This humanoid marathon had everything: some bots fighting for their lives, others casually breaking records 🤖

On April 19, the 2026 Beijing Yizhuang Humanoid Robot Half Marathon wrapped — and this year, it officially turned into a “did that just happen?” moment 🤖🏃‍♂️

In 2025, the first edition was basically chaos: around 20 teams, a 70% failure rate, robots drifting off course, losing power, or needing constant human support. Only 6 finished, and the winning time was 2 hours 40 minutes.

Fast forward one year, and the scale — and performance — jumped massively. Over 100 teams, 300+ robots, and nearly 40% running fully autonomous (no remote control, just onboard sensors and algorithms).

The standout: “Shandian” (Lightning) by Honor crossed the full 21.0975 km in 50:26 ⚡ That’s about 2.8x faster than last year’s robot champion — and even faster than the current human world record of 57:20, set by Jacob Kiplimo just weeks ago.

It wasn’t even a perfect run. The robot had a collision mid-race, recovered using its dynamic balance system, and only needed one battery swap at 10.6 km. Even more wild: the top 3 finishers were all from Honor’s robot team — and all fully autonomous.

Of course, the race still had its chaotic moments: some robots collapsed near the finish, others ran straight into bushes, and one tiny robot stopped mid-race while nearby robots literally paused to “watch” and clap 😂

And then there was the unexpected star: a cute mini robot called “Mini Pi Plus” casually running while carrying its own milk bottle 🍼 which somehow made the whole race feel even more unhinged.

From barely walking to beating humans in a year — this race is starting to feel less like a stunt, and more like a preview.