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Marathon Wheelchair Warrior Baolin Zhou
浏览次数:2232次 更新时间:2017-09-01

   Baolin Zhou is the co-founder of Singularity Education; he is a training expert in China; he dabbled in corporate leadership, group building, and teenager educations area, etc.. He studied in schools such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, and Ohio State University. He was called the Wheelchair Warrior and Gobi Pedestrian etc. by the media. He is the first wheelchair runner of Beijing International Marathon. He accomplished the Eighth Journey of Xuanzang Gobi Challenge Race and the tenth, etc. He participated in dozens of marathons in China and other countries such as Athena Marathon, Shanghai Marathon, and Xiamen Marathon. He transformed into a warrior who travels in The Gobi from a high-level paraplegic patient in sixteen years. Baolin Zhou uses his life experience to explain the true meaning of life.

 

ONE OUTSIDE: After your life changed radically, how did you adjust your psychological status?

Baolin Zhou: There were three points. First, belief. Second, being grateful. Third, meaning. During suffering, I had help and encouragement from many people. I felt their selfless love, and I found my mission from them. I should spread the selfless love I received. My mission is to become a person who knows love; who creates love; who shares the love with other people. I hope my life can change fundamentally and my soul can submit. I found my mission; I take it as my belief, and it is my motivation. Although I am high level paraplegic, I still have my life. I am a child and a father of two children, and I should take my responsibilities and be a useful person to the society. Because I am grateful, I see what I have instead of what I lost. Those who only sees what they lost can only complain. They will be self-centered and worry about what they will lose. Those people who see what they have will be grateful. Because I am grateful, so I would treasure what is left of my life and hope my life can be more meaningful. I survived the most difficult time in my life because of these three points. These three points made me focus on my future, focus on being grateful and focus on what I want to do every day.

 

ONE OUTSIDE: We learned that you were invited to join a Gobi Challenge Race that was over 112 kilometers long and took four days and three nights. A healthy person can barely finish a race like this. Why did you decide to join?

Baolin ZhouBecause I am grateful. When you want to become a grateful person from the bottom of your heart, and when you see the people and things around you with a grateful heart, you will find there are a lot of good people and people who helped you around you. Before I was sick in 2000, I also liked outdoor sports. I liked to ski, skating, mountain climbing, and mountaineering, etc.. But after I became high level paraplegic, I thought that I would have nothing to do with outdoor sports and I forgot all about them. But still, I was envious when I saw people doing outdoor sports. Until June 2012, I got a chance to know Mr. Xiangdong Qu (former host of CCTV) who is the founder of the Pilgrimage Journey of Xuanzang. In the meantime, I also got to know the high jump champion of the third Paralympic Game——Bin Hou. He told me that the Gobi changed him and recommended me to go and see. Even though I said, I am grateful for this opportunity, but I did not believe it would work at that time. Because Bin Hou only lost his left shank, but I am high level paraplegic and three-quarters of my body can not move and can not sweat. Gobis diurnal temperature can arrive 40 degrees, only my head and neck can sweat so I can suffer sunstroke easily. The issue of relieving myself troubled me as well. On January 2013, they called me and said that they made some special arrangement and hoped me could join the Gobi Challenge Race. I was touched, and I could feel that those came back from Gobi Challenge Race are willing to help other people. In the matter of fact, it would be more easy for them if I did not go. But they did a lot of work and met a lot of difficulties to help me. Even though I said I would go and check it out, but I did not think that I could do it. After I had arrived at the Gobi, I met a lot of friends, and they ignited me with their enthusiastic, helpfulness and teamwork spirit. I joined the Gobi Challenge Race.

 

ONE OUTSIDE: When you decided to join the Gobi Challenge Race, did you anticipated the difficulties you would meet? What did you feel when you participated?

Baolin Zhou: I learned the problems I might meet in the Gobi in advance. There were eating, sunstroke, how to relieve myself and drinking water, etc.. I could not drink too much water; otherwise, I would need to relieve myself often; if I drink too little water, I could suffer sunstroke. When I made up my mind and decided to go, I found all kinds of ways to overcome all the problems. Such as I stopped eating solid food four days before the race started; I would drink a little water and lose the water in my system through sweat and this way I would not need to relive myself often. On March 2013, I finally arrived the Gobi. I was astonished by the endless field, and I felt like I had been here in my previous life. I did not just want to see it, and I wanted to walk on it as well. I experienced a four-day-three-night Gobi Challenge Race and stuck to the end with the help of volunteers. The volunteers carried me through the ditches that I could not pass by myself.

 

ONE OUTSIDE: You stuck to the end and became the first one who is in the wheelchair and finished this race. How it changed you psychologically?

Baolin Zhou: I did not think I finished the Gobi Challenge Race by myself. The reason of how I stuck to the end is because I felt the call of the spirit of action and insistence, and with the help of volunteers and my companions. I felt the Gobi Challenge Race changed me considerably. The first change is that I know myself better and I found out there are many things in my life that I havent explored yet. I also want to challenge the things that I was afraid to touch. The second change is that I am back to the person I used to be before high level paraplegic, who loves nature, loves life and loves sport. I have been to the Gobi six times. The fist time was in 2013, and I found out who I am; I recognized myself, and I surpassed myself. Since my second trip to the Gobi, I started to combine the feelings I felt in the Gobi and the spirit of Gobi into the education of teenagers qualities. The third change is that I become a volunteer for Beijing Ge You Foundation and help disabled children to step out of their homes and embrace the sunlight. I also join marathons which are the forth change. After I anticipated in Athena Marathon, I start to join full marathon multiple times every year. I founded Run for Love to combine charity with marathons.

 

ONE OUTSIDE: I heard that you met a lot of difficulties when you applied to join marathons due to your physical condition. Have you ever thought of quitting?

Baolin Zhou: All the overseas marathons I joined was due to the invitations of the committees before July 2015. Foreign countries encourage the disabled person to join marathons. To exercise both physically and psychologically, make them go out and increase their confidence. It also will help other people understand the disabled person and respect them.

  July 9th, 2015, I applied for Beijing Marathon, and I was declined. Beijing Marathon committee as a committee with 35 years of history in China, was been unreasonable to decline a person who is in the wheelchair. People on the wheelchair want to go out should be encouraged. So I posted on my Weibo and WeChat friend zone every day to appeal Beijing Marathon to accepts people on wheelchair. Hundreds of thousands of people paid attention to this matter, and all of our hard works paid off. Beijing Marathon broke through from zero to one and accepted its first runner who is in the wheelchair. We kept working afterward and Chinese Marathon Management Center issues formal stipulation on disabled people join Chinese marathon on September 2016. The stipulation said that if the route is suitable and the committee can guarantee the basic need of the disabled person, the committee can not decline the application of disabled person without proper cause. This a huge breakthrough in the history of Chinese marathon history and all of our hard wok paid off.

 

ONE OUTSIDE: Will you keep joining marathon?

Baolin Zhou: Definitely. Because I sit in the wheelchair too long, so my muscles below my chest atrophied severely and caused my muscles at ischium was abrased again. I had to do surgery, and I had to cancel eight marathons due to my surgery that year. I will keep joining marathon when I am recovered. But because of my physical condition, I would only join one marathon per season. Marathon is already a part of my life, it changed my lifestyle and made me more positive. I will continue to join marathon all my life.

 

Baolin Zhous Quotation:

1. I hope there is an island, and all the wise and good people could live together……. This is the dream of Einstein half a century ago. This is also the dream I treasured many years and could not chase. You need to be wise to teach books, and you need to be kind to teach people. I found out my job as an educator is the reflection of this dream island. I am building this island while chasing my career.

2. Difficulties are the hammer of fate to forge the souls of warriors. Even though my body is bound to the wheelchair, but it can not stop me from accompanying over a hundred of students to go through the Gobi as their graduation ceremony. It also can not stop me from join marathon while doing charity. It can not keep me from the sun and run around the world.

3.Repentance is the key to open the door of the wisdom of life; failure is the hammer that forges warriors. I believe you can overcome yourself. Even though you are not an Olympic champion, you can still be the champion of your life.

4. Lodger, bodies can not trap the light of wonderful life and the flame which ignites the meaning of life. I keep exploring in life and education.

5.I can do it as a high-level paraplegic patient, and you can do it as well.

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