Adidas invites runners to share Two Oceans journey

Adidas SA is again going “all in” with their Old Mutual Two Oceans marathon (TOM) campaign, during which they invite all runners to share #my journey – or in other words: runners are invited to send them a photo and a story about what running has meant in their lives via instagram. It is a continuation of the popular “my journey” social media campaign launched in 2013 – but in 2014 the best story and picture will win the runner a trip to next year’s Berlin Marathon, also sponsored by adidas.

Lauren Haakman explaining the adidas #myjourney campaign

At the official TOM media launch and ultra-marathon registration opening, Lauren Haakman, adidas Brand Marketing Manager Performance, kicked off the campaign by inviting some adidas ambassadors to tell the stories of their running journeys.

Nicolene Mostert, Derrick van Dam, Letshego Moshoe and Lauren Haakman listening to Janez Vermeiren’s running journey

TV presenter Janez Vermeiren told how he runs all over the world wherever he is travelling; Survivor SA finalist Letshego Moshoe will be running her fourth ultra and will link her “running journey” to her charitable work with kids in Diepsloot; weather man Derrick Van Dam will run his second marathon in what he predicts will be a good weather day; while Nicolene Mostert started her journey with adidas as model, but became a runner and recently ran from Pretoria to Cape Town to create awareness of alzheimers and will climb Kilimanjaro just before the TOM to raise money to buy prosthetics for children.

adidas SA MD Roddy van Breda (second from left) will be running his 7^th Two Oceans ultra in 2014

A great part of the adidas heritage is built around running and they will therefore work with the TOM to ensure that runners sign up for the race, said Haakman. While the arrival of a baby will prevent Haakman from running the race, adidas SA MD Roddy van Breda will run his 7^th ultra-marathon.

Most of the adidas team wore brightly coloured Boost shoes

“It is a great brand opportunity to launch our latest technology,” Haakman said and referred to the main pairs of brightly coloured Boost running shoes worn at the launch. “Come the Expo and race day, you’ll be seeing lots of exciting things from adidas.” 

TOM manager Stefanie Schultzen announces the Designed to Run campaign

TOM manager Stefanie Schultzen announced that in less than three hours after online registration for the 45^th ultra-marathon opened, 500 people had already registered. They were confident that the 11 000 cut-off mark would be reached. To coincide with Cape Town being the World Design Capitol for 2014, the TOM’s theme will be “Designed to Run.”

Karen Thomas of Old Mutual announcing a R1-m bonus 

Sponsor Old Mutual announced a R1-m bonus for the man or woman to break the long standing race records: for men, the 3:03:44 time set in 1988 by Thompson Magawana, and women the 3:30:36 time set by Frith van der Merwe in 1989.  

Published by www.sportstrader.co.za