There are marathons, and then there’s Boston. When you run this event, you’re creating something bigger than yourself — you’re becoming part of the legend. With adidas as a 30-year sponsor of the Boston Marathon and their unique perspective on athletes as creators, we saw an opportunity to connect runner performances to the concept of creating legend.

Our idea was to harness the power of 30,000 runners generating data from the very race bibs that sport the adidas logo, and transform the race into a creation engine. Shooting footage throughout the 26.2-mile course and programmatically pairing it with race data, we created 30,000 personalized highlight films for each runner in the marathon, all delivered within hours of the race.

“Here to Create Legend” tells the unique story of every legendary performance, and further solidifies adidas’ position within the running community on the biggest stage of the year.

With multiple cameras along the race course, we captured footage throughout the marathon, including fixed positions tied to RFID checkpoints. Racer bibs generated individual split time data, which we mapped to the footage to identify each runner. Our custom algorithm then sliced the videos to ensure each runner would be ideally positioned in frame, no matter their pace.

These personalized film clips were combined with motion graphics and title cards representing the runner’s individual performance stats, including their starting group, split times, and completion stats.

We wove it all together with narrative footage from the full marathon, featuring iconic landmarks and memorable moments from the race. Certain shots within the narrative were randomized so that each runner’s film felt even more unique.

Our custom software and workflows allowed us to shoot, process, edit, and deliver 30,000 personalized videos all within hours of the end of the race. Runners received their videos by e-mail, and could search for other participants by bib number through a custom website.

This data-driven content is unlike any runners have ever received, adding to their experience and giving them a way to remember this legendary achievement while also earning adidas a meaningful place in the running world’s conversation.