The 2014 New York City Marathon is just days away, and Asics and agency Vitro have teamed up once again to create a unique experience around it. An Asics spokesman says the brand wanted to celebrate the athletes who are taking on the 26.2-mile race, so "We decided to honor them the way we've always honored our heroes -- with statues." Marathoners were invited on a first-come, first-served basis (capped at 500) to send in front and side photos of themselves that could be used to 3D-print a "mini-marathoner" statue of their likeness. Those were then photographed and will be linked to the runners' Facebook pages, tracking chips and RFID race times to digitally display the statuettes at different marathon landmarks as the actual participants pass them.

In addition, Asics and Vitro are holding a Twitter marathon for those who didn't snag one of the 500 statues. Any registered marathoner can enter and every tweet on their behalf will improve their placement in the digital course. The top 50 finishers will also get a mini-marathoner statue.