Zhang Huimin

Zhang Huimin (张慧敏; born 1999) is a Chinese girl who completed a 3,550 kilometres (2,210 mi) run from the southern Chinese province of Hainan to Beijing when she was eight years old. Each day, she rose at 2:30am, and ran the equivalent of 1.5 marathons, therefore running around 84 kilometres (52 mi) per day.

After this, Huimin ran from Shanghai to Nyalam County, Tibet, a distance of 5,800 kilometres (3,600 mi). Huimin managed to arrive after just 51 days. Waking once again at 2:30am each morning, she would run until 7pm covering nearly 115 kilometres (71 mi) per day, and wearing out 39 pairs of shoes in the process.

In 2009, Huimin set out to set a record for the Chinese government. She was to run until continuously only stopping for 15 minutes to rest every 6 hours. Reports say that she covered 541 miles at which point she collapsed the after running 143 hours. This counted against her next rest period. While she slept, they bandaged her feet and massaged her legs. It was revealed that her feet had swollen three sizes larger than normal. She was able to continue until she collapsed for the final time after 156 hours and running 579 miles.

Zhang Huimin, who was 1.22 metres (4 ft 0 in) tall and weighed 21 kilograms (46 lb), hopes to compete in the 2016 Olympic Games, when she will be 17.

Her father, who has been accused of forcing the girl to run these distances, has denied all claims, saying "I make the training fun for her. I don't push her...she loves to run. Many people don't understand us", saying that they would "soldier on" regardless of what people think.