Throughout December, we invited all of you to take part in our annual survey. The questions covered motives of event participation, virtual running, travelling, exercising and training for races. We are pleased to see 3,994 unique respondents from 17 countries in Asia – Pacific taking our survey, and we happy to share the results with you.
What matters the most to race participants?
We asked you to pick the most important factors that you consider prior to joining an event. We got answers ranging from “Clean toilets”, to “Post-Event Carnival”, and “Food Trucks” to “Attractive Podium Prizes”, and everything in between. Below are the most frequent answers.
It can be seen that the top factor was “Runner’s Entitlements” both in Singapore and Malaysia. Other than that, it seems that the reputation of the organiser is more important as a deciding factor with Malaysians. On the other hand, Singaporeans seem to be more sensitive to pricing, possibly due to the ever-increasing ticket prices.
Favorite type of events
Next, we looked at the different type of events, and how appealing they are to runners of both genders. “Road Runs” are undoubtedly the most popular by far. The second place was “Theme Runs” (which includes walks, costume runs etc) for women but “Trail Runs” for men. “Virtual Runs” were also found to be about 3 times more popular with women compared to men. Other event types that made it into the Top 10 were Triathlons, Duathlons, and Vertical Runs and Tower Climbs.
When it comes to running events, it is clear that most men prefer Half Marathons and 10km races, while women prefer races that are 10km or below. This finding is in agreement with a previous global study which showed that shorter distances are generally preferred in Asia.
Frequency of Participation
As can be seen from the graph below, more than 60% of runners have joined at least 4 events during 2019, and about 20% of runners joined over 10 events. When broken down by country, however, we can see different trends forming. In Singapore, for example, over 40% of runners only joined 3 or fewer events.
Overseas running
Travelling abroad for a race, often referred to as “runcation”, is an increasingly popular thing to do. We asked our users if they joined any overseas race in 2019, and if so, how much they spent in total on their trip.
When it comes to travelling to run, Singaporeans are at the top of the list, as almost 1 out of 4 Singapore-based runners joined an overseas event in 2019. For comparison, the percentage in Malaysia is only about 16%, while the overall percentage is about 22%. The majority of those who travelled to run has spent less than US$1,000, all expenses included.
Virtual Running
A virtual run is a race that you can complete at your own pace and time. Virtual running works exactly the same as any other type of running but the difference is that the entered race can be run at any location, either outside or inside on a treadmill. All that participants have to do is register for a race and provide evidence that they have done it. The evidence can be a screenshot of a running app, a photo of the treadmill screen etc. A wide variety of virtual runs and challenges can be found on our ticketing platform.
The majority of our respondents have joined at least one virtual run in 2019, and it is evident that, just like the offline races, design of the entitlements matters the most when it comes to deciding factors for joining. In second place of the list came “Value for money” which is indeed one of the value propositions of virtual running.
Training and Exercise
We designed the last section of the survey to help us understand the training habits of our members. The weekly mileage broken by gender that is shown in the figure below clearly indicates that men are clocking more km’s than women, however, the percentage of women who only do non-running exercise, such as zumba, crossfit, spin classes, cycling etc, is more than triple to that of men. Also, 62% of respondents said that they prefer running and training by themselves.
Lastly, when we asked people to tell us what are their top motives for exercise, we received the following answers in order of popularity:
- Health ~ 32%
- Weight loss ~ 18%
- Wellbeing ~ 18%
- Mental health ~ 14%
- Socialising / Exercise with friends ~ 9%
- Training for an event ~ 9%
Who is Who
Winners of our Giveaway
Congratulations to the following 50 winners of our lucky draw! We will be contacting all of them via email over the next days, and their prizes will be shipped by the first week of February.
| Ahmad Asyraf Aslah Buchin | Juwis Sarang |
| Aileen Yeap | Kah Wai Vincent Low |
| Andrew Goh | Kam Cheong Lau |
| Ang Kian Boon | Keith Nair |
| Arrow Chan | Kenneth Loh |
| Arvin Tunas | Khai Kong Ng |
| Bernadette Christina Swyny | Lillian Sim |
| Ces Ong | Mariama Ramasamy |
| Chin Teck Teoh | Mathilda Joyce Maxwell |
| Chua Eddy | Min Goh |
| Clancie Ng | Muhammad Zaki Mohamad Zainol |
| Emil Ismail | Noorie Safarina |
| Emily Goh | Nursyazlin Radzali |
| Glenn See Toh | Pamela Lee |
| Goh Wei Jun | Poi Seng Jonathan Lee |
| Haris Hoh | Ridzuan Sukri |
| Huda Mahmud | Rita Umar |
| Irene Goh | Roslyn De Mesa |
| It Liang Low | Ryan Tay |
| Jamie Yang | Shafarizan Senawi |
| Jane Gabinete | Siti Anisah Bt Zan |
| Jenny Chang | Stephanie Liew |
| John Patrick Agustin | Tan Kim Yau |
| Joshia Manggala | Thomas Lee |
| Juliana Jalil | Vanitha Saigaran |
You can find more data in my original post on LinkedIn here.
