RaceJoy Record: Most Relay Teams at Colfax Marathon

RaceJoy had the most usage of relay teams at a single race since its inception at this last weekend’s Colfax Marathon in Denver, Colorado with close to 700 teams using RaceJoy. RaceJoy recently released an industry breakthrough where it virtually ties relay team phones together to provide progress alerts for the team. Colfax is one of the largest relay marathons in the country and offers various relay team options, from two-person teams to five-person teams.

Relay teams using RaceJoy have two ways to be tracked using RaceJoy. The first is the ability to see where team members are on an interactive map showing the official Colfax Marathon course. RaceJoy tracks the GPS location of the participant’s phone. So, people were able to see each other’s location in real-time. Also, as team members drew close to one another, they received NearMe alerts that included a cowbell alert sound along with a pop-up message.

The second form of tracking includes Team Progress Alerts when team members cross each mile on the course. Alerts are issued in audio format to the runner on the course and as in-app notifications to the rest of the team. Alerts include location, elapsed time for the team, split time for current leg, and estimated finish time for the team. Relay teams and individual runners clearly made full use of RaceJoy at Colfax with 78,000 progress alerts being issued in RaceJoy.

Relay teams could also use RaceJoy to support and communicate with each other during the Colfax Marathon using RaceJoy’s Send-a-Cheer feature. We saw more than 11,000 cheers delivered on race day. People could send pre-loaded audio cheer clips and ‘Can’t Touch This’ was the top cheer used.

Also, runners and supporting spectators made full use of RaceJoy’s text-to-cheer feature with more than 1,800 messages being delivered. This is where people can type in a custom message and it is delivered in audio format.

Most marathons offer a relay component to give more choices to runners. However, there aren’t many options in the running industry for tracking relay teams, and using the traditional bib tag tracking is typically very limited, if offered at all. Plus, many of the established larger events are hesitant to introduce new technology to their races. We want to recognize the race organizers of the Colfax Marathon for embracing RaceJoy’s technology to provide an interactive experience for their participants and supporting spectators. They also did a lot to help educate people on the new technology to ensure a positive experience. Thank you, Colfax Marathon, for helping us to change the race experience!

 

May Brings New Records for RaceJoy!

This is the third RaceJoy record in the month of May! We also had record breaking overall usage and the fastest runner to use RaceJoy. What’s next?! Stay tuned for the first to offer custom geo-positioning Cheer Points for race organizers!

Vermont City Marathon

This coming weekend brings another relay focused event on the other side of the country at Vermont City Marathon. RunVermont was the first marathon with a significant relay focus to offer RaceJoy. If you have a group of friends you like doing relays with, both Vermont City Marathon and Colfax Marathon offer a great race experience in beautiful parts of our country!

 

 

Fastest Runner to Run with RaceJoy! Places First in 2017’s Maine Coast Marathon

“Being able to share my race experience with my family and others with an improved level of detail via RaceJoy was pretty awesome.”

Rob Gomez

On May 14, Rob Gomez, placed first and won the Maine Coast Marathon with a finish time of 2:34 averaging 5:54 minute miles. Rob’s time would have been even less if it weren’t for an unintentional detour at the race caused by a volunteer accidently sending people the wrong way (something we actually see more than you would expect and something all race organizers and runners clearly wish to avoid). It was a cold and rainy day and Rob chose to run with his phone and use RaceJoy so that his family could track his location and progress since they could not make it to the race site.

We get some of the faster elite runners using RaceJoy, but many prefer not to carry their phone and are concerned that the extra weight might slow them down. Clearly, this was not an issue for Rob as he flew through the course.

We asked Rob a few questions about using RaceJoy…

-Why did you use RaceJoy?

Both my mom and my daughter wanted to follow my progress in the race but neither could make it to the course to watch in person. So, I thought using the RaceJoy app would be a great way for them to follow my progress more closely from afar than more traditional online tracking methods allow.

-Were you concerned that carrying your phone would slow you down?

A little bit, but I had run with my phone in my hand on numerous occasions before, even during workouts, and I realized that it didn’t bother me that much to carry it that way. It was raining pretty hard on race day so before the race I just started the tracking on the app and then put my phone in a Ziploc bag before stuffing it in an iPhone carrying arm band. The phone stayed perfectly dry and the arm band kept the phone close to my shoulder and therefore closer to my center of mass; that way, I was able to expend less energy carrying the phone during the race (as opposed to carrying it in my hand). Besides, an iPhone 6S is only a little over 3oz, so we’re not talking a lot of weight. In the end, carrying the phone didn’t bother me at all. An extra 3oz of weight isn’t going to slow anyone down very much – we’re talking maybe a few seconds over the course of an entire marathon. I was more than willing to make that trade-off.

-What was your experience with using RaceJoy? Did you like it? Did those tracking you like using it?

RaceJoy has a very easy-to-use and self-explanatory interface and it performed exactly how I expected it would. Not only were my family members able to follow along without any trouble, I found out after I had finished that other folks were following my progress as well on the app. Being able to share my race experience with my family and others with an improved level of detail via RaceJoy was pretty awesome.

RaceJoy was designed to meet the needs of all runners. Our initial planning meetings included a product roadmap that met the needs of what we call the “Serious Steves”, the “Novice Nancies”, and the “Fit & Fun Fran & Frank”. Where cheers may mean a lot to the first time marathoner, the Serious Steve may be more interested in just having the ability for others to track his/her progress with mile splits.

If we could, we also would recognize the slowest runner/walker in RaceJoy since those coming in last have an equally impressive story to tell. We’ve talked to many of you and know the struggles you have faced and the determination it takes to keep going and complete the goal you set out to accomplish. During the race, we live monitor the race field from RaceJoy’s monitoring system and we don’t stop until the last runner is in. If you are in the last of the pack and are using RaceJoy, know that one of us is tracking you and rooting you on!

For those of you that would like some coaching guidance on your running, Rob is actually a personal coach and offers a variety of options for all types of runners that you can do with him remotely. He has a strong background in running and in 2013 was New England Runner Magazine’s Maine Runner of the Year. Clearly, he knows what he is doing! You can find more information here: https://www.easternshoretraining.com/.

Thanks, Rob, and all of you who use RaceJoy and continue to support us in changing the race experience. We will catch you at the next race!

Special thanks to Maine Coast Marathon race organizers and Shipyard Brewing Company for offering RaceJoy again this year and being one of the original races to bring RaceJoy to Maine!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May Brings New Usage Records for RaceJoy!

Part One!

Record Usage over One Race Weekend and One Race

We are seeing record RaceJoy usage on multiple fronts in this popular running month of May! This is a three part series demonstrating the full adoption of RaceJoy’s innovative race day technology.

First up is the record for overall usage over a single race weekend and at one race in particular. This involves a massive amount of data flowing instantaneously from RaceJoy, including 342,500+ progress alerts being issued to participants and those tracking them. And that’s not all…

May 6-7 Race Weekend Records:

RaceJoy Records: Highest Usage, Most Progress Alerts, Most Cheers over one weekend!

The first weekend in May brought record breaking RaceJoy usage at races across the country, including:

• DICK’s Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon
• Flying Pig Marathon
• Prairie Fire Spring Half
• Rhode Races Providence Marathon
• Coke 10K
• Lake Monona 20K Run and 5K
• Hantz Foundation Timber Trot 5K

These races chose to offer RaceJoy’s live GPS tracking, progress alerts at every mile and cheer sending for participants and their supporting friends and family.

Highest Usage: 39,000+ Participant / Spectators using RaceJoy over the weekend.

Most Progress Alerts: 342,500 Progress Alerts Delivered instantly through RaceJoy.

Most Cheers: 55,000 Cheers Delivered to participants

It was great to see that RaceJoy’s system handled the load without issue and alerts and cheers were issued without delay. 

Record Breaking Usage at Single Race

The Pittsburgh Marathon’s participants and spectators used RaceJoy to its fullest and now represents the winning race for most usage, progress alerts and cheers delivered at a single race:

Highest Usage: 12,800 Participants / Spectators used RaceJoy

Most Progress Alerts: 157,500 Progress Alerts Delivered (Glass City Marathon previously held this record)

Most Cheers: 23,500 Cheers Delivered to Participants

 

 

“I ran my first Half Marathon today and used the RaceJoy app for the first time as well. I have to say it was one of the major reasons I made it through. Getting cheers from my friends and family was amazing. Also getting updates on my progress and pace was incredible. My family loved using it to track my progress. I really appreciate this app and how it got me through this huge accomplishment. Thanks!!” – Jessica K.

Runner Up!

The Flying Pig Marathon who previously held the record for most cheers was very close on all usage points with:

Usage (so close!): 12,300 Participants / Spectators used RaceJoy

Progress Alerts: 141,800 Progress alerts delivered

Cheers: 19,300 Cheers delivered

 

 

 

“What a fun way to race!!! I really enjoyed having all my family near and far in my “pocket” as I did the Flying Pig Half Marathon. It was so encouraging to see love from all over pouring in as I did my race. I would highly recommend it.” – Becks 

Special shout out to all the races who offered RaceJoy and gave your participants the opportunity to use RaceJoy and the ability to have their friends and family support them during the race. Those 48,000 cheers means a great deal to many of the runners and walkers and helps them to achieve what they set out to do at your event. Also, thank you to all of you who used RaceJoy and for posting your positive reviews to help encourage others to try RaceJoy.

Together, we are changing the race experience!

“I used this app for a half marathon race and enjoyed the mile splits, finish time estimates and (what was really enjoyable) the cheers from family and friends that were tracking me race. I hope other races will consider using this app!”  – Apple App User Review from H. Gaitonde

 

Stay tuned for the Next RaceJoy Record in May: Fastest runner to ever use RaceJoy…

 

30,000 Runners & Spectators Use RaceJoy 7,000,000 times on Sunday

Sunday was a BIG day for RaceJoy. Some of the largest races in the country – Pittsburgh Marathon, Flying Pig, Broad Street, Prairie Fire Spring Half and Rhode Races Providence Marathon all gave their participants and spectators access to RaceJoy. Over 10,000 people ran with RaceJoy on their phones with over 20,000 spectators watching and cheering them on. Some of the stats:

• Over 7,000,000 interactions (think page views) with the RaceJoy app
• Over 335,000 Progress Alerts delivered
• 55,000 Cheers delivered
• 48,000 requests per minute peak
• Stayed over 40,000 requests per minute for 3 hours

Here is what some of the users had to say:

• “An A+ Race App”
• “I love getting updates on my pace and that my husband and parents can track me – especially since my parents live in another state. Also, my kids enjoy sending me cheers and they give me a lift I need.”
• “I used it today so my wife, family and friends can track me running the Flying Pig Half Marathon. Turned it on 15 minutes before the start. Everyone I shared my info was able to track my progress and send me messages along the way. Thank you RaceJoy!”

James & Shelly

But the true story behind this enormous success are James and Shelly Harris. They founded RaceJoy 5 years ago with the idea that technology could give runners and spectators a better experience. I (Bob) fell in love with the app and idea about 3 years ago when I was watching my daughters run a 20,000 person race and being able to find them!

Three years ago, they experienced the horror of watching their infrastructure melt down during the Pittsburgh Marathon with too many people, too little bandwidth and not enough experience. Two years ago, they joined forces with RunSignUp to continue their work and vision in concert with the resources a larger company could offer. We had a common vision – focus on building beautiful technology that could bring great experiences to the endurance market. During this past two years they have worked and sweated to continue to build out features like Race Day monitoring, integrated chip and GPS timing, relay races, custom cheers, sponsor points and many more. They also worked on building out the infrastructure and narrowing their focus to building the best Race Day GPS app in the world.

Sunday was a wonderful day of validation that their work has reached a critical mass. Wonderful features, a scalable system, the largest races in the country using it, happy runners, spectators and race directors. Exactly why they set out on this mission 5 years ago, and exactly why RaceJoy will only keep getting better and become the standard for Race Day GPS technology.

P.S. From Steve Jobs

In 1995 Steve Jobs said this (after he had been kicked out of Apple) – NOT about James, Shelly, RaceJoy or RunSignUp:

“The companies forget what it means to make great products. The product sensibility and the product genius that brought them to that monopolistic position gets rotted out by people running these companies who have no conception of a good product versus a bad product. They have no conception of the craftsmanship that’s required to take a good idea and turn it into a good product. And they really have no feeling in their hearts usually about wanting to really help the customers.”

First Race to Use RaceJoy’s New Relay Release!

RaceJoy’s newest relay release made its debut this last weekend at Ion Bank Cheshire Road Races.

RaceJoy’s latest release breaks new ground for relay teams and runners at this Connecticut race were able to be the first to experience it!

 

Ion Bank Cheshire Road Races

Cheshire Road Races offers a half marathon, a 2-person 13.1 relay and a 5k. A flat and fast scenic course that runs through Cheshire and Hamden Connecticut, the event takes place on significant stretches of the historic Farmington Canal Trail.

The Cheshire Half Marathon & 5K Foundation was formed in 2012 as a nonprofit to help special needs children. At this year’s event, the signature charities supported by the Foundation were Abilities Without Boundaries, SARAH Foundation, Best Buddies of CT and Cheshire Lions Club – all of which are dedicated to helping children and adults with developmental and physical disabilities.

Photo from Event Facebook Page

RaceJoy for Relay Teams

RaceJoy’s newest release focuses on providing live tracking and progress updates for a relay team regardless of the number of people in the team.

Plus, participants at Cheshire Road Races were able to take advantage of two ways to be tracked using RaceJoy:

1. GPS tracking of each member’s actual location on the course using the live phone tracking feature.
2. Team progress alerts as members pass over milestones throughout the course using the GPS-based progress alert feature. RaceJoy does this by virtually tying the team members’ phones together.

Individual participant tracking was also available and was fully embraced by runners with more than 4,500 progress alerts being issued!

RaceJoy’s latest release offers a simplified way to bring real-time performance and split information to the team and those who are tracking them. The key of this release was to allow individuals to carry and use their own phone, versus using additional tracking hardware.

People simply use RaceJoy on race day by selecting the leg they are completing and clicking Start My Leg when they begin their leg. This begins the clock for that leg and automatically issues out progress alerts at every mile for running events and every five miles for cycling event.

Thank you to race organizers of Ion Bank Cheshire Road Races for including us in this years’ events and congratulations finishers on a job well done!

RaceJoy continues to bring innovation to the race industry and is laser focused on the race day experience. This is just one of the many releases RaceJoy has planned focused on relay teams.

 

Race Organizers: If you’re interested in having your relay event loaded in RaceJoy, check out our website for more information or your RunSignUp dashboard. Please note that we require a minimum two-week load time prior to the race start date and the official course map in GPX/KML format.

 

RaceJoy Issues New Relay Team Release

Newest Breakthrough for Relay Team Tracking Now Available

April 28, 2017 – Moorestown, NJ – RunSignUp’s mobile application, RaceJoy, announces its newest relay team live tracking release for running, walking and cycling events. RaceJoy is the industry’s leading race day technology solution with live tracking, cheer sending and race day monitoring. This newest release offers the ability to tie relay teams’ phones together in a virtual format and provides continual team progress alerts. In addition, race organizers are now able to actively monitor the relay teams and directly communicate with participants through RaceJoy’s Race Day Monitoring system.

“RaceJoy continues to introduce technology industry breakthroughs and this release is yet another RaceJoy industry first. This ability to provide continual performance information to a team and those tracking them without any added equipment other than a phone is incredible. The possibilities of what RaceJoy can bring to a race are endless, and there truly is no other solution out there like RaceJoy,” said Bob Bickel, the founder of RunSignUp.

Continue reading…

Glass City Marathon Offers Live Race Day Experience with RaceJoy!

138,000 Progress Alerts Issued!

As one of the first marathons to ever offer RaceJoy, the 2017 Mercy Health Glass City Marathon delivered a live race day experience for those at the race site and for remote spectators. RaceJoy was a significant component of this along with the event’s live streaming and interviews on race day. And clearly people embraced the technology with 138,000 progress alerts being issued through RaceJoy – breaking the record for most alerts at a single race.

 

Photos from Glass City Marathon Facebook

The Glass City Marathon likes to bring new race day experiences and this year race organizers implemented a new live race day page on the Glass City Marathon website. This offered quick access to the RaceJoy app, a live leaderboard, which provided instant official results information, and a live streaming video of the race. This was really awesome since it wasn’t just a static streaming of the finish line. It also included the local news anchor from BCSN The Blade covering the race day and performing live interviews with participants. It also included a split screen where you could watch finishers come in while seeing what was going on at other areas of the finishing area in the Glass Bowl. In addition, for those participants that setup their profile for auto tweeting of progress, their alerts showed in the twitter live streaming (#RunGlassCity) shown on the live race page.

Screenshot from the Glass City Marathon Website

With the RaceJoy app, Glass City Marathon also provided participants and spectators with live race day features like continual progress updates, live phone tracking, cheer sending, and scored results within moments of crossing the finish line. This year, more than 7,000 people used RaceJoy at the Glass City Marathon!

The Glass City Marathon is one of the few races RaceJoy also offers Bib tag tracking along with RaceJoy’s industry first GPS-based progress updates. This meant that thousands of participants and spectators were receiving progress updates at every mile on the course. Updates included information like location, pace, and estimated finish time. Participants also had the option of posting their progress to their Facebook and Twitter walls. A record breaking number of alerts were sent out over the course of the Glass City Marathon weekend, with 138,000 progress alerts being issued!

One of the great things about Glass City Marathon offering both tracking in RaceJoy and the live streaming of the finish line is that supporting family and friends could track participants’ blue dot as it moved along the course in the app and then watch them live in the streaming video as they crossed the finish line. Most runners have a friend or family member that can’t make it to the race. So, this offered an easy way to support the participant remotely and share in the race experience whether at the race site, at home or in another country (we saw you Canadians and Brits tracking your runners!)

Watch This Video!

Supporting family and friends were also able to track runners live as they moved along the course by using RaceJoy’s GPS phone tracking feature.

Supporting friends and family sent close to 9,000 cheers to Glass City Marathon participants! Way to support the runners!

The Glass City Marathon takes place in our nation’s “Glass City”; Toledo, Ohio and is hosted by the Toledo Roadrunners Club. Northwest Ohio’s largest springtime event finishes in the Glass Bowl and the race organizers go all out to provide a special race experience. on. Thank you race organizers for including RaceJoy again this year, and congratulations finishers on a job well done!

Photo from Glass City Marathon Facebook

Race Organizers: If you’d like to be on the forefront of race day technology, get your event loaded in RaceJoy by checking out our website for information or go to your RunSignUp dashboard. Please note that we require a minimum two-week load time prior to the race start and an official course map in KML or GPX format.