Do you want Garmin Connect API integration for RunningAhead? (Read 1006 times)

So here's the deal. As has been widely discussed in multiple threads on this board, browser plugins are going the way of the Dodo bird, leaving sites like RunningAhead, that rely on the Garmin browser plugin to upload data, in a bit of a lurch. To replace the browser plugin, Garmin has come out with the Garmin Connect API, which, among other things, allows users who upload their data to Garmin Connect (via the Garmin Express desktop app, or the Garmin Connect mobile app) to have that data automatically pushed to 3rd party sites like Strava and RA. It's actually super cool--I've been playing around with it since I got a 220 that has bluetooth synch. It's pretty cool to come in the back door from a run and as soon as my watch comes within range of my phone, my run gets synched to Garmin Connect and then pushed out to Strava.

Understandably, Garmin, a $2.8b provider of GPS products and services for navigation and outdoor sports, charges a nominal fee for support of the API. To companies like Strava, who have raised tens of millions in venture money, this is a non-issue. For a one-man site like RA that relies on add revenue and occasional voluntary user fees, it presents a bit of a hurdle.

Eric has announced his intention to support the Garmin Connect API and has begun working on it. But before he can go into production, he will need to purchase the $5,000 one-time license fee.

There are tens of thousands of users of RunningAhead who own Garmin watches and who upload their workouts directly from their watch today. All of us have paid hundreds of dollars for our Garmin watches, some of us are on our 3rd or 4th or 5th Garmin watch at an average of, what, $250 each? Many of us get at least as much value from the RunningAhead training log as we do from our watches, and it's permanent value--the data will always be there. I can run reports right now that compares my last 3 months of training to the 3 months leading up to the 2004 Boston Marathon, 11 years ago. Crazy stuff. But yet we have not paid nearly as much for that value as we have for our watches (or our shoes, or our fuel belts or whatever.)

If, out of the thousands of us who upload from our Garmins every day, just 200 of us were to donate $25, there would be the $5,000 that Eric needs. If a lot more than 200 of us were to do so, well that would just begin to slightly reduce the imbalance that exists between the value we get from this site, and what we pay for it.

But since I like symbolism, I'm going to throw in twenty-six point two dollars. A dollar for every mile of my next marathon.

I'm a paid up member of this site, and have been for years. I also contribute money over and above the "add free" subscription price because I simply don't think Eric charges enough for what he does, especially since I am a "power user" of the features of the site,  including GPS upload, training plans, tracking shoe mileage, dozens of custom reports, dozens of maps, etc.

However, I'm going to, RIGHT NOW, go to THIS LINK and put in an additional $26.20 specifically because I'd like to have Garmin Connect API integration for RunningAhead. Everyone has their own financial situation and I'm not asking anyone to put themselves into difficulty, but if you have the means, and if you get value from automatically uploading your runs from your Garmin to RA, then I urge you to do the same.

Thank you for reading this far. Now, who's with me?

p.s. HERE IS THE LINK AGAIN IN CASE YOU MISSED IT THE FIRST TIME.

Done.

Outstanding.

And, done. √

Posted the link in. FB Group I sm in with several RA users. Should be worth a few more

I gotta wait until payday this month, but I will gladly contribute!

Your timing couldn't be better Mikey, an outstanding reminder that it is time to curry favor with the running gods before Bataan Memorial Death March Marathon.  Sacrificial contribution of $26.20 coming right up, hopefully the karma points carry over to Boston, and Vermont City, and Mayor's Midnight Sun.

On a side note, I asked my friend Google if I was using the idiom properly.  The etymology's kinda interesting.

curry favor

To ingratiate oneself through flattery or a willingness to please. “Curry” has nothing to do with the spice—it means to groom, as in the horse-keeping currycomb tool. One of the definitions of “stroke” is “suck up to,” and the image is similar—to get on a person's good side, whether or not flattery is warranted. “Favor” was originally “Fauvel,” the donkey who was the roguehero of a 14th-century French romance. The image of grooming the beast to get on its good side or to win its favor is now the modern use of the word in the phrase.

Done, and I don't even own a Garmin anymore.

Since I use 2 Garmins I rounded up to $27.