Motivational audiobooks send joggers on a personal adventure

Story Running is a series of exercise-length short stories designed to add an imaginative element to trips round the park and inspire joggers to keep going.

Many regular runners can’t go for a jog without a playlist to energize them to keep moving. But can audiobooks provide the same motivation? The Austria-based team behind the Runtastic app believe so, and have created Story Running — a series of exercise-length short stories designed to add an imaginative element to trips round the park and inspire joggers to keep going.

In each of the current four 40-minute titles available in the Runtastic library, the runner is the main character in the story. In The Carrier of Truth, narrated by rapper Masta Ace, the protagonist is escaping from Alcatraz, while voice artist Maj Ingemann Molden is searching for a cure in woodlands in the more fantastical Journey of Iomluath. Each audiobook was created with professional actors and sound technicians and includes music timed to motivate runners. The stories begin slowly before becoming more exciting at the peak of the run, and wind down again towards the end, matching the activity curve of interval training. The video below acts as a trailer for the Story Running series:

Available for iOS, Android and Windows devices in both English and German, Story Running aims to give joggers a new angle for motivating themselves by placing them in the center of stimulating stories designed to get their hearts racing. Are there other ways to keep people entertained while they exercise?

Spotted by Alexia Maury, written by Springwise