On the afternoon of December 10th at 4 o'clock, the first stage of the "Upward Marathon" started simultaneously at three venues:the Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Teaching Buildings of  Xiangtan Institute of Technology. 448 climbers were eager to participate in this competition.

"3, 2, 1, Go!" With the command the contestants climbed up like arrows leaving the bow, taking long strides as they climbed. "Swhoosh~" Their figures disappeared at the corner of the stairs, leaving only dense and powerful footsteps echoing in the stairwell.

14.79 seconds! Fan Wei from Class 2201 of the Vehicle Engineering Major won the championship in the first stage challenge. "Drip, drip,"after two seconds, he climbed one floor. Throughout the entire climb, he constantly challenged his limits, breaking through one sharp turn after another. This was his third time participating in the stair-climbing competition held by the school.

He said that the "Upward Marathon" is not just only a physical challenge, but also a journey of self-transcendence. Through the challenge of climbing high, he realized that human potential is boundless. As long as one one dares to take on challenges, one can constantly break through one's own limits and achieve higher goals.

"I want to climb the Xiangjiang FFC(Xiangjiang Fortune Finance Centre) to exercise and improve myself",said Yuan Shiyu from Class 2401 of Human Resources Management Major ,who achieved a time of 21.76 seconds in this competition. She hopes to keep running forward and achieve satisfactory results in the next competition.

The "Upward Marathon" competition is divided into four stages. The first stage takes place on the 5th to 6th floors of the campus building. The second stage is  on the 15th to 20th floors of the Furong Chunxiao residential building. The third stage challenges participants to climb from the 26th to 33rd floors of a high-rise building. The ultimate challenge is to ascend from the 36th to 46th floors of the 328-meter-tall Xiangjiang Fortune Finance Centre(FFC). As the competition progresses through each stage, the corresponding challenge difficulty will also continue to increase.

At present, the first stage of the Upward Marathon competition has come to an end. Liu Xi, a teacher at the Quality Education Center of Tam Chau College of XIT, stated that the "Upward Marathon" competition advocates for a green, low-carbon, and healthy lifestyle, encouraging students to face difficulties and break through their own limits, and to establish the concepts of exercise, health, and environmental protection through continuous practice and competition.