He Ran 330km With Almost No Sleep—and Broke the Record
Thursday, September 17, 2026214 words3 minutes460 reads
Chinese ultrarunner Zhao Jiaju won the 2026 TOR330, Tor des Géants’ 330-kilometer race in Italy’s Aosta Valley, in 65 hours, 55 minutes and 22 seconds. Reports said he improved the previous course record by about 13 minutes. He was the first Chinese and Asian winner of the TOR330.
The course starts and finishes in Courmayeur and has roughly 24,000 meters of elevation gain. Its time limit is 150 hours. Unlike races divided into stages, TOR330 requires runners to manage their own food, rest and sleep. That freedom turns recovery into a strategic decision: too much rest costs time, but too little can damage concentration and speed.
Zhao ran through the first night, took a very short stop at Donnas, and later spent close to 50 minutes at the Gressoney life base for food, a massage, a change of clothes and a short sleep. Jonathan Schindler moved ahead while Zhao stopped, but Zhao recovered the lead and finished first.
Zhao previously worked in food delivery and has said that running between orders helped build his endurance. He became a serious trail competitor in 2017. In a race lasting almost three days, victory depends on more than speed: athletes must manage fatigue, weather, nutrition and the mental pressure of continuing when their bodies want to stop.
