Cen Wanjiang, 32, won the gold medal in the Guiyang Marathon in Guiyang, southwest China's Guizhou Province, on June 10. Before he became such an elite runner, he was a motorcycle mechanic and a worker in an electric factory.

Cen was born in Anshun, Guizhou Province, where 92.5 percent of the area is covered by mountains with no flatlands. Running has been part of his life since he was a kid, so he wouldn't be late for school or coming home. He showed talents in running at an early age and continuously won races in school and at county and even city levels.

Cen had his motorcycle garage in 2010. The business was not good, so he closed it after two years before going to south China's Guangdong Province and east China's Zhejiang Province to find other jobs. He participated in the Huangguoshu Half-Marathon in 2010 but didn't perform well. Disappointed with himself, Cen stopped running regularly for several years.

The turning point of Cen's marathon career happened in 2014, when he was working in an electric factory in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province. His cousin, who tried to lose weight, asked him to jog together. Cen picked up running again quickly and was able to finish 20 kilometers after two months of practicing. According to his cousin, his performance was a bit "scary."

Cen joined a local running group later and participated in a mountain-climbing race in Wenzhou in December 2015. Having finished it second, he won 600 yuan (about $83.82) in bonus. "At that time, my first thought was that I need to run well and make more money," he told Xinhua News Agency.

Cen recalled that he ran his first full marathon in March 2015 in Wuxi, east China's Jiangsu Province. It took him nearly four months to prepare. He would get up at 5:30 in the morning and run 15 kilometers before heading back to the dormitory, taking a shower, and then going to work.

Having finished his first marathon in two hours and 44 minutes, Cen began to compete in more races in the following years while continuing to improve his performance. As he made more money from bonuses, Cen decided to quit his job in the factory and become a professional marathon runner at the end of 2018.

Cen had no coach or team to support him, so he made his training plans based on his own experience. He told Xinhua that he runs about 900 kilometers per month for much of the year and over 1,000 kilometers per month in the winter.

"There is no shortcut in marathon. No pain, no gain. The most important thing to do is to stick to it and never give up," he said.

Cen's efforts began to pay off well in recent years. He finished the Taiyuan International Marathon in October 2010 in less than two hours and 20 minutes for the first time. In February, he won the title in the Hengqin Marathon with an event record of two hours, 14 minutes and 56 seconds. One month later, he set a new personal best of two hours, 13 minutes and 15 seconds in the Chongqing Marathon.

"My ultimate goal is to beat two hours and 10 minutes. I will work hard toward it. First, I target two hours, 11 minutes and 30 seconds, then two hours and 10 minutes. I will do it, step by step," he told Xinhua.