RaceJoy Blazed through the Hell of a Half

This past weekend, participants of the Hell of a Half Marathon and their supporting family and friends were treated to RaceJoy’s live phone tracking and cheer sending as part of their infernal race day experience.

The race is aptly named due to the challenging course marked by steep hills and the hot weather common in August throughout California. What else would you expect when signing up for an event named “Hell of a Half”?

The half marathon is a paved, looped course that starts at the Exeter Veteran’s Memorial Park and guides runners through the foothills of the Sierra Nevada’s and then returning back to the city and the finish line. If you are looking for a challenging course with bragging rights, check this one out.

The event supports the Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation, which is dedicated to preventing burns and providing services to those affected by a burn injury. With a goal to sponsor as many children as possible to attend their “Champ Camp” and “The Getaway” for child burn survivors, every entry to the Hell of a Half helps support the charity.

This year, the race offered RaceJoy’s mobile race day experience so that runners could receive extra support and encouragement from family and friends with real-time tracking of their actual position and live cheers delivered in audio format.  Runners also received progress updates at every mile that included their current pace and split to help manage their performance.

Participants were particularly appreciative of the extra encouragement that spectators sent through the Send-a-Cheer feature, especially when they got to the toughest points along the 13-mile trek. According to the race director, Tom Sowers, one participant shared that they were just wanting to quit, but then they received a cheer and that was all the motivation they needed to keep going.

Another participant said that the progress updates from RaceJoy helped them stay on track and accomplish their goals for the day. More than 6,200 progress alerts were issued during the race!

Even the timer posted on Facebook asking for feedback immediately following the event, and people had positive responses. Here are a couple:

More than 480 runners and spectators used the app on race day to track participants’ blue dots in real-time move along the official race course. A popular feature of the app, especially for spectators who weren’t able to make it to the race site. On average, each runner using RaceJoy had 1.5 spectators tracking them, which was great to see the support at a challenging course.

We’re glad we were included in this year’s running of the Hell of a Half and are happy we could offer a piece of heaven in the midst of the hellish 13-mile course. A special thanks to the race timer and director, Tom Sowers, for providing the app as a free feature for his participants and spectators and congratulations to everyone who finished the grueling course!

Interested in offering RaceJoy?

Visit our website or go to your RunSignUp dashboard to get started. We require an electronic version of your course map (GPX/KML preferred) and a two-week load time prior to the race date.

If you have questions or would like more information, feel free to send us an email at info@racejoy.com. We’re happy to help!