This weekend, RaceJoy will be used in a whole new way at the Essex River Race! This is the first water race event to use RaceJoy’s live tracking and we are excited to see RaceJoy being put to use in this way!
Race organizers are trying out RaceJoy at the Essex River Race in preparation for their Blackburn Challenge, a 20+ open water circumnavigation of Cape Ann to be held in July. Race organizers were seeking a solution where they could track each water craft location on the course. Occasionally, the water can be very rough, with strong winds and currents. As with all on-water activities in such conditions, safety is a concern for the race organizers, and RaceJoy is being put to use to help monitor participants’ progress and help ensure a fun and safe race experience for all participants.
The Essex River Race is a 5.5+ mile, open-water loop event that starts at the Essex River at Route 133 and heads out behind the barrier beaches of Ipswich and then returns to Essex River at Route 133.
The participants of the race can row or paddle small boats through one of the most scenic tidal areas in New England. The participants can use any seaworthy, human-powered rowing and paddle boats. Usually, the crafts include Banks dories, fixed seat singles, doubles, multi-oars with cox, multi-oars without cox, sliding seat singles and doubles, single and double touring kayaks and surfskis – what a great way to get outdoors!
The race organizers are also providing RaceJoy as a free service to all participants and spectators so they can have their friends and family track them live on the course and send them supporting cheers. In addition, RaceJoy will issue progress alerts based on marker points along the course.
Friends and family using RaceJoy, both at the race site and from their homes, can track participants and know exactly where they are on the water by tracking them in a map view. Participants and spectators will also receive progress updates at every marker on the course that will include location, pace and estimated finish time. Participants can also choose to post these alerts to Facebook and Twitter.
Another popular feature of RaceJoy is Send-a-Cheer, which includes the ability to instantly send fun pre-recorded cheers or custom text-to-cheer messages to participants at any time. We hope to see some fun seaworthy cheers! In addition, the race organizers highly desired the Text-to-Cheer feature as a safety measure in case they needed to quickly communicate with a given boat.
There are even some pre-loaded Pirate cheers!
We are excited to see RaceJoy being used in such an innovative way and for the safety aspect RaceJoy is able to provide at these open water events. Good luck participants and thank you, race organizers, for providing RaceJoy at this year’s Essex River Race!
You can offer advanced tracking and cheers at your next race by creating a race in RaceJoy at no cost and in a few simple steps through RaceJoy’s Website or your RunSignUp dashboard. If you would like to provide these features to your participants for free, please see our buyout options during the RaceJoy setup.
