RunWise App for Weather-adjusted pace goals

Guest blog from Joe Puleo of RunWise.

The RunWise app creates a personalized running goal pace and finishing time in heat stress conditions.  It fills a need for both the end-user, the runner, and for the race director to help set expectations properly so there is less risk of injury.

Specifically, for the runner, it creates a new goal pace and goal time that accurately reflects the WGBT (wet globe bulb temperature) temperature at the race location in real-time.  The athlete is no longer left guessing as to how much the heat, humidity, sunlight, and wind speed will impact their performance.  The app requires inputs for miles/kilometers, race distance (currently 5k, half-marathon, and marathon), and goal pace or goal time.  Once the “Get adjusted Pace” bar is pushed, a new, normalized pace/time is created based on the input information and the current weather conditions within one second (the whole process takes less than 15 seconds).  The runner now can proceed with confidence knowing the specific effects of the weather.

The RunWise app benefits the race director by providing a free layer of safety. By slowing the pace based on the weather conditions (it will never speed the pace), the app eliminates a major safety concern on race day for the race director and staff.  The tragic death two weekends ago at the RiteAid Cleveland Marathon may have been avoided (if it was heat related as reported) by use of the RunWise App.

By providing information about the app, and encouraging each participant in the race to use it, the race director, staff, and sponsors (in my estimation) have done their part to mitigate their potential liability when conducting a race in challenging heat conditions.

The app can be found at the App store for Apple phones and Google Play for Android phones.  It is a free service.  Also, all standard race distances up to 50k (road) plus training formulas have been created.  They will be coded as the demand arises.