Bobby Bostic, one of our YourRunning.com members, is just three days away from running the North Pole Marathon. (He won the opportunity to do that from us in a contest.)

A key part of the contest was that the winner not just be a tremendous athlete, but also be media savvy. Bobby was expected to blog frequently about his experience, and he definitely delivered. He's made over 70 posts just in the last couple months!

Furthermore, he's been very accommodating to sponsors. For example, recently he was on a morning TV show in the Bay Area and he made sure to wear his Pixie Mate baseball cap. (Unfortunately, YouTube's degraded quality makes it hard to read the cap.)

Pixie Mate has been a great partner. Before choosing Bobby, we ran a sub-contest with them that drove a lot of traffic and comments on their blog. (And we drink a whole lot of their awesome products around the office.)

With all the sponsored athletes our there, I'm surprised more companies don't do this kind of thing, especially those who are below the superstar level. Lebron James is going to get TV coverage no matter whether he blogs or not. (Heh. And other coverage too.) But athletes and companies that focus on the non-ESPN activities don't have that luxury. Blogging and community building is cheap compared to a Nike TV spot. You just need to make the commitment and work with athletes like Bobby who have something to say.