If you were walking through Regent’s Park at lunchtime on Thursday 21st October, you may well have witnessed something a bit different.  In addition to the dog walkers, romancers and tourists on their way to London Zoo were 80 runners clad in Bupa’s blue and a double European Gold medalist.  Bupa’s Flash Run was taking place.  

Launched in Synergy Towers on behalf of Bupa, the UK’s first “Flash Run”  gave members of the public the chance to turn up and run with Mo Farah.  The Flash Run was announced over Bupa’s twitter feed (@buparunning) with the timings and exact location of the Flash Run being kept a secret until the week of the run.  Over a two week period @Mo_Farah led a tweeting frenzy and, alongside promotion from other running outlets, the followers of @buparunning increased over 400%. 

On the day itself, Mo arrived (following a pre-breakfast 10 mile warm up run) to be greeted by running fans, photographers and a healthy media contingent.  The lead runner, who had been recruited by Bupa to set the pace and guide the way, was cutting a nervy figure and was only slightly reassured by our promises that Mo would ”take it easy”. 

Inspired by their warm up with Simon Fairthorne, Bupa’s sports physiotherapist, the runners set off at varying paces.  Fortunately Mo was firmly out of race mode and, relishing a run without the clock ticking, dropped back and spent time with everyone in the field.  The reward  for all the runners at the end was a warm down and the offer of a sports massage from a Bupa physio – which proved extremely popular! 

Mo was an absolute pleasure to work with and the day was a huge success. Keep an eye on Bupa’s running website for future activity and the next Bupa Flash Run.

By David Gerty on November 5th, 2010

Tags: Athletics, PR, Social Media

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