RunningAHEAD - Topic: The Death of Running-Log.Com: A Cautionary Tale

XanaduStone

posted: 3/3/2008 at 3:42 AM
modified: 3/3/2008 at 3:50 AM

Your online solution for ... losing your running log. So, apparently the site www.running-log.com has, emm, died? This was my first running-log site, I used it for four years and I am fortunate to have all my data off it and on here, but WOW. All the logs, gone. Now there is a message from the site's creator.

When I became aware of the service outage, I contacted my web hosting provider. After some troubleshooting, I was informed that the database containing everyone's logs had been corrupted and no backups were available to restore the data. I've tried to follow up to get more details but the company has stopped responding to my online support ticket and will not answer their support phone line. What does this mean for you? Unfortunately, I don't have any good news. With a corrupted database and an unresponsive web host, there's nothing I can do to retrieve the data. All of our logs are gone.

In my opinion, it was a horrible site, was never updated, and is an example of why I feel good at runningahead and am going to back up my log now. Ashes to ashes.

Run To Win

#2867

posted: 3/3/2008 at 9:20 AM

I tried their log out some years ago, but wasn't really impressed so I never got into using it regularly. I was still a paper and pen man at that point. Sad to hear, though. You never want to see something like that happen.

Run to Win
25 Marathons, 17 Ultras, 16 States (Full List)

spaniel

Feeling the growl again

posted: 3/3/2008 at 9:22 AM

One reason my log is still paper. Unless it burns, I'm ok....

"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

kcam

posted: 3/3/2008 at 12:29 PM

Quote from XanaduStone on 3/3/2008 at 3:42 AM:

Your online solution for ... losing your running log. So, apparently the site www.running-log.com has, emm, died? This was my first running-log site, I used it for four years and I am fortunate to have all my data off it and on here, but WOW. All the logs, gone. Now there is a message from the site's creator. In my opinion, it was a horrible site, was never updated, and is an example of why I feel good at runningahead and am going to back up my log now. Ashes to ashes.

Not to rag on anyone at this site (as this place is the best) but don't feel too good about your log here. Bad stuff can and does happen - regularly download your log to your computer. I lost my first log which was an excel log due to a hard drive crash and I lost my first 10000 miles or so of running because of that. It's almost like you lost a piece of you. I download my log here once a week. I also downloaded my CR log once a week and was unaffected by the stuff that happened there.

JakeKnight

posted: 3/3/2008 at 12:34 PM

Thanks for the reminder - I just backed up my log for the first time in a while. Although I'm pretty sure Eric has a backup system in place. And I don't understand why that site lost everything just because a single database was corrupted. It seems pretty negligent that they didn't have at least one redundant, separate system. Eric - what is the status of the data? Could this happen here? I know you've posted on it before somewhere but I couldn't find it.

E-mail: eric.fuller.mail@gmail.com
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Dustin

posted: 3/3/2008 at 12:58 PM

I'd hope there'd be some kind of backup system in place. I still try and download mine frequently though.

Figbash

posted: 3/3/2008 at 2:11 PM

Back up your log often so you don't need to post threads like this in the future. I had my log backed up at Cool Running and when it all went bad I just moved it over here. No problem. Tom

sfh1182

Sine Metu

posted: 3/3/2008 at 2:37 PM

Whoever was running that site has got to feel pretty bad right now. It's pretty poor practice to have no DB backup plan in place.

A lot of pressure in the middle of those shoulders / And we ain't gettin nothing but older / Ain't nothing change but the day we run from / But nobody knows that better than you,huh

Lakerunner5

posted: 3/3/2008 at 3:46 PM

OK, now that the thought of losing my log has me terrified, how do I back it up, with all the great graphs and charts? Oh yeah, I'm a Mac girl, living in a PC world. I lost my log in December from the Coolrunning site; I can't bear to lose it again! Lakerrunner

jeffdonahue

posted: 3/3/2008 at 3:51 PM

I know the feeling. After seeing the thread I immediately went and made a backup of my log. Go to your training log and on the left menu there is a tools option. IN there you should see an option to download your log. You can download it two different ways - XML and Excel versions.

greenrunning

posted: 3/3/2008 at 3:55 PM

I set up an event on my Gmail calendar to remind me every Friday to backup my log. It would be nice if there was an option on the site here to have it email you your log data periodically.

Lakerunner5

posted: 3/3/2008 at 4:03 PM

Done! Thanks JeffD.

JakeKnight

posted: 3/3/2008 at 4:26 PM

Just in case some didn't see it: http://runningahead.com/forums/topic/a805a354e1894c2589ac8f1c9ffca6e2 I figure the odds of Eric losing my data are about the odds of me running a sub-~~3:00~~ 2:50 marathon.

E-mail: eric.fuller.mail@gmail.com
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Fastenoughforyou

posted: 3/3/2008 at 8:18 PM

I caution against using anything online. IMO you're putting your trust in something that isn't all trustworthy. If the internet has taught me anything is that it is buggy, unpredictable and untrustworthy. As cool as I like this log on this site I wouldn't go placing all my important data onto it. The site could crash in a split second. I bought a software program 3 years ago that I house all my data on.

PR's: 5k 19:34 2008 10k 41:05 2008 Half 1:34:34 2007 Marathon 3:29:49 2009 Up next, Spring Marathon NJ?

milkbaby

posted: 3/3/2008 at 9:52 PM

Quote from Fastenoughforyou on 3/3/2008 at 8:18 PM:

I caution against using anything online. IMO you're putting your trust in something that isn't all trustworthy. If the internet has taught me anything is that it is buggy, unpredictable and untrustworthy. As cool as I like this log on this site I wouldn't go placing all my important data onto it. The site could crash in a split second. I bought a software program 3 years ago that I house all my data on.

Ditto... I used the Coolrunning log for many years until Active mangled the site after their takeover. I will never use an online log again, even one as awesome as the RunningAhead log. I use a custom made MS-Excel worksheet that I made myself that keeps track of shoe mileage, does km to mile conversion, calculates pace, and almost everything else I want in a log and keep 3 copies of it: one on flash drive, one on hard disk, one that is paper hard copy.

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." -- Mahatma Gandhi "I have need to be all on fire, for I have mountains of ice about me to melt." -- William Lloyd Garrison "The marathon is an art; the marathoner is an artist." -- Kiyoshi Nakamura

The Death of Running-Log.Com: A Cautionary Tale (Read 1471 times)