb man to run Boston Marathon

He hopes 26-mile run will help end 26 years of obesity

America needs a new hero. Why not a 438-pound Wisconsin beekeeper who decided he would run in - or at least behind - the Boston Marathon and raise money for charity?

Yes, Jacob Seilheimer knows he's fat. He has lived that hell for most of his 26 years.

And it's hardly news that he's a non-traditional distance runner. His mom, Sandra, gave me this bold prediction: "He's not going to be up there with the Kenyans."

"I can promise you," Jacob says on the Web site promoting his effort, www.whatwouldjacobdo.com, "that this won't be pretty, and I'll be chronicling my journey for your perverse pleasure."

Don't miss the hilarious training videos he and his friends produced and posted on their site and on YouTube.

Here's the good news for Jacob and for the paramedics working the race on April 16: He has lost 80 pounds since deciding just a few months ago that he didn't want his legacy to be a XXXL casket. This past week he hit 358 pounds.

"I'd like to get down to 290. I haven't seen that since I was 14," he told me.

I reached Jacob at Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, N.H., where he's a second-year law student.

He grew up in New Auburn, north of Eau Claire, and played on the high school football team. He went on to play for Colby College in Maine, where he said he packed on the "freshman 70" and soon hit 400 pounds.

Jacob worked in his family's honeybee operation for years, keeping the bees busy pollinating apples, cherries and such, and collecting honey by the 55-gallon drum and bee stings by the thousands.

His English teacher in school, Liz Rehrauer, remembers the TV commercial spoof that Jacob did as an assignment for her class. It was for a guaranteed weight gain program that stressed the importance of eating pie for breakfast.

"He's very, very funny, but he's sensitive, too," she said.

In between Jacob's jokes about a self-described meatball running 26 miles 385 yards is the pain of facing the world every day as a morbidly obese human being.

Children laugh at him on the street, he said. When he sees a TV news report on obesity, he watches for himself in the neck-down file footage. He never stops worrying that the chair he's using will break. Drinking too much at the bar helps him forget that "love obviously isn't finding you tonight or any night for that matter," he said.

Then again, he has figured out ways to laugh at himself.

He was Rosie O'Donnell for Halloween last year. He's making up some T-shirts that say, "People don't kill treadmills . . . I do." His friends call him Bear. One of the FAQs on his Web site asks: "Will you tape your nipples so they don't rub off during the marathon?"

One question Jacob hears all the time is whether he's serious about any of this.

"This is not an Internet farce. It's real," he said. He will run the marathon or die trying, he vows. "I also hope to get some dates out of it, and maybe a summer job."

He has cut most of the beer and fast food from his diet, bringing him down to less than 2,000 calories a day from healthier fare. He's been lifting weights, doing yoga and logging more than 20 hours a week on his exercise bike, which claims to have a weight maximum of 275 pounds but hasn't cracked yet.

Realistically, he plans to tackle Boston with a run/walk combination. Four of his buddies have agreed to run with him. Jacob said the money pledged so far to the American Cancer Society, Special Olympics and other charities has come mostly from family and friends.

Going public with his quest has attracted quite a bit of feedback, not all of it positive.

"Boston represents a sacred goal," wrote one high-minded runner. "Boston should be reserved for top athletes, which is not you." (For the record, Jacob is not enrolled in the race; he will run in the back with the unofficial marathon "bandits" as they're known.)

"I don't think you should die or anything like that, but I bet your knees will give out and you'll collapse long before you ever have a chance of running the marathon," says another.

Jacob is worried about his knees, more so than his heart. To save on his joints, he has minimized his running lately, admittedly not a common strategy leading up to a marathon.

"It's not the best plan, but it's a plan," he said. "I'm actually in a lot better shape than most 350-pound men."

Eight days from now, he'll get to prove it.