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Thursday, March 28, 2024

The Music Run makes running sound so good

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“Healthy lifestyle is increasingly becoming an important part of the lives of millennials. But [with doing so] they don’t want to sacrifice fun. They want to have fun.”

This is how Ben Pember and his teammates over at Exceed Sports & Entertainment see the preference of this generation of 18 to 35 years old for healthy, physical activities. It’s no longer just sweating it out and calling it a day. Exercising has to be an experience—an enjoyable experience at that.

In anticipation that mass participation sports, such as running, will be the next big thing, paired with the aforementioned inclination of youth towards “healthy ways to have fun,” Exceed—an event and sponsorship group—launched The Music Run.

The Music Run is a non-competitive, untimed five-kilometer run and music festival. Yes, you read it right. It’s a fun run and a music fest rolled into one event.

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It features an immersive musical experience that takes runners through a five-kilometer course called “The Sound Track.” The route is divided into five Music Zones, in one-kilometer distance each. The course starts with Rock, followed by Pop, then Old School, Hip Hop, and ends with Dance. Each themed zone plays five songs under the said genre. The playlist is picked by the Music Runners prior to the event via a customized Spotify voting mechanism.

The idea is to make participants hear the songs they would listen to when they’re running  by themselves, only this time everyone can hear it.

“Millions of people use music to enhance their running experience, but usually they’re doing that using their headphones, and it’s a very personal experience,” Pember told Manila Standard. “We wanted to transform that experience and make it something that you could share with thousands of your friends.”

The first gunshot of The Music Run was fired in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2014. Since then it became a global phenomenon that spread in Bangkok, Hamburg, Los Angeles and New York, among others.

And for the second time, the beat was heard in Manila on Dec. 3, following its successful debut at the Philippine Arena last year.

An energetic crowd of over 10,000 flocked to McKinley West in Taguig City to “live the beat” while sneakily squeezing in an hour of workout. “Last year we had about 8,000 [participants], so it was a healthy increase [this year],” said Pember.

The Music Run by Philam Vitality participants traversed the course lined up with 120 concert-quality speakers pumping 150,000 watts of music—meaning there was a song playing in every step from Start to Finish.

Pushing further the immersive experience, special interactive activities were set up in each zone: cool pyrotechnics welcomed runners in the Rock zone, a tunnel with hanging balls in the Pop zone, a stage featuring AirAsia crew lip-synching to the top voted songs in the Old School zone, photo opportunities with graffiti artists and dancers in the Hip Hop zone, and a mobile disco tunnel with glowing lights in the Dance zone.

Before hitting the track, Music Runners are treated to a pre-party at the Music Village featuring alternative soul band Sud; Gold’s Gym led the mass warm up. There was also a number of music and fitness-inspired booths around the Music Village courtesy of event sponsors.

For the music festival aspect of the event, Australian radio house DJ Sam Withers, who was a big hit in last year’s after-run concert, kept the energy high with his upbeat mixes complemented by laser lights and dance performances. He even led Manila’s biggest mannequin challenge—a viral Internet video trend—as everyone came to a standstill.

At the end of the day, the event was both a healthy and fun experience. Who would have thought that running would sound this good?

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