WUHAN — As he crossed the finish line of the Wuhan Marathon on Sunday, Ma Zhiyong pulled out his phone with trembling fingers. His chest heaved, sweat dripping from his forehead, but his face glowed with an irrepressible smile.

The first message he sent out was to his family: "I'm safe."

From a distance, Ma was hard to miss — a gray-haired runner, breathless but beaming. Up close, his voice was barely audible, a whisper that hinted at the battles he had fought. At 55, Ma had undergone three surgeries for throat cancer, leaving him without vocal cords. "The sound is produced by my muscle and airflow," he explained, touching his throat with a calm composure that belied his struggles.

The Wuhan Marathon marked Ma's 18th full marathon, but the start of his journey as a runner was a life-changing tragedy. In April 2018, Ma, a staff member at a local agriculture bank in Chengde, Hebei province, was diagnosed with throat cancer.

Thirty days after his initial surgery, Ma's doctor advised him to engage in moderate exercise.

"The hardest part was the moment under general anesthesia, when I felt my soul drifting away. After that, nothing else seems difficult," he said.

Ma's journey was anything but easy. After three half-marathons, his cancer returned in 2021 and again in 2022, requiring two more surgeries. But as soon as his body allowed, Ma hit the road. Running was no longer just an exercise; it was a defiant statement that he was still here, still moving forward.

Since Nov 3, he has finished marathons in Beijing, Guangzhou in Guangdong province, Chongqing and Wuhan in Hubei province. "I was told that I might have completed the four grand slams in record time," he said.

Wearing a red headband and matching earbuds, Ma stood out in the bustling post-race crowd like a warm flame. His laughter, though raspy, was hearty, carrying a magnetic optimism. Simply being near him made others feel lighter.

"Running has made me more open, more cheerful and simpler in my outlook on life," he said. "We get about 30,000 days in a lifetime. Why spend them frowning when you could be smiling?" With a playful wink, he added, "Don't I seem pretty sunny to you?"

During the interview, runners stopped to wave and exchange greetings with him.

His social media channel, "Happy Running Brother Ma", features 188 videos — snapshots of him sprinting through marathons across China, always flashing his signature grin.

"I'll keep running. I'll live every day with sunshine in my heart," Ma said. Then he paused, his voice barely above a whisper, yet resolute, "As long as I'm alive."

Xinhua