Although lacking in appeal for serious runners, they say fun runs are a good way to motivate people to participate in sport and encourage healthy living. Photos: Cui Meng/GT

Raising health awareness

For people in Beijing, The Color Run is a great opportunity to remind people how important and fun physical exercise can be.

According to a report released on June 10 by the Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning, obesity is on the increase.

At least 21.9 percent of Beijing's permanent residents have a body mass index (BMI) over 28, indicating they are overweight.

This is an increase from 19.1 percent in 2011, meaning that 21 out of every 100 people in Beijing are overweight.

Zhu Dejian, a fitness instructor at the Shichahai Fitness Club, was one of the leading instructors at the color party. According to Zhu, entertaining races such as The Color Run, Run For Your Lives and The Light Run, are great ways to improve people's health awareness, but still they are not enough to ensure people stay healthy.

"People still need to do more mundane everyday exercises to keep fit and healthy," said Zhu. "I think events such as The Color Run are more suited to people's mental health, which can help them relieve pressure and be happy, but you can not get a proper workout by only relying on this annual event."

No professional appeal

Chris Clark, CEO of Fusesport who organizes and provide technological support to The Color Run worldwide, told Metropolitan that since its debut in 2012, the event continues to grow.

"Since it started in 2012, 1.6 million runners across the world have attended," said Clark. "The color and music symbolize the happiness everybody is feeling. Everybody wants to share their happiness."

Asked how organizers plan to sustain the popularity of The Color Run, Clark said he believed that after three successful events in Beijing, they had found the winning formula and its format would remain unchanged.

"Its ability to sell out and attract 30,000 people in a single day proves that," he said.

However, The Color Run holds less appeal for more serious runners.

Li Xiang, 27, attended the last two Color Run events in Beijing. This year, he decided not to take part.

His interest has shifted to professional races such as the Beijing and Shanghai marathons and races abroad like the Copenhagen and Boston marathons in Denmark and the US respectively.

"Serious runners seldom take part in these fun runs. Five kilometers is also a relatively short distance, not even enough to warm up properly," said Li, adding that the large number of people participating in the event leaves little room to actually run.

"Worldwide people taking part in The Color Run are mostly not professional runners; they just love to have fun, so they just walk the 5 kilometers and play," said Clark.

While this doesn't suit Li's running ambitions, he says fun runs are an effective way to encourage people to take part in the sport and they can co-exist alongside professional races.

"They attract different groups, and they will grow together without interfering with each other," said Li.