We ran with robots in China!

Beijing e-Town, 19th April 2026.

If you want to actually see how it was like, please check my video in Youtube, here:

And read this entry for a more detailed account of our experience!

The Background

In 2025 I saw in the news that there had been a half marathon with humans running next to humanoid robots in Beijing… so I decided we had to be there!

And I did my research.

The second edition was scheduled for April 2026, and I monitored the official website for when they opened registration. I even signed up for wechat (“the Chinese whatsapp”) and used google translate extensively! I became a pro in Chinese running logistics just for this… 🤣

So when they opened registration, I signed up for it.

But, alas! It was a draw. Not a First come, first served approach. There were 12k spots… and 35k people signed up in just one day!

So our chances were limited, and indeed we were not lucky. We didn’t get a spot in the race…

I was disillusioned, obviously, but determined this was not going to be the end of my mission. So we booked our plane tickets and the hotel nearest to the start, in Beijing’s e-town… and there we went!!

TLDR; “too long, didn’t read”

• I just want to run! Take me to RUN.
• I have 1 minute. Take me to USEFUL INFORMATION.
• Running is my excuse for travelling. Take me to TRIP.
• Running is my excuse for eating. Take me to CARBOLOADING.
• I want to know what to read in the plane. Take me to ONE BOOK.

🌍 The Trip 📷

Going there!

So, despite not being selected in the draw, we flew to Beijing to see the robots racing in April 2026. And it was totally worth it!!

Not only did we saw them, many of them, running, but we enjoyed the vibrant atmosphere of Beijing’s e-town, and we even got to run alongside them!! 

It was a GREAT experience and we loved it so much, we promised ourselves we would come back 👍

The Race “Market”

The expo was a “Race market”; this is how it was signalled everywhere. We saw multiple signs “This direction to the Bib pickup and market”, with purple (the colour of the 2026 edition) arrows.  

We left the hotel at 7pm to see a digital sphere (like the one in Vegas, but smaller), and to feel the atmosphere of Beijing e-town on a Saturday evening. But we were pleasantly surprised when we realised that the Expo was still open! 🥰

Just in time!

So we headed there, and we saw the usual stuff in a race expo: stalls with products by sponsors, a wall of names, a place to take pictures … but, also, robots! There were robots playing chess or Go, playing the piano dressed “glamorously” (ie, very brilli-brilli), and stands for the fanciest, faster looking robots. Including the one that finally won ☺️

We got super excited, and it was only going to get better.

They also displayed the medals… and the one for the robot was a “transformer” one! 😱 It transformed into the figure of a robot 🤣: so cool.

We even reached the Bib pickup desks; there were many and it was all very well organised, although it was empty as there were only 10 minutes left!

We even tried to buy a tshirt, but it was not possible. But we did buy a commemorative medal which was super cool! And the staff were very friendly, although nobody spoke English. They were surprised to see Spanish passports ❤️. Did you come from “Sipanya”? Yes! “Oh oh, it is far!”. It is indeed 😉

🏃‍♀️ Humanoid Robot Race 🏃‍♂️

Sunday we woke up at 6am because in our hotel, a very neat Holiday Inn which was very close to the start line, on the day of the race, breakfast opened up at 6am, for the many runners lodged in our hotel to have time to carboload before the 21k. 

But when we were waiting for the elevator, we changed our minds and decided to have breakfast later and go directly to the start of the race. Which was scheduled for 7:30am. 

It proved to be the right decision as thousands of runners were already heading to the start too.  We ran there; 2 kilometers to be exact. Distances in China are huge!! 😰

It was really cool to be part of the participants group for a few minutes, feeling their energy, vibing with them. Although, obviously, when we approached the start area, we could not enter without a Bib. There was also facial recognition.. of course. We were in China!

Back to kilometer 2 for a good spot

So we ran back another 2 kilometers, to one edge of Tongminghu park, and decided to stay there to take videos of the robots racing. There were two wide lanes, and unfortunately we picked the “wrong” side; the one where the humans ran 🤣🤣

But, anyhow, the atmosphere was… well, electric. Many, many people watching and cheering, and the sphere showing images of the race… truly COOL. 

The race starts!

A very motivated guy next to me was watching CCTV5 live and showed me when the race started! 

Then… Only a few minutes later, a red humanoid robot passed by at top speed! Coolest thing ever. Seriously.

That machine was running SO fast. As Roger put it, in Catalan…: “Anava follat!“

It was “Lighting”, the winner to be! 

A second, also very fast, robot, passed by, and then came the human first runners. Very fast too, let’s not forget to admire their effort. Respect!

Although in this race, they had their thunder completely stolen by the robots 🤣

The Race

We kept seeing robots running, while 12,000 human runners also passed by. Many of the robots were wearing running shoes! And running caps and visors. I repeat: COOLEST thing ever.

We loved the one wearing a cap backwards, super badass!

Every time a robot appeared, the spectators cheered loudly. Also, many human runners stopped mid-race to take videos and pictures of the humanoid robots in the other lane 🤣

The atmosphere was super festive, although I failed to see a non Chinese runner at all. No diversity here 😅

Oh: and even the end of the human race (“el coche escoba”), was guarded by two robot dogs 😱🤣

Some “incidents” and super cuteness

After a while, after all the human runners had passed, we went to the sphere to see the robots from another angle.

It was a good decision as we could cross (under a bridge), and we saw them closer. Plus we saw images of the human runners being displayed on the screen of the sphere. I also saw the first female arriving! 💪

We also witnessed a couple of falls!! They were quite frequent, especially in the curves. Every time a robot fell, the motivated crowd uttered a loud “Oooohh”. 🥰😰

Some of the robots, in fact, were wearing protections (that looked like floating devices), to protect their body when falling! 😰

And them we saw a super tiny one, running quite fast, which was THE CUTEST and a crowd’s favourite!!! ❤️

Finally, we ran with them!!

Then we decided to actually run a little bit ourselves and we ran around lake Tongminghu, which turned out to be perfect for running. It even had a running track on it!!

And while we were completing our 5k for the day… we saw the robots running and headed there!!! 👍

In this part of the course there were very few spectators so we ran next to some of the robots! Experience unlocked! 🥰

Now, our experience was complete (or  at least, as complete as it could be without a Bib 🤣).

We left super happy, with the memory of the most fantastic race ever 🥰

Well done, Beijing’s e-town 👍

🍜 Carboloading 🍝: What to eat in China if you are a runner

Before the race… noodles, of course! The carbohydrates-rich dish which is ubiquitous in China!

To be honest, we ate so many beef, chicken and pork noodles as to carboload an entire army 🤣🤣

Steamed Meat for a local Protein Feast!

For dinner before the race, we opted for a local restaurant which was very popular with locals. And it had the picture of a cow, so we guessed it was going to be good to get some protein. 

Plus, nobody spoke English so we took this as a good sign. 

It turned out to be something which we had not tasted before. They put a casserole full of boiling water on your table, and you boil vegetables and steam raw meat. That’s it. Nothing fancier, but extremely popular with locals who were eating vigorously. 

At first I was not convinced, but it turned out to be good! We ordered 3 dishes of raw beef meat, and we steamed it. Eaten with a mildly spicy dressing, it was tasty! Plus, a healthier option than fried stuff! 😄 We even ate the vegetables, sweet potato, mushrooms and lettuce 🤣

And, of course, you cannot miss the famous Beijing Duck. I still remember a lacquered duck we had a few years back, when we were first in Beijing. Amazing. This time we opted for a sweet-layered duck which was great too; tasting slightly sweet, but served with even the duck’s head… 😰!

🏆 Humanoid Robot Half Marathon and Yizuang Half Marathon.

🌐 Website: https://etown-halfmarathon.ejplay.com.cn/

🏃 Number of runners: 12,000. Plus 100 robots!

🗓️ April in Beijing, China.

👟 Urban: bring shoes for asphalt.

✅ The possibility of running with robots, of course!

✅ Very well organised race and the possiblity of visiting Beijing’s e-Town, which is a unique experience in itself.

⚠️It is difficult to get by as most people do not speak English, and many “Western” apps do not work.

“Wild Swans”, by Jung Chang

Reading Jung Changs Wild Swans before landing in China gave me a profound window into the complex local history.

I had read it many years ago, when it came out and I was a teenager, and already then it made an effect on me. So this time, I revisited it. And again I was moved. I really love this novel.

This epic biography follows three generations of women as they survive the transition from imperial traditions to the modern era. I found that seeing the landscape through their eyes helped me appreciate the deep resilience found in every city.

Every run past an elderly Tai Chi group felt more meaningful after learning about the history they lived. 📖