FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Run Barbados Marathon Series returns

A new state of the art time system is among the plans that the organizers
for the 2015 Run Barbados Marathon Series will put in place to rebrand the
event.

During Friday morning's launch of the event, chief executive officer of
Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc (BTMI) Williams Griffith announced that this
year's event would be spearheaded by husband and wife team Zary and
Kristine Evelyn of Island Races who are responsible for organizing the
successful and well-known Barbados Open Water Festival along with Peter
Gibbs.

Director of Run Barbados Zary Evelyn explained that bringing back the
marathon, which has been absent for three years, should play a major role
in boosting the event which the BTMI is seeking to rebrand and rejuvenate
for 2015 and beyond.

"It is our belief that the marathon is the key to any road race series and
we did not want Barbados to be left out of that. So we thought with good
marketing and promotion Barbados can once again be seen as a top
destination for marathons. It is on the calendar for most of the other run
series around the Caribbean, so that being the case we didn't want Barbados
to be left out. We want to also give people many reasons to come to
Barbados and having the marathon as part of the series will increase the
profile of the series and widen the net of runners looking to come here,"
he said.

According to Evelyn the December 4 to 6 event is geared towards different
age groups and they intend for it to be a family affair this year.

Griffith said he has given the experts the mandate to raise the profile of
Run Barbados as a major sports tourism initiative. He explained that going
forward one of their primary performance indicator would be the extent to
which they were able to attract visitors to the island while bringing back
a high level of spectatorship.

"We will be devising a number of ways through which to engage both
Barbadians and visitors throughout the race weekend. Run Barbados has been
a staple on our national calendar of events and a strong sports tourism
brand for Barbados since its inception in 1983. Our intention is to
rejuvenate this legacy brand at its core with a new business model.

"BTMI will support them [marketing experts] in the execution of global
marketing efforts which will include promotion at international sporting
events and leading sports publications. We also believe that we can
increase our market share in the southern Caribbean and will be working
through the Caribbean and Latin America to raise our profile in this
region," Griffith said.

Six-time winner Hugh Jones of England has expressed interest for this
year's event that will proceed with a Night Fun Mile that will start
Friday, December 4 at 8 p.m. to facilitate greater participation among a
wider number of age groups.

On Saturday afternoon the 10k and 5k will take place. On Sunday the grand
finale will be both the full marathon and half marathon races. Persons
wishing to participate can check the Run Barbados website or their Facebook
page.

###