On Sunday 11 October, LACTIK ran its first two races: one in Chennai, one in Bangkok. Two cities, two countries, the same day, on the weekend of World Mental Health Day. Both went as planned.
So why start in Asia? The World Health Organization’s figures on physical inactivity are harder to ignore in this part of the world than anywhere else.
TWO RACES, ONE SUNDAY
LACTIK’s first races in India and Thailand both took place on Sunday 11 October 2026: in Chennai, hosted by THE AHORA CLUB, and in Bangkok, hosted by JOGGLING RUN CLUB.
In both cities, teams started together, walked or ran their laps, shared the work at three stations, and stopped the clock only when the last teammate came home.
A big thank you to both clubs for welcoming us, and to everyone who lined up, started together and finished together. We will share more from both races soon.
A WEEKEND FOR MENTAL HEALTH
World Mental Health Day is held every year on 10 October. It was a fitting weekend to begin, because LACTIK is about physical and mental health at work, and the two are closer than people tend to think.
In its physical activity fact sheet, updated in June 2024, the World Health Organization says that physical activity in adults reduces symptoms of depression and anxiety.
That does not make a race a treatment. It does not replace good work organisation, manager training or professional support either. It is one shared hour in which colleagues move, breathe hard, and look out for each other.
WHY ASIA?
The World Health Organization put a number on the problem in June 2024: 31% of adults worldwide, about 1.8 billion people, were not doing enough physical activity in 2022.
Asia sits at the top of that list. In WHO’s figures for 2022, 48% of adults in the high-income Asia Pacific region and 45% of adults in South Asia were not active enough, compared with 28% in high-income Western countries.
And the trend is heading the wrong way. WHO projects that, if nothing changes, 35% of adults worldwide will be insufficiently active by 2030.
These are population numbers, and one race will not move them. What a race can do is show a team that moving together during the working week is normal, possible, and a good deal more fun than another meeting.
WHAT COMES NEXT
If you want to see exactly how a race runs, from the briefing to the last lap, we have written it all down in how a LACTIK team race works. And if you would like your own team on a start line, you can plan a race with us on lactik.co.
If you are new here, this is LACTIK in one sentence. LACTIK is a corporate team race: teams of five cover 1600 metres together, shared repetitions across three equipment-free stations, and finish on a single team clock with no individual rankings.
Start together, finish together.
SOURCES
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity
https://news.lactik.co/p/lactik-team-race-how-it-works-from
https://lactik.co/#plan