The 2026 Beijing E-Town Half Marathon & Humanoid Robot Half Marathon was held yesterday (April 20).
The top three finishers all used Honor "Lightning" humanoid robots. The champion and runner-up were only 30 seconds apart, and all three top finishers finished within 53 minutes, significantly improving upon last year's champion time of 2 hours and 40 minutes, and comprehensively surpassing the human half-marathon world record.
More than 300 robots, representing 26 mainstream brands, from 13 provinces and cities in China, along with overseas laboratories from Germany, France, and Brazil, raced together in an extremely cybernetic style on a 21.0975-kilometer course.
The scene was packed with people, and looking around, there were so many (robot) people.
People thought it would be a hardcore technical test, but just five minutes into the live stream, it seamlessly shifted into an entertainment show. The on-site spectators were thoroughly entertained, and even human runners cheered for the robots in the starting area, a strangely moving scene.
The first to appear were almost all seeded contenders with high expectations. According to this year's competition rules, participating robots are divided into two modes: autonomous navigation and remote control. The results of the remote-control group are multiplied by a weighting factor of 1.2, with various in-race time penalties added on top. Therefore, the first robot to cross the finish line may not necessarily be the ultimate champion.
The start was an assembly line-style single release, with one robot dispatched every 30 seconds. During the race, robots had to keep to the right at all times, leaving the left side as a dedicated lane for overtaking and obstacle avoidance.
The instantaneous speed of the robots that started ahead was almost consistently between 6 m/s (21.6 km/h) and 8 m/s (28.8 km/h). Shortly after the start, robots that began later overtook those in front. Looking closely, some robots had ice packs tied to their backs for cooling.
Then came the first classic moment of the day: a robot suddenly braked to a halt mid-run, seemingly wanting to get into a vehicle. Another robot veered off the track and directly hit the roadside barriers, pulling off an Oscar-worthy "staged crash" performance.
During the race, robots are highly sensitive to obstacles ahead; the slightest issue can cause them to brake suddenly and fall. Therefore, the organizing committee required staggered starts specifically to avoid such chain-reaction collisions.
Robots don't consume energy gels, but there were energy replenishment stations along the course for battery swapping and emergency handling. During a pit stop, one robot lost some equipment without even noticing.
If speed is lacking, the style will take over. Add in hair strands fluttering in the wind, today's OOTD (Outfit of the Day) for humanoid robots was complete.
The course environment was more complex than last year. The full distance was 21.0975 kilometers, introducing the Nanhaizi Park ecological section. The track integrated more than 10 types of terrain, including flat ground, slopes, curves, and narrow sections, with 12 left turns and 10 right turns, including nearly 90-degree bends, severely testing the robots' path planning and dynamic balance capabilities.
As a result, falling down midway was pretty much par for the course.
Another classic moment on the track: a human runner and a robot raced side by side, and the robot suddenly accelerated and directly overtook the human. The freeze-frame moment was like a world-famous painting. What was the human runner thinking at that moment when he looked at the robot?
Most humanoid robots starting in the middle-to-late section had a different vibe: they swayed along slowly, as if tipsy, focusing mainly on finishing the race healthily. The most heart-wrenching scene occurred just before the finish line. A robot that had maintained a steady rhythm the entire time, with the finish line seemingly within reach, suddenly tumbled to the ground.
Emergency rescue kicked in. A stretcher-bearer had already rushed onto the track when, with the help of engineers, the robot shakily got back up on its own and crossed the finish line. And thus, the first robot to cross the finish line appeared.
Due to the staggered start, some robots ahead had already finished while those behind hadn't yet started. Midway, a tiny robot appeared, holding a baby bottle, embodying a cute aesthetic. Speaking of which, for such a short robot, could it really reach the finish line tape at the end?
As the race went on, the weather grew hotter. In addition to battery swapping, the replenishment stations also took on the task of physical cooling. Then came the celebrity entry: a Greater Bay Chicken-shaped robot (mascot of the 15th National Games) also took to the track.
Wow, some robots even stopped to "fan-service" the crowd, striking quite the pose, as if triggered by a "friendly-to-humans" protocol.
Another robot suddenly stopped swinging its arms mid-race, holding one arm aloft like a martial arts hero from Chinese novels.
After one robot crossed the finish line, perhaps too excited, it charged straight into a nearby green belt and had to be carried out by medical staff. Another contestant performed a serpentine 100-meter dash sprint just before the finish line.
There were also tender moments after the race. After working so hard, the engineers took group photos with their own robots.
Before the competition started, the most frequently asked question by netizens was: Why must robots look like humans?
The truth is, humanoid robots are so focused on bipedal upright walking because all of human society's infrastructure is designed around the "human" form. If a humanoid robot is truly going to enter factories and homes, a human-like structure adapted to the physical world is actually more suitable.
While I understand the logic, after watching today's race, I have a bold idea: to make robots run faster, why not just give them two wheels instead?
Yes, exactly like the one below:
Just kidding. The stumbling, crashing, headlong-into-the-green-belt steel figures on today's track represent the clumsiest version of humanoid robots, and perhaps the last era in which they will ever make such mistakes.
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