Adidas' 'Surviving' The Boston Marathon Email: Poor Word Choice? Or Duh?

BOSTON, MA — This afternoon many Boston Marathon runners received an email with the subject line: "Congrats, you survived the Boston Marathon." And right away a number of people took to Twitter to take Adidas to task for what the recipients said was a poorly worded congratulations, just four years after three people were killed during the Boston Marathon and several hundred others were injured, including 16 who lost limbs.

Runners opened the email to find two photos. One links you to share your personal marathon story and the other directs you to buy something. But it didn't go over well with everyone. "Adidas you may want to rethink the subject line," tweeted Mike Denison. But there were a number of those who ran who said they understood where Adidas may have been coming from.

"It definitely could have been worded better," said Jonathan Levitt of Boston, who ran the marathon for the second year — though it didn't quite go as planned this time around because of the heat. The first time he ran it was 2015, he said. And on that race day it was about 40 degrees cooler. He said he noticed the subject line, but it struck a chord with him: "I thought it was odd wording, but hilariously accurate given the day I had. I actively thought about being in 'survival mode' by mile 8," he said.

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And some runners said they didn't think twice about the subject line. "It is surviving," said Dana Bogan of Brighton. "Every marathon is [about] surviving." Bogan finished the Boston in 3:16:08.

"My guess would be that people have personal experiences that render them sensitive to that language whereas I haven't and therefore I read it as 'surviving the grueling journey,'" she said.

After a couple of hours, Adidas took to Twitter to apologize. Big time:

A couple of the tweets this afternoon:

Earlier this year, Adidas won over a number of folks on social media with this commercial that tugs on the heartstrings:

Hilary Corno, of Encinitas California, pictured at the top of the article running though Brookline, just before Boston, finished in 2:42:16. She placed 24th for women in the 2017 Boston Marathon. Second photo: The top two elite male runners passing through Brookline. (Photos by Jenna Fisher)