This FKT is part of a larger project. I started my run in Vladivostok in Russia on May 1st 2026. I then crossed through the Pogranichny/Suifenhe border into China and headed south towards Beijing. After about a month and over 1000km, I reached coastline of Yellow Sea.
The FKT portion started in Qinhuangdao on June 6th at 10:04am. Since I invite other runners to join along, I had a company of 6 local runners. We run along the coastline promenade which is popular for strolling and running. It was raining but spirits were high and we had the promenade for ourselves.
This was a supported FKT. I had a support vehicle (4x4 small RV) along the journey with 2 crew members, one as driver and logistics and another for videos and photos. I had different crew members along the trip, including my parents. All the crew were Chinese in order to avoid the bureaucracy along the way.
For food, the crew helped to organise snacks and meals, and sometimes we also sat down at restaurants. In the first half of the trip it was not a problem to obtain food, but as we got to the Gobi desert and the more desolate places, we had to plan more carefully.
We had similar experience with water, generally easily accessible but closer to the border some sections had to be planned.
Majority of the nights we all slept in the RV, which was challenging because for portion of the trip the temperature reached over 40 degrees both outside and inside the RV. Every once in a while we would treat ourselves to a hotel, usually more affordable option due to our restricted budget.
As for the weather, since I ran during the summer, about 10% of the time we experienced hot days and many heatwaves. This was very challenging and I had to reduce the speed in order to keep myself safe. In the Gobi desert I even switched to night running since the temperatures were a bit too high during the day. We also had several rainy days and storms which resulted in floods, although luckily we managed to avoid them. Towards the end we experienced colder temperatures since autumn was slowly approaching, especially in the area of Duku highway, which crosses a mountain range.
A few people joined me for a few kilometers along the way. From organised groups and individuals to random encounters, for example two police officers I met joined me for 2km. In total 10 groups (65 people) and 8 individuals joined me and collectively run 1134km alongside me.
I have chosen this route with specific intension to retrace the Silk road, so it is not the most direct or shortest path. So someone chasing beating this FKT can easily reduce the route by at least 1000km and still satisfy the FKT requirement.
I ran 65% of the time on national or county road shoulders, 10% on city roads or dedicated pedestrian or bike path, and 25% on gravel, desert, or general off road conditions.
I finished this FKT part at the Horgos/Nur Zholy border on September 27th at 19:02.
However, Im going to continue my trip onwards toward Portugal to the next ocean.