A global campaign born from the ancient Japanese sport of Ekiden, a popular winter relay whereby teams run over long distances and hand over leadership with the exchange of a sash or … read more'tasuki'. Being such a test of endurance, each team member feels a considerable amount of pressure and responsibility to achieve.
Once registering at http://nikerunfwd.jp users can either start a new team or be invited on to a team by other players. The previous runner in the chain will go on to appoint the next and so on. Runners can be anywhere in the world so the 'tasuki' can be passed between friends and strangers from Tokyo to Toronto and beyond. Each time a team member is nominated, they will receive a personalised video (as above) with the details of each member that has run before them ending on their call to action to start running.
The only rules of the race; once nominated run at least 3km, track your run using Nike+ and nominate the next runner once your run is complete. Oh, and once you have been nominated you have only 72 hours to complete the run, if you fail to do so your entire team is disqualified (no pressure?).
Online users can track their team's performance and see their runs mapped out on Google Maps, they can also connect via Facebook, Twitter and Mixi to offer words of encouragement to fellow runners. The race kicked off earlier this month and will continue until Monday February 28.
Nike has focused a number of previous campaigns on teams, including the Men vs Women race and GRID and the Nike+ platform perfectly supports this. The RUN Fwd campaign is an excellent way to encourage more runners to install or purchase Nike+ to become part of a team as well as providing a platform for friends to connect globally.
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