Racing With Trakkers!

This weekend I'll be lacing up the ol' running shoes and heading downtown to run the Denver Half Marathon. The weather will be gorgeous and this course is awesome - running through downtown, passing by the Pepsi Center and Coors Field, then running to City Park, then to Cheesman Park. I also really enjoy making the turn towards the finish line for the half while the marathoners go straight!! (No worries mate, I have a marathon on my schedule for January)

But the really cool thing about this race is that I am testing a Trakkers device while I run. Trakkers is a cool company that has developed a GPS device (about the size of a beeper) that you hook onto your shorts. It then sends information about your race to a website and friends and family can "watch" you run from their computer! Because they are still in development, your feedback is critical and needed. I have copied the email I received from Carole at Trakkers about the process. If you are awake at 7:00am on Sunday morning, please give this a try and give some honest feedback - it will be appreciated!

Below is the link you can send to your loved ones to use to follow you on race day. At this point I don’t think our application is compatible with iPhone but we are moving in that direction. I think (but am not 100% certain) this test is only viewable from a computer – and I have heard MAC causes problems. ?

(Feel free to forward this email to your friends and family if you’d rather not take the time to explain everything I am below.)

When sending the link to your friends and family, please ask them to fill out the online user survey they’ll find on race day. We are specifically not giving online user instructions how to navigate the system as this is part of our test (frankly, it’s the primary purpose). We realize not every person who wants to follow their loved one will be computer savvy and we are trying to create a system that is fairly intuitive to navigate. Our online user feedback has been critical to improvements and we truly appreciate everyone’s time they’ve taken to give feedback on their experience.

I thank you (and your friends and family) in advance for any feedback they offer. Ultimately, we are creating this device and website for THEM so they can follow you during your training and racing. Knowing how to make this better for them is our primary objective.

We are continuing to make modifications to URL page until race day, so know the final version will not be ready until the morning of the race. Also, if you have difficulty getting to this page, try copying and pasting the URL directly.

Here is the link they will go to on race day.
http://www.trakkersgps.com/trackevents/event-test.aspx?eventid=16&subeventid=19

Thanks again for your help! We are excited for this test and eager for your loved ones to have an intimate connection to your progress!