The 2nd edition of District Race Singapore saw over 3,200 explorers run through streets of Singapore is the country's largest-ever urban race powered by technology.
District Race is a ground-breaking technology platform that encourages Singaporeans to lead active, healthy lifestyles through the District Race app. With no set route or distance, participants choose how they explored the city, with the goal of completing virtual checkpoints and challenges with the District App to accumulate the most points within the race time limit. The app makes use of augmented reality and location-based technologies to create a unique experiential running experience for participants.
Over 3,200 participants were flagged off at The Meadow at the Gardens by the Bay, and raced through the city, completing 97,415 challenges and checkpoints and covering a cumulative distance of 33,609 km.
Mr Ben Pember, Chief Executive Officer of District Technologies said, "District Race was created to motivate everyone to get active through exploration and rediscover what their city has to offer. The high turnout at the 2nd edition of District Race Singapore is hugely encouraging and shows how District's tech-enabled experience appeals to the next generation of runners."
Evelyn Lim, a first-time participant in District Race Singapore said: "This is the first time I've participated in District Race. It's really quite unique because of the use of the District app and technology to navigate the checkpoints while you run, and I saw different parts of Singapore that I don't normally visit. I especially enjoyed the time trials where you need to sprint from one checkpoint to another within a very short time span and that pushed me to my limits."
District Race awards round-the-world trip to local runner as part of the Ultimate Explorer Challenge
"Our mission at District is to enable people to get active through exploration. To that end, we introduced the Ultimate Explorer Challenge in the lead up to the race to encourage anyone and everyone to explore their city and their limits by running with the District Race app. Our winner, Christopher Siva Chance has inspired us with his grit and determination. He truly embodies the spirit of exploration as our Ultimate Explorer," said Mr Pember.
The winner of the Ultimate Explorer Challenge will receive a round-the-world trip to try out District Race grids that are available in over 35 cities globally.
Christopher Siva Chance, winner of District's Ultimate Explorer Challenge said: "I'm an avid user of the app and have been using it since it was launched, but I still enjoy every District run that I do. I've put in a lot amount of time and effort to win this challenge and I am both shocked and thrilled to have won. Thank you District for giving me the opportunity of a lifetime to travel around the world and experience all these new District grids in other cities!"
Partnering MSIG Insurance to raise awareness on biodiversity and Plant-A-Tree Initiative Through its partnership with District Race, MSIG Insurance hopes to raise awareness on the importance of protecting biodiversity as part of its mission to help secure a sound future for the planet.
This year's District Race event included educational in-app challenges that highlighted interesting biodiversity facts in Singapore. Moreover, for every 5km clocked by individual participants during the race, MSIG Insurance and District race would plant a tree in Asia with the help of an environmental organisation.
Mr Craig Ellis, Chief Executive Officer of MSIG Insurance said, "MSIG is proud to partner District Race this year and supports the local running communities in adopting an active lifestyle. District's tech-enabled platform has enabled us to incorporate biodiversity-related challenges within the race this year, to educate participants about nature as they explore the city. Through these challenges, we hope they could experience and appreciate nature more, and be inspired to partake in our sustainability journey together."
"As an insurance company that sees the heart in everything, we understand the importance to protect what people hold dear and that includes preserving biodiversity which is facing grave threats today. We are heartened by the support of all District Race Singapore participants, and we want to make a positive difference through reforestation efforts which build on our other regional initiatives across Asia to protect biodiversity," said Mr Ellis.
District Race Singapore participants were motivated to go further, knowing that their collective efforts would contribute to the planting of more trees to support reforestation efforts. Forgoing the distance, a total of 6,722 trees would be planted in Asia.
Participants who had completed any of the MSIG Biodiversity Challenges were rewarded with a free giveaway. To help participants learn more about environmental issues, there were also educational activities at MSIG's event booth.
This partnership between MSIG Insurance and District Race is a follow-up to the MSIG Biodiversity Trail that was launched in August 2019 together with WWF-Singapore. The MSIG Biodiversity Trail was specially curated to educate the public on issues surrounding biodiversity and conservation. Set within Singapore's first UNESCO World Heritage Site – the Singapore Botanic Gardens, the interactive trail is designed to leverage District Race's experiential technology platform which combines urban exploration with gamification. The trail is available for free on the District Race app and the public can access it till 31 March 2020.
