This past weekend was a big race weekend in the United States. Overall, RaceJoy had close to 2,000 users over the course of the weekend and 340 phones were tracked with at least one supporting spectator tracking them. More than 7,000 GPS-timed Progress Alerts were sent out, as well as 1,700 cheers. We are continuing to fine-tune the GPS alert system and requesting feedback from participants and spectators. We are very excited by the energized response that we’ve been receiving.
The Scranton Half Marathon (in Scranton, Pennsylvania) was one of the races that had participants proactively request to have the race loaded into the RaceJoy app. The race also took efforts to spread the word with their participants that live runner tracking and cheer sending was available for those who carry a phone and purchase the 99 cents upgrade in RaceJoy.
Their efforts resulted in more than 300 people using RaceJoy during the Scranton Half Marathon for live phone tracking and sending of fun audio cheers. Participants also were able to try out the latest RaceJoy feature of GPS progress alerts. This new feature sends audio performance updates on every mile on the course. Close to 2,200 GPS-timed progress alerts were issued real-time during the race.
Though, we did see a condition where some received only the first five miles of alerts and are addressing that in our next release.
During the race, 135 participants were tracked live on an interactive map by spectators who, on average, were two to a participant. Supporting fans sent 650 cheers to participants to help motivate them throughout the race.
Participants also had their progress posted automatically on their Facebook and Twitter walls letting people know how they were doing at every mile on the course.
When the race director, Justin Sandy, was asked what he did to spread the word, he shared the race organizers’ part in letting people know:
“Really all we did was put it out there on Facebook and then brought it up in conversation to people at the race expo. I would pull the app up show them what it could do and explain it. I also discussed it at a race dinner that a large group of participants put on. I think the most effective thing was getting out there and discussing it with phone in hand.”
We definitely see a social aspect to RaceJoy, where word-of-mouth spreads and increases usage. As people become aware of RaceJoy for a given event, the usage grows and many times doubles between the night before the race and by the end of race day.
There were many other races in RaceJoy this last weekend, including Rock the Parkway (blog to follow), Blooms to Brews Marathon, and Altamont Marathon. In addition, the historic Cherry Blossom Ten Mile run had more than one hundred people use RaceJoy’s tracking capabilities and supporting fans sent 200 cheers.
Add a Race
If you are a race organizer and would like to get your race added to RaceJoy, simply enable RaceJoy in the RunSignUp GO platform and provide your course map electronically (KML, GPX or link to map). You can also email us this information at addrace@racejoy.com. We require a minimum of two weeks prior to the race date to load an event into RaceJoy and will send you a notice and promotion toolkit once it is active. This is free to the event and the participant and spectator pay a 99 cents per race upgrade fee.
RaceJoy key features:
- Live phone tracking
- Audio cheer sending
- Near Me Proximity alerts
- MeetUp mapping feature
- Now Available! GPS Progress Alerts
