The 100% Você racing circuit, which emerged in January last year to boost the food supplement business of the family of axé music idol Bell Marques, 73, grew and appeared.
In a single year, the 5 km and 10 km races that precede the show by the duo of Rafa and Pipo, Bell’s sons, here with the mandatory participation of their father, passed through all the capitals of the Northeast, as well as Belém, Brasília and Goiânia.
Now, after repeating it in Salvador in January and in Fortaleza at the end of March, the circuit extends further south: it arrives in Vitória and Rio in April. Then, on May 1st, he returns to Brasília.
The event is massive, as are off-season Carnivals throughout Brazil. In João Pessoa, last November, the race had around 15 thousand registered, according to the organizers.
For Pipo Marques, 32, who last year completed his first marathon, the Berlin marathon, in a very decent time of sub 3h40, this year’s goal is to reach 30 events. The circuit, as he told the column, “has taken on proportions never imagined” and “it is possible that it will become the largest in Latin America by the end of the year”.
The ambition is great, but, according to Pipo, far from being “the main concern” of the family. It is also not very feasible. Two huge racing circuits from national lifestyle brands, Track&Field and Live, both also leveraged by financial brands, compete for primacy: in 2026, Live promises 80 events; the Run Series, from T&F, 75, but both with a larger menu of distances beyond the traditional 5 km and 10 km.
But Pipo, Rafa and Bell can say that they offer the difference of axé music, and, in fact, they take to the stage right after recovering from the 5 km race, which they never do without.
Having a musical show, interestingly with a Bahian attraction at the end of the race, is not exclusive to Bell and his sons, as the Toca Raul circuit, created by Santos native Washington Reis, is going from strength to strength in small cities in the Southeast, someone who was not a fan of Raul Seixas but knew how to understand the impressive appeal that Raulzito maintains so many years after his death.
At the end of the 7 km run and the 2 km walk, there is always a Raul covers show, sometimes starring one of the look-alikes who sweated out their tank top (or jacket) minutes before, during the race. Next Saturday (14), the caravan shakes up Bueno Brandão, Minas Gerais. On the 28th it is Peruíbe’s turn, where in past incarnations Reis was twice Municipal Sports Secretary.
It is symptomatic that two popular Brazilian racing circuits rely on musical attractions to gain momentum, but if last year the retired Kenyan marathon runner Paul Tergat came to Brazil to warm up the centenary of São Silvestre, another fellow countryman of Tergat, this “alive and kicking”, although no longer in the top 10 of the category, should come to compete in a 42.2 km winter race here. The announcement will be made in a few days.
A Kenyan of this latitude is a “major” attraction for amateurs who see themselves as professionals — and who consume as such, to the delight of the industry. What these runners may not yet know is the ability to generate energy that Bahian music offers its fans.
I don’t doubt that it’s more energy than that “returned” by the midsole of your responsive sneakers.
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