Men’s & Women’s Health Fest in Gorky Park

About 15,000 people took part in the Men’s & Women’s Health Fest held in Gorky Park on June 7.

The festival included the Men’s Health Urbanathlon adventure race. More than 500 participants lined up at the start of the 15-kilometer (9.3 miles) race through Neskuchny Garden and Sparrow Hills and over a course that included six challenging technical obstacles. A total of 300 men and 115 women successfully navigated the course to cross the finish line.

The first group of four contestants started at precisely 2 p.m., with each successive group starting at one-minute intervals over the next two hours. The final participant crossed the finish line at about 6 pm. Contestants ran for the first part of the race, with the return route passing through the hilly areas of Sparrow Hills. There, the runners encountered the technical obstacles: a labyrinth, rope net, barriers, car tires, “monkey bars” and walls. The monkey bars turned out to be the most difficult part, and following some light rainfall halfway through the event, it became necessary to eliminate that obstacle. In the end, the judges decided not to include the monkey bars in the final results.

Sergei Rybak, a resident of the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia, took first place in the 2014 Men’s Health Urbanathlon adventure race with a time of 52 minutes, 39 seconds. The second and third places for men went respectively to Muscovite Alexander Cheburkin (53 minutes, 1 second) and Alexander Gusev (53 minutes, 25 seconds) of the Moscow region city of Lytkarino. In the women’s category, Muscovites captured the top three spots: in first place, Yulia Krukova (1 hour, 3 minutes, 47 seconds), in second, Maria Bystrova (1 hour, 6 minutes, 2 seconds) and third, Nadezhda Trilinskaya (1 hour, 7 minutes, 31 seconds).

In addition to the race, festival organizers staged a variety of workshops: a new form of fitness in special new Kangoo Jumps shoes, a Zumba dance fitness program and Les Mills BodyCombat cardio training that combines elements of martial arts, cardio training with elements of the most popular dance moves from Les Mills Sh’jam with BodyBalance, a workout that incorporates basic elements of yoga, pilates, tai chi and more.

Registered festival participants could enjoy a free beauty bar where they could quickly refresh themselves between workshops or after running the Men’s Health Urbanathlon. The beauty bar was staffed by representatives from Avon, Tochka Kasania salons, the Deborah Lippmann brand and Anastasia Beverly Hills.

Men’s Health editor-in-chief Kirill Vishnepolsky and Women’s Health editor-in-chief Maria Troitskaya were also on hand to sign autographs. The Men’s Health Urbanathlon participants could restore their spent energy with the help of smoothies from Braun and 012 fitness ice cream.

The Men’s & Women’s Health Fest ended with performances by the Nizkiz and Chicherina groups.

Reebok served as fitness partner to the festival, 21 Vek insurance acted as the event partner and NRJ radio and television channel Moskva 24 served as media partners.