The 2017 Tobacco Road Marathon and Half Marathon offered RaceJoy’s live GPS tracking and cheer sending for the first time! This popular race weekend offers more than 20 miles of picturesque experience along the American Tobacco Trail in Cary, North Carolina.
The Tobacco Road race weekend has grown to attract runners from around the world and has donated more than $760,000 to charities, such as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, various military veterans’ organizations, and the American Red Cross. The fast, flat nature of the course, ideal running temperatures and picturesque trails draw runners with all fitness levels.
This year, participants and spectators were also treated to the interactive, real-time race day features available in RaceJoy.
550+ Participants carried their phones and used RaceJoy to be tracked during the race and 1,200 supporting friends and family tracked them live as they moved along the course. These 1,750 people made full use out of RaceJoy’s features!
“Just wanted to thank you for this great app! Yesterday I ran the Tobacco Road Half Marathon in Cary, NC. Thanks to the app, my husband and three young kids were able to follow me and show up at the right spot at the right time (which is a challenge with 3 young kids), so my boys were able to finish with me! A great experience and a great memory for the rest of my life. Thanks for helping to make that possible!” – Petrie T.
Participants and spectators who took advantage of RaceJoy received progress alerts at every mile that included information like location, pace and estimated finish time. Participants received these as audio alerts, a helpful feature when out on the course to avoid looking down at a phone. Spectators receive the progress updates as in-app notifications accompanied by a cowbell sound. Over the course of the weekend, 18,000 progress alerts were issued to participants and spectators!
“Sharing my joy as I was only steps from the finish line. Thank you for putting on a great race!” – Jade C.
Another popular feature of RaceJoy is the cheer sending. Users can send fun, prerecorded audio clips or personalized Text-to-Cheer messages in the days leading up to, during and after the race event. The Tobacco Road Marathon users showed some great support by sending more than 2,600 cheers to participants!
This is a unique and attractive race option for those seeking to qualify for the Boston Marathon or to achieve a new personal record. Whether it’s your first, like Carmen, or your 50th, the fast, flat course combined with the ideal running temperatures found in spring time in North Carolina make the Tobacco Road Marathon a race you should add to your race list!
Thank you race organizers for including RaceJoy in your 17th running of the Tobacco Road Marathon and Half Marathon! And special thank you to all of you who embraced RaceJoy. We hope it helped to bring a little more joy to a special race.
Race Organizers:
If you’d like to add your event to RaceJoy, follow the easy setup wizard on our site, or your RunSignUp dashboard. To learn more about all the features available in RaceJoy check out this Organizer Overview or review RaceJoy’s Website. Please note, we require a two-week minimum load time and an electronic copy of your course map (in KML/GPX format).
