Episode 129
Running Man legend race is back! One of the best races ever on Running Man was The RM Team vs The Idol Team. Broadcast on January 20, 2013, The Idol team was back to face the Running Man team in the 2013 Running Man Winter Olympics. In this episode, seven idols came to compete with RM’s team. The guests were Ze;A’s Kwanghee, Shinee’s Minho, CNBLUE’s Yonghwa, CNBLUE’s Jonghyun, F(x)’s Sulli, MBLAQ’s Joon, and Infinite’s L.
The filming started at Gimpo Airport and introduced the idol guests right off the bat. When Kwanghee appeared, the Running Man teased him with disappointed expressions, then the second guest, Minho, appeared, making Jihyo love it so much, as opposed to the male members of the Running Man cast, who looked like they were ready to burn up. But his welcome was nothing compared to Sulli’s. Then it was Minho’s turn to grumble about his lack of fanboy fanfare. Kwang-hee told him that he was practically scolded when he arrived.
The idol guests continued to arrive, and when Jonghyun and Joon appeared, Haha shouted out that they (Running Man Team) would be the winner. So crazy funny. Then there was Yonghwa, and L to round out the rest of the idol team and make it complete. The Olympic torch was lit by resident figure skating star, Maknae FD, to commemorate the start of the Running Man Winter Olympics.
They started the race with a ski-sled relay race, and it was down to Minho versus Jong-kook. They were neck and neck as they approach the final turn, but Jong-kook miscalculated and turned too late at the corner. He nearly skidded out of control just as the finish line was within reach, and Minho slid past him for the win.
PD Nim introduced their the second game as an ice hockey match. But it wasn’t so much ice hockey as it is hard floor hockey, and the puck looked more like a robot vacuum.
The race was led by Running Man team at first, with a score of 2:1, but L and Minho work together to tie the score again. Even though the idol boys put in their all in the final minutes, the Running Man team won the match. However, competitive Minho said that he couldn’t acknowledge Kwang-soo’s goals.
Then, they headed to the next race. The game was set to take, place at a swimming pool and they had to do either a ski jump or diving jump.
The teams were pretty close by the time they got to their final contenders. But Jong-kook didn’t set up a wide enough gap, and they anxiously waited for Minho’s jump. Minho looked totally determined and Jae-suk joked, “We’re filming Running Man, but it looks like he’s on Dream Team!”. Minho made an impressive jump, but the Idol team still lost, by a mere 20 cm.
The teams headed inside for the day’s finale: Hide-and-Seek, Olympics style. As a reminder, the teams would have to switch off every 10 minutes between being hiders and seekers.
They were started with Running Man team being the ones who do the seeking and Idol team having to hide. Minho and Sulli made a run for it as soon as the speakers announced the switch, leaving Yong-hwa to fend for himself. But then, SpartAce (Jongkook and Jihyo) searched for Minho and found him behind a display. They quickly took him out. The jailed players were surprised to see Minho join them, and they all marveled over Jong-kook’s keen ability to hone in on his opponents. Minho confirmsed that the idols’ original plan was to take Spartakooks out first, but he was nowhere to be found.
Although the Idol team had been giving their best to be the winners, at the end, the Running Man team were the real winners and received the prize.
As with the previous time he appeared in Running Man, Minho was known well as someone who liked sport a lot and was a fierce competitor who enjoy the race in this episode, too. He competed with so much spirit, fighting in all the races and trying his best.
Episode 254 (as the Final Gatekeeper)
Girls Generation appeared as special guests in this episode of Running Man. The race name “The Game World”, and the show was broadcast on July 5, 2015. There were game rules about how to try to escape, but one thing was for sure: things got downright dirty really quickly, and some layers were peeled.
Seven ladies weren’t the only ones to be transported into this strange world—so were the guests, SNSD or Girls’ Generation: Taeyeon, Yoon-ah, Soo-young, Hyo-yeon, Tiffany, Sunny, Yuri, and Seo-hyun.
PD Nim explained the game, how they were to escape from being trapped in The World Game, and that they needed to clear every stage in order to return to reality. The group was already divided into teams: Yellow (Gary, Soo-young, Yoon-ah), Orange (Haha, Yuri, Tiffany), Pink (Jong-kook, Seo-hyun, Taeyeon), Green (Jae-suk, Kwang-soo, Hyo-yeon), and Blue (Suk-jin, Ji-hyo, Sunny).
Their first game drew its influence from Pac-Man. One team had to battle the other teams at various obstacles in order to get to the finish line in the mud flat. The fastest team would win, and the top two teams would snatch up hints. Unable to move, the Yellow and Orange teams grabbed the top two spots.
All the teams moved to next locations for the second game, which was another nostalgic game: Wall Tetris. The teams had duke it out to grab the flying tetris pieces and fill their “screens.” at the end of this second game, Tiffany was one step too late in grabbing the piece her team needed, which Jong-kook gave up, anyway. That’s how the Orange Team snags second place.
Then, they were rushed to the next location for finale stage, which was to take place at an expensive mall, where each team had to find four barcodes to crack the code and escape. The teams were told that a certain “Angel Code” would try to beat them to their escape, and they were Masked Men who were patrolling each floor.
Something, or rather, someone, else was moving on a different floor—Tuxedo Mask, who had a handsome, was Shinee’s Minho.
The Tuxedo Mask Man approached SNSD’s Soo Young, whose fear barely settled in before she ducked down moments before her masked opponent approached her. She kicked him away before calling him out by name, “Hey Choi Minho!”.
Shinee’s Minho was on Running Man staff side in this episode. He played the “Angel’s Code Leader” who was catching all the Running Man teams and ripping their name tags. Minho ripped off Sunny’s name tag before she even registered who it was, and then he eliminated Tiffany. He stopped for a water break with his VJ, assuring him that it would all be over soon.
Having wasted a little time, Minho blew past Yoon-ah to catch up to Gary, and eliminated him in seconds. Then he walked right past Yoon-ah. As it turned out, the cube spelled out her name, and all the enemies had been walking right past her the entire time. Yoon-ah slipped past Yuri and, at the same time, signed onto the computer and registered the “barcode” on her wrist, to essentially win the game.
Minho did a great job in this race, even though he lost to the Running Man teams. Good job flower boy, Minho!
