Run the Track on track to be China's landmark run

The 21.6 km route of the circuit is like the Chinese character "上(up)" from a bird's eye view and is believed to be good for moral on the first day of the new year. Another group comes from Formula One fans, who will have a chance to step where their heroes drive.

The run combines F1 culture and New Year celebrations to settle itself as a fixture in the city's New Year celebration. The ever-hot online discussions of F1 and the New Year celebration help the run become an equally hot topic of discussion.

Yang said the organizer never stops updating runners' experience on the track and creating new interactive topics online despite the fame of the F1 track to keep diehard fans more involved.

Service of the four-lap (21.6 km) run on the track is distinctive compared with other road marathons: Each 21.6km finisher has six data points in the official timing: the time of each of the four laps (5.4km), time of a half marathon (21.0975 km) and time of the full distance.

The current record for one lap is 16 minutes 28 seconds.

For the 2020 run, faster runners (half marathon under 1 hour and 50 minutes) will have enough space to race their best on this track as they will be separated from slower participants, who will start two and a half hours later at 10:30 am and take their time to experience the run.

Starting from the 48-minute quota sold-out this year, the organizers are aiming beyond the run. Liu Hui, general manager of co-organizer Headline Culture & Media Co Ltd, said they are aiming to keep the runners and other participants to stay for more fun at the festival after the run, citing the One America 500 Festival Mini-Marathon.

George Wei, general manager of another race organizer, Bright PR Shanghai, said the run needs to be spread out geographically, across the Yangtze River Delta region and beyond nationally and internationally, adding the expansion will be organized after a standard and systematized Run the Track brand has been built.