A Chicago man has used a personal ad that was 26.2 miles long to land himself some dates.
Steve Bergstrom, 30, went with the human billboard approach in the Chicago Marathon on Oct. 17 to advertise that he is single and available. Bergstrom had his cousin write "Single" in large block letters on his back along with his name and the fact that he was on Facebook, and Bergstrom ran the race shirtless to advertise that fact to all who could see.
“I have a job that occupies a lot of my time,” Bergstrom told Runner's World. “Having a ridiculous hour commute each way, and then also being dedicated to my gym and dedicated to my sports, I don’t have a ton of spare time on my hands.”
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In his sixth straight year running the Chicago Marathon, the sales channel manager at Bosch Power Tools completed the course in 3:47:58, and more importantly, reached the limit allowed for friend requests on Facebook. He also has gone on a couple of dates with a fellow marathoner.
“It’s basic marketing, to make sure you’re broadcasting your message to the audience that you’re wishing to capture,” he told Runner's World. “If life is easy when you’re dating an athlete, why not broadcast in this sort of a venue? When you run a marathon shirtless, you get a couple of people with the catcalls. So I would kind of turn my back one way or the other if I saw a group that was particularly worth broadcasting to.”
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