NTU’s annual marathon will be held on December 9^th at the sports ground on the main campus. All teams and participating athletes will gather in front of the commander’s platform for the opening ceremony at 8 a.m, and at 8:30 a.m. the President of NTU will fire the starter’s gun to commence the race. Altogether 4,199 people are participating in this year’s marathon (last year there were 4,504), and they will be divided into the Challenge Group, the Health Group, and the Adaptation Group. The Challenge Group will be subdivided into the Boys Group, the Girls Group, and the Staff and Alumni Group, whereas the Health Group and the Adaptation Group will remain undivided.

This year’s new addition is the Intercollegiate Group, which has 81 runners representing National Chengchi University, National Taiwan Normal University, National Taipei Educational University, and National Cheng Kung University. As the number of participants has kept increasing over the years, the marathon race has become a major event of NTU at the end of every school year. The Sporting Events Office holds that as the marathon is a race of endurance and speed, every participant is a leading character, and whoever perseveres to the end is a winner. Especially regarding the Adaptation Group members, although their bodies are not as dexterous as the others, their courage is worthy of commendation. We should root for every single one of them.