Running against all odds

Xing started running at the age of 38 due to health issues. To improve her physical fitness, she began running every day.

"I woke up at 5 every morning to run. But sometimes, emergency cases would come into the hospital, my pager would go off mid-run, and I had to turn back right away to assist with surgery," recalls Xing, who served as head nurse at a hospital in Nankou town, Changping, at the time.

In March 2009, she spotted an advertisement in the newspaper that an outdoor endurance run event was going to be held in Changping. It was one of the very first trail-running events ever organized on the Chinese mainland.

"The starting line was just a short distance from my home, so I signed up — just to give it a try," she says.

Her childhood familiarity with the mountains, combined with years of road running, carried her to first place in the women's 100-kilometer category.

That victory launched a new chapter. Xing became a sponsored trail runner for the outdoor brand The North Face, competing in races across China and around the world.