14 DAY TRIAL // China is now home to the world's first – and hopefully the world's last – rectangular running track. The track, part of which is visible in the photo accompanying this article, is located in the country's Heilongjiang province.
According to local media reports, this oddly shaped running track is the creation of a group of workers who were put in charge of renovating a 10,000-square-foot (about 930-square-meter) stadium in China's Tonghe County.
Word has it that these workers had absolutely no intention to build the world's first rectangular running track when they began work on this project. Thus, they only opted for rectangular corners when things got a little bit out of control.
Apparently, the team was considerably behind work when it was announced that several high officials would pay them a visit in order to check on their progress. When hearing this news, the project managers pretty much freaked out.
As explained by Oddity Central, the reason they got so scared when learning about the upcoming inspection was that they were too far behind schedule to be able to build a regular running track by the time the high officials arrived.
Consequently, the project managers settled for the next best thing, and instructed workers to build a rectangular track. This is because, when compared to regular oval ones, tracks with right angles in their corners are far easier to complete.
“In order to get it ready for the leaders, we painted it like that,” one of the project managers reportedly said in a statement. “We think it is ugly too but if the leaders don’t ask us to change it, what are we supposed to do?” the man went on to explain.
Several folks have until now had the chance to go for a run on this peculiar track in China. They all say that the bizarre corners force runners to slow down to a considerable extent whenever they reach them. Rumor has it that a woman simply decided to stop running after one too many unpleasant experiences.
“It is strange indeed. Normally curves speed up people but these corners slow you down. It is quite inconvenient,” a runner told the press in a recent interview. “It’s impossible to run on such a surface,” added a professional long-distance runner by the name Zhang Yong.
Apart from compelling runners to slow down quite often, the track's corners constitute a threat to people's health and wellbeing. Thus, specialists warn that, unless careful enough when approaching them, people risk muscle damage and other injuries as a result of the sharp turns the track compels them to make.
If you have the time, check out the video below to get a better idea of what it feels like to run on a rectangular track.
