Humanoid robots are Silicon Valley’s latest obsession, but real-world performance has lagged the hype. That may be starting to change, however, after a robot beat the human record for a half marathon by nearly seven minutes in Beijing. While tech companies around the world are piling into humanoid robots, China has made it a national priority. The government is pouring subsidies and infrastructure investment into the sector, and Chinese firms already account for around 80 percent of the humanoid machines shipped globally, according to the South China Morning Post . Eager to show off its prowess, China has been staging sporting events for robots, most notably last year’s inaugural World Humanoid Robot Games. Another such event, the Beijing E-Town Half Marathon, pits humanoid robots against thousands of human runners over a 13-mile course. Last year, most of the non-human competitors failed to finish, and the fastest robots managed an unimpressive two hours and 40 minutes.…