HOHHOT, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Every year was separated into two seasons for Li Tao: one is the marathon season, and the other is ski season.

The boundary between the two is March.

"My marathon season is from March to October when I participate in various marathons all over the country. My ski season is from November to March of the next year when I start to practice skiing and participate in some cross country ski matches," said the 47-year-old Li, a retired long-distance runner.

Li has participated in 148 marathon matches since 2010, and his personal best was two hours and 49 minutes when he competed in the 2011 Beijing Marathon.

Five years later, Li had finished his first winter marathon in Jilin province at three hours and 34 minutes, just ten minutes later than his average time in the summer marathon. That's also when Li first became interested in winter marathon.

Li learned how to ski in 2018, when he wanted to participate in a winter Ironman event hosted in Yichun city, Heilongjiang province, consisting of a 3.79-kilometer run, 14-kilometer bicycle ride and 2.22-kilometer cross country ski.

"At that, I didn't know how to ski at all. But I wanted to give it a shot," said Li.

"It's easy to see and hard to learn. At first, I couldn't move uphill at all and fell down every time I moved downhill," added Li.

In the training class, Li Tao learned the difference between freestyle and classic techniques. After a couple of days of training and practice, Li managed to learn basic skills and finished tenth in the open group of the winter Ironman event in 2018.

Li Tao said he fell in love with cross country skiing from then on and gave most of his winter spare time to ski practice.

"It's quite expensive to ski in the resort for me, but we found a free one," Li said.

In his hometown of Hulun Buir, a northeast city in China where the 14th National Winter Games will be held in 2020, it snows once in a while in winter and temps are low. This allows the snow to be easily compacted for skiing.

Li participated in the open group of the cross country ski event of the second Inner Mongolian Winter Games in Hulun Buir in February.

Li described cross country skiing as an interaction with nature.

"Everyone is skiing across the trees, and you can see different scenes in each corner. The wind whispers in the ears, and sometimes you can enjoy the cheers from audience. I always felt quite at peace and comfortable, no matter what my result was," said Li.

As the temperature rises slowly in March, Li takes out his jogging shoes and other gear, getting ready for the upcoming marathon season, but he hesitates to pack up the ski equipment.

"I want to sign up for a ski training class to improve my skills. The 14th National Winter Games will be held here in one year, so my purpose is to participate in the open group of the cross country skiing, and I should get ready for it from now on," said Li.