According to the organising team behind the 2021 Wings for Life World Run, ‘the gap between virtual and real life will all but disappear’ thanks to new app features for this year’s virtual event. These are designed to create an ‘event feeling’ for all participants in the global run challenge.
Wings for Life World Run Sports Director Colin Jackson said “Aside from the scramble at the start and the high fives at the finish line, our app can do pretty much everything that you could only otherwise experience at a real running event.
We’ve developed a digital grab bag that’s a lot of fun: it motivates, it cheers you on, it entertains.”
The organising team added…
- Despite the pandemic, participants in the global charity run on May 9 will have the chance to experience the joys associated with road racing even though they will be running on their own.
- The Wings for Life World Run app has been a work-in-progress since 2015 and has already impressed users with its innovative state-of-the-art features in recent years.
- With the new and improved app, it will now be possible to stage a global event with tens of thousands taking part simultaneously, running for those who can’t and raising funds for spinal cord injury research.
- Thanks to the app, even though they will be solo, participants will feel a tremendous sense of community that runners and wheelchair users ordinarily only experience at organised running events.
- Virtual fan clubs and catcher car drivers will give the runners and wheelchair users real-time encouragement and information during their race so they can really step on the gas when needed.
VIPs and celebrity athletes such as six-time MotoGP world champion Marc Márquez, Modern Family star Ariel Winter and Poland’s ski jumper Adam Malysz have also lent their voices to the app in its variety of different national language versions for a unique audio experience.
British broadcaster Nick Fellows added “This app will be so much fun to run with. Everyone can finally have that ‘runner’s high’ again for the first time in more than a year. It is the perfect tool to connect and have a fun day with likeminded people, but stay safe at the same time.”
The Wings for Life World Run app with an upbeat running playlist is available in 12 languages and can be downloaded from Google Play and App Store. More than 75,000 runners and wheelchair users reportedly registered for ‘the biggest app run ever’, starting at 11:00 UTC on May 9th.
