The popularity of running seems to be increasing again – it seems to go up and down through the decades. One of the things that is likely helping out this time is a little bit of technology from Nike and Apple (or you can get the non iPod version of the sportband). Wired has an interesting look into the Nike+ system, showing how a simple piece of technology has been leveraged to change things around for people. The key part of the Nike+ isn’t the technology, it is the social system in the back. People have started running because they can now all of the sudden track their own stats and share their stats with others. For many, the motivating factor seems to be this social element, something that seems to be key, especially for girls.
This simple widget has taken something that is often an intensely personal activity and made it more public. But I think this can all be done with an even simpler bit of technology… Twitter. I’m certainly not the only one who is posting run times, tracks and other related errata so it occurred to me that I might as well start pushing a hashtag – #yegruns – Edmonton Runs – (archive). Effectively this can do the same thing as the Nike+ system, but you don’t have to have anything more than the watch and the computer that you already have, keeping inline with the theme of running – it’s simple and you don’t really need anything fancy.
So why this post today? Well for the first time in 2 years, I’ve broke 5min/km.
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