This Sunday (6.11.11), DDB Copywriter Ulrika Rupā and Omnicom Media Group Business Director Jānis Rungulis will fulfil a challenge made last autumn to run the full New York Marathon, i.e. 42 kilometres and 195 metres. For both of them, it will be their first marathon. To make the competition even more interesting, Ulla and Jānis created a blog: www.ullapretjani.lv, in which everybody has the chance to predict which of them will finish first and in what time.

It’s not the case that New York welcomes everybody. Of the 100,000 would be runners who apply to take part in the big event every year, only 40,000 actually make it to the starting line. To enter the marathon, Ulla and Jānis either had to reach a standard which neither has managed to date, or apply to take part in a draw. And in the draw they got lucky. At the end of March, they both received an e-mail: Congratulations. You’re in!

From that moment, they began to prepare seriously. On their blog: ullapretjani.lv, they documented the competition which took place on several fronts – woman versus man, Latvia versus Moldova (Jānis has lived there for the past two years), pink versus black, blonde versus Latvian grey, contact lenses versus glasses, Ulla versus Jānis.

This summer, they each ran about 700 km. Now all that remains is the little matter of 42 km in New York and then they will have completed this year’s biggest project. Which of them will come up with the next challenge?

On behalf of the DDB team, we wish both bravehearts success and endurance!