New Running App (Read 756 times)

Hello Everyone,

I am in the process of building a new running app. This isn't a run tracker or map my run type of application but it's going to be full blown app that has the majority of every race in the country.  It will have filters so that you can just tap a button for where you are and you can select a race within so many miles and/or change a filter to only have 5k or 10k etc.  It will also be a great source for reviews of every race.  Think of trip advisor.  Lets say you want to run the chicago marathon and have never been there. You are going to be able to read reviews of runners that talk about what hotels to stay at, what restaurants to eat at, what to expect at packet pick up, how are the race medals (bling) etc.  This app will have over 250,000 race ready to roll on day one. I am going to roll out a website first and the app second and I am looking to have it all finished up in the next 90 days.

What I need from my running community is any more ideas to incorporate into this.  So please anything thing you can think of I will take into consideration and as the time gets closer to launch I will give you more details on what the app is call and the web site address.

Thanks everyone,

Brent

How will you get the majority of races in the country into your database? That's always appeared to be the challenge for race directory websites and there have been a lot of them. For the longest time Coolrunning was the defacto standard for New England races but it relied on race directors to submit their races to the database. It never took off nationally and over the years it's seemed to cover fewer of the NE races as people tend to rely on social media and other avenues for promoting races.

Marathonguide is a great resource for marathons but I've often wondered how they get all the races in the database.  I suspect a combination of crowd sourcing and manual work. And searching google for marathons is a lot easier than searching for any type of race of any distance.

thanks for your input folks.  I have a few ways to get the data and some manual uploading will be required also like a yelp set up.   If we don't have your race you can add it and review it. Put pics up share comments to the race director, maybe you feel the race should start earlier because it's always too hot, or maybe users suggest an extra water stop etc.

again thanks for your replies

Yea there are some decent sites out there..they all have like one good benefit but I still feel like they should all be combined into one site.  Plus they don't have apps or the mobile view is tough to use.  I got to see a sneak peak of my new app last week and it's looking amazing going to be so user friendly.  Working on getting the data in there and should have around 270,000 races right off the bat and we will also have all the tough mudders and spartan races in there so that people can review those as well.  if you all have any more ideas let me know and Ill run them by my development team.  On a drop down menu for instance would you all like to see 1mile, 4 mile, 5k, 10k, half, full, ultras, mudders, etc..what events are you wanting to search for..maybe trail races.  Any ideas on other distances you would like to see.

Sure will...you will be able to search triathlons as well.  What are the main sites that you use for triathlons now??! I am going to make this to where you will be able to review your recent triathlon or one you have done in the past.  You will rate it base on several categories and can comment on it and the race directors and events hosts will be able to take positive and negative comments from these races and hopefully make them even better.  Plus other runners and triathletes will be able to read about the local dining, accommodations, the bling from the race, were there enough water stops....whatever you want to write about.  Also it'll be super user friendly on the app portion and it'll just be 2-3 taps and you will have all the races and the filters that you are looking for to search your race.  As this app gets further along I will keep everyone updated on when the launch date will be.

I also am thinking about a different type of running app.  Are you building your own or using someone to build it?

i really like the idea----i travel enough and would like to look up races in areas I'm not familiar with, though generally have a hard time navigating each state's options, and i'm not just into longer, marathon-distance races.  Don't know if this has been considered, but international races are VERY HARD find/navigate and should yer app go the distance, say over to Europe, I would certainly be using it.

Im working on international.  I obviously want this to get as big as possible for many reasons but due to the high cost of building an app, I am going to stick around the USA first and as it gets bigger and hopefully I keep getting more financial backers, which I have been blessed to have a few now, I will start using that money to expand and get the data together for international travel. My old job as a federal agent i was traveling all over the world and I was always searching for races in the caribbean and other locations, but had a hard time finding it.  With the feature I will add to let the user upload their race information, think YELP, then more races will be entered every single day..  I hope to get the major international races added up front but the smaller races will take time some to get in the database.