The Zhuji Xishi Half Marathon has unveiled its 2026 finisher medal, and it is the rare race memento that people will want even if they do not run.
The medal is a shell that opens on a hinge into three faces, each one a different view of the city and its most famous resident: Xishi, the Yue-dynasty beauty said to have washed silk on the riverbank here some 2,500 years ago.
At a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Race day | Sunday 15 November 2026, 7:30 |
| Start | Xishi Basketball Centre, Zhuji, Zhejiang |
| Field size | 12,000 runners |
| Course | Roughly 54 m of climbing over 21.1 km — a personal-best course |
| City positioning | "Beautiful Zhuji, home of Xishi" — the race is the city's cultural shop window |
One medal, three faces
The front: Xishi at the river
The shell is finished to look water-washed — translucent panels, a surface that catches light the way wet nacre does.
Turn the medal and the silver relief in the centre shows the woman herself, seated where the silk was washed, with lotus leaves around her. It is a deliberate piece of storytelling: you are running the city she is remembered in.
The earring
Above the relief hangs a small earring. Take it off the medal and it pairs with the earring from the 2025 edition — runners who entered both years end up with a matched set. It can also go on a chain or a bracelet, which is a more practical life for a medal component than most.
The third face: a wish for Zhuji
The third panel carries a line of calligraphy: 「常来诸暨，大吉大利」 — come back to Zhuji often, and may things go well for you. It is a piece of civic hospitality rather than race branding, and it is the face most people will photograph.
The back: your finisher plate
The reverse carries the race name and FINISHER, and — the useful detail — a magnetic name plate. The organisers engrave each runner's surname from the entry data and hand the plate over with the bib at packet pickup, so there is no separate queue and no sticker to lose.
The course and the city
Zhuji is an old race on the Zhejiang calendar, and the 2026 edition leans harder into the Xishi story: the route, the start village and the finish are all staged as a tour of the old Yue capital rather than as a generic city half.
For runners, the number that matters is the profile: about 54 metres of climbing across the half, which is flat even by Zhejiang standards. If a personal best is the goal for the autumn, this is one of the faster surfaces on the regional calendar.
What to know before race day
- The field is 12,000 — large enough that the start is seeded, small enough that the course does not feel like a procession.
- Registration for the 2026 edition runs through the race's official WeChat account; check the account rather than third-party resale listings.
- The medal's name plate is engraved from your entry data, so the name you register with is the name on the medal. Check it before you submit.
- Zhuji is about 25 minutes by high-speed rail from Hangzhou, which makes a same-weekend trip straightforward.
Sources and further reading
- Original article: "西施奖牌官宣！可三折叠还带耳环，诸暨西施半马太会了" — Mengxi Marathon Guide (WeChat)
- Zhuji Marathon official site — results archive
- Official race updates: the 「诸暨西施马拉松」 WeChat account
Curated and translated from the WeChat account 「梦汐跑马指南」, published 26 October 2026. Images belong to the original author and the race organisers; race details are subject to the organisers' official announcements.