Running is growing increasingly popular. I'm not a trendspotter or anything, but I never saw that many people who start-to-run, talk about running, motivate each other, share training results, experiences and tips, talk about running equipment, attend mass running events, etcetera, etcetera. There's a lot going on the latest years about running. This blog post's a quick run-through about the buzz around running, the smart marketing by sports brands and the massive running events.
RUNNING CELEBS
As I see it, this running hype in Belgium started with Evy Gruyaert's "Start To Run"-sessions. For those who might not know Evy. She's a popular and goodlookin' presenter for the Dutch-speaking Belgian public radio and television. 
The program lays out a plan to a more healthy life for people who know they need more exercise but who never quite "get it to" (sounds familiar?).
It's all about the podcast! The podcast makes you go from zero to hero, with Evy's motivating voice talking to the wannabe-athlete as if she were your personal coach. "Start to Run" was a tremendous success, largely thanks to word-of-mouth. I've seen it happen many times to men and women: people running with Evy simply love it, they talk to others about it and look forward to the next session.
I once went out with Evy too, but I'm sooo over her now 
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It's great stuff and it has everything it takes to get tremendous buzz. People talk about Evy in one-to-one conversations as well as in social media. In the latter, they reach a whole audience of (a few hundred) friends. And as we all know: in friends we trust, more than anyone or anything.
RUNNING TOOLS
Basically all you need is a pair a good shoes. The shoes you wear are very important to prevent pain and injuries. Stores like the Runners Service Lab have got their story straight. They add a scientific and very much personalized touch to buying running shoes. When you go there, you're asked to run on a surface. That surface is connected to a computer that analyzes and displays how you put your feet on the ground when running. Based on this information, the friendly, specialized sales person can recommend you the shoe that fits your profile. The shoe you buy even gets adjusted if necessary. The focus is clearly on service, which allows them to sell shoes at a price premium. But enough about the basics. Now, let's talk about the tools and gadgets that really add up to the fun .
It motivates if you can track your runs. Fanatic runners already used specialized equipment for this purpose (like a Garmin GPS-enabled training watch, a Polar heartrate watch e.a.). Obviously, Nike knows their customers and the social aspects of running, they saw the need and they cleverly translated all this into Nike Plus (see http://nikerunning.nike.com/nikeos/p/nikeplus/en_US/plus/#//dashboard/). A brilliant example of meaningful marketing, technical innovation and community management. In short, Nike+ is a highly advanced system to track runs, upload the running data into it and interact in many ways with other runners in the community. Make sure to check out the video "What's Nike+?". Nike+ is amazingly complete and a genuine competitive advantage for the brand.
Other sports brands are inspired but either lag(ged) behind or are doing more modest efforts. Go check out www.myasics.be for example. And it took a while, but Adidas now has a comparable system, go see www.micoach.com to find out all about it. And I've heard that Polar would be working hard to make the heartrate meter signals readable by smartphones like the iPhone.
There are already some amazing running apps for the iPhone 3GS, by the way. Take Runmeter by Abvio for example. The GPS tracks your route and sets it out on Google Maps. Running times and speed metrics are meticulously stored. While you run, a text-to-speech voice tells you how you are doing. You can show off your performance on Facebook and Twitter automatically and via Twitter your friends can talk at you while you are running by sending you a direct message @you. Pretty great stuff. The app effectively challenges you to improve your personal best or when having a bad day stay in front of your worst run .
No manual action to synchronize the collected data after your run is required, because the tool keeps all your running data locally and updates your social networks automatically (if you want it to).
RUNNING EVENTS
Sports marketing agency Golazo (owner of the "Start to Run" brand) does a whole range of activities, but one of the things it does quite well is organize massive recreational running events with growing popularity and record-breaking attendance. Recreational runners who train regularly stay motivated if they have a goal. Very often, some mild "social pressure" leads to people accepting a challenge and that's enough to make 'em prepare for the next running event in a city near or far.
Before you know it, you're at the start. With a start number on your chest and a chip in your shoe for time tracking. And there you go. The crowd goes wild and you're motivated like hell. The runner's high sets in and you feel slightly heroic. You finish and you get a medal for merit. I would recommend this experience to everyone!
A few hours later, the official times are online. The next day, you can go check pictures and videos on the website via a search on your start number (see www.carrefourrunningtour.be). It goes without saying that lots of these pictures and screenshots of the finish video end up on people's favorite social network. You can bet that this content's a great conversation starter. It all adds up to the hype.
Golazo's running events come with a system of stepping stones. There are always the short distances, the medium distances and then there's the mythical "marathon" serving as the ultimate end goal. You can climb your way up. A little competitive spirit quickly arises and before you know it, running turns into a healthy addiction.
What I think it illustrates is that hypes tend to grow bigger faster because of word-of-mouth (leveraged by social media). A person's social network is a source of motivation, it's a stage (where you can show off) and it obviously can be a source of inspiration that changes your behavior. People (like me, my friends & many thousands of others) got mobilized... by each other
). A great Web project is always the result of a well collaborating team, in which each team member puts his heart & soul in every step of the process. Time and again.
