Written by Jessa Marie Dollesin
Air Apps builds tools that live on phones across the world, quiet software meant to make daily tasks lighter. In July 2026, the San Francisco company traded keyboards for running shoes and lined up together at the start of the 49th Annual San Francisco Marathon, a 26.2-mile race, with Air Apps sponsoring the marathon fee for every employee who signed up to run. Employees who normally debug code or answer customer emails spent eight months turning into runners, and the finish line told a story no product update ever could.
The company has built a name on apps people rely on without thinking twice, from Translate Now, which breaks language barriers with instant translations in over 320 languages, to Calculator Air and Scanner Air, the kind of software that quietly earns trust over time. There’s a fitting parallel in that: the same company whose app helps strangers understand each other across languages spent eight months getting an entire office to understand each other across a very different kind of distance, one measured in miles rather than words. Getting the office to train and actually run a marathon together asked for something different: strong will, discipline, and a willingness to push past your own limits. Showing up for a lunchtime run even on the days it would have been easier to stay at the desk takes the same mindset that defines how the team approaches everything else.
Training Through the Fog
The plan started in November 2025, months before race day, when CEO Filipe Ferreira started an informal office run club that quickly grew into something bigger. Word spread through the office fast. Soon, a lunch-break jog became a regular fixture, with groups covering three or five kilometers through Tunnel Tops and Crissy Field, the Golden Gate Bridge rising over the water in nearly every photo from those midday miles.
Fridays carried the real weight of the plan. Distances climbed steadily, from 10 kilometers to 16, then to 21, roughly 6.2, 9.9, and 13.1 miles, with runners crossing the bridge more than once on the longer routes. Those Friday miles doubled as a kind of unofficial meeting, the sort where colleagues from finance and product design ended up talking longer than they ever did over email.
The office kitchen changed too, swapping sugary snacks for electrolytes and simpler, cleaner food. Small adjustments like these rarely make headlines, yet they added up over eight months of training. Air Apps also covered every entry fee for staff who signed up to race, a modest gesture that carried real weight given how many people ultimately joined.
Race Day in the City
Race morning brought a wider crew than the daily lunch runs ever did and 50% of the SF office was ready to take on the marathon challenge.. Miguel Rebocho, a finance manager based in Air Apps’ Lisbon office, flew across an ocean to stand at the same start line as his San Francisco colleagues, proof that a shared goal can pull a company together across time zones and continents. Two offices, thousands of miles apart, met at one starting line, and the distance between them stopped mattering the second the gun went off.
The results told their own tale of grit. CEO Filipe Ferreira crossed the finish line of his first full marathon with a time of 3:15:57, placing 31st in the male 35-39 category. Finance Manager Miguel Rebocho was close behind at 3:32:22, calling it a once-in-a-lifetime experience built on months of small, disciplined efforts. “I quickly learned that marathon training isn’t something you can do randomly in your spare time,” he said. “Having peers doing it alongside me kept me engaged, and we really pushed each other forward when we were lacking energy.”
In the half-marathon, software engineer Ilia Talalai led the pack at 1:52:42, followed by UGC specialist Kyle Fortune at 1:57:57, product designer Evan Dunkel at 1:58:02, product designer Austin Lee at 2:00:57, CMO Janina Ferreira at 2:07:32, product designer Rick Takeda at 2:08:58, and social media associate Willow Buscaglia at 2:30:48.
Nobody at Air Apps cared much about who crossed first. What mattered was that everyone who started training back in November made it to the finish line at all. Product designer Austin Lee summed up the morning after best: “The preparation was tremendously helpful. Thanks to the Air Apps team for keeping me accountable. Without the help, I’m not sure I would have even finished. Alongside coworkers, I was able to try harder and run faster than I ever could have imagined, but walking is difficult today.”
Somewhere between the hills near the bridge and the final stretch downtown, the race stopped feeling like an individual test. Runners who had never shared more than a hallway greeting found themselves trading encouragement mid-course. UGC specialist Kyle Fortune captured that turn plainly in a LinkedIn recap of the race: “The event was beautiful, and I had so much fun. Thanks to our consistent preparation as an office, everyone was able to keep a steady pace and enjoy the day together. Training and recovering as a team was a real game changer.”
Product designer Evan Dunkel felt the same pull, even through the toughest stretch of the course: “It’s been a great chance to challenge myself. Training with coworkers made a big difference. We pushed each other, and it was fun having people to talk to on recovery runs. And even though race day was tough, especially the brutal hills, the support we gave each other got me through.”
Moments like these rarely show up on a spreadsheet, yet they explain why so many employees signed up again for whatever race comes next. A marathon asks a lot of a body, but it asks even more of a group of coworkers trying to stay in step with each other for four hours straight.
What Comes After 26.2 Miles
Sweat gave way to celebration once the medals came out. Following the marathon, the team gathered for an Air Adventure, the company’s ongoing initiative for bringing employees together outside of work, fully sponsored by Air Apps and open to everyone on the team. Every edition looks different, but the goal stays the same: disconnect from work, connect with each other, and enjoy some time together. This time, that meant a barbecue lunch at a Brazilian steakhouse, where sore legs and race stories took center stage over plates of grilled meat. Eight months of midday runs and Friday hill repeats finally had their reward, and it tasted like a well-earned meal shared among people who had pushed each other through every mile.
Nobody rushed home early that day. Stories about the worst hill, the best mile, and the moment someone nearly cramped up at mile twenty kept the table loud long after the plates were cleared. It was the kind of night that turns coworkers into something closer to teammates.
Rather than treat the marathon as a one-time stunt, Air Apps is already eyeing the next physical test. An Ironman, a triathlon, and even a 48-hour bike race sit on the table as future goals for the same group of coworkers, a sign that the marathon was a starting point rather than a finish line. Talk of a triathlon started circulating at the barbecue table before the meat was even finished, half joke, half genuine plan.
Whatever shape the next challenge takes, the months between November and race day left behind a habit that outlasted the marathon itself. People who used to just wave in passing now check in on each other’s training and compare notes on sore knees. Air Apps builds software meant to make life a little easier for millions of strangers, and somewhere along the way, the company also learned it could build something closer, a group of people willing to run 26.2 miles together, then talk about doing it again.
