Over May 23 and 24, 49,000-plus runners and more than 100,000 spectators took to the streets of Ottawa, MediaMiser’s hometown, to participate in what is hailed as the largest and most prestigious running event weekend in Canada: Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend.
This event is also the city’s largest revenue generator from a tourism perspective, and features an IAAF Gold Label 10K, one of only four in the world.
Not only was I a (very excited) participant in the weekend’s Scotiabank Half-Marathon event, but was also honoured to be invited to be part of the event’s inaugural #TeamAwesome—a group of 22 runners dedicated to celebrating and motivating other Race Weekend competitors, as well as sharing their ongoing training experiences through social media.
For fun, we decided to take a look at the weekend’s top 10 influencers on Twitter to see how Team Awesome did and identify which other participants were busy tweeting about the event (and, honestly, to see if I made the list)!
I’m crying because I’m so excited to be running though the streets of #Hintonburg and seeing my kids along the course. #emotional #TORW2015
— Lisa Georges (@StruttinMyStuff) May 24, 2015
As you can see from the chart above, six out of the top 10 influencers belong to Team Awesome. Here at MediaMiser we’ve been talking a lot lately about successful brand advocacy programs, and Team Awesome is a shining example of just that. Congratulations to my teammates, and it looks like I need to step up my Twitter game for next year! For fairness, we removed any handles from the list that exclusively used the latest cool new tracking tool —SportStats— with which runners and spectators alike can track results and push updates to Twitter or Facebook. Race directors and event planners take note: this feature is a great way to ramp up an event’s presence on social media, and potentially encourage a trending topic.
3:36:02. A monster 13 minute PB. I’m over the moon right now. Perfect day, perfect race. #TORW2015 #TeamAwesome — James Koole (@jameskoole) May 24, 2015
Big thank you to the 2500+ volunteers who have helped make this weekend extraordinary!! #TORW2015 pic.twitter.com/s618lHvEPh
— Ottawa Marathon (@OttawaMarathon) May 24, 2015
What I’ve always found fascinating about large scale road races, is that it’s the only sport in the world where the average person can have a crowd of supporters cheering you on and calling out your name (because it’s on your bib) as you run the course with world-class athletes. It’s truly an amazing and positive experience—and one worthy of sharing on social media.
10th consecutive year running in @Ottawamarathon Race Weekend – 1st 42.2. It just keeps getting better&better. See you next year! #TORW2015 — Ashley (@47agoddard) May 25, 2015
