Literally that, Running. Staying true to the more entertaining weekend blogs, and to share a bit about myself besides my professional pursuits, I wanted to write about running. . . via social media. I've been a big running for about 10 years now with 8 marathons under my belt and hopefully plenty more to follow. My last was the 5th of December, a trail marathon in Indiana – check out this elevation profile! Lots of fun ;-)
I first thought about putting a top 5 or 10 list together but quickly realized I should leave that to Carol and her Top running websites list or the Healthcare Administration Degree's 100 list. Thanks for the thorough lists, folks!
Then, I thought about a site I used with some frequency before, Athletic Minded Traveler . . . but then I found out they went to a pay-for-service model since I last used them. As a traveling consultant, I found it to be a valuable resource when it was free. . . $20 a year now, but I don't have a need. So I moved on. . . .
For a community to gain serious momentum, it might just need to be on Facebook these days, right? Well I went looking and quickly found:
- Running: The largest running associated group associated with http://www.runningnews.gr/, and I don't have a marathon planned for Greece. . . yet
- Running: The second largest, and this appears to be out of New Zealand. . . perhaps
- Running: The third largest, somehow associated with http://running-shoe-coupons.110mb.com/, but with Chicago based photos. . .
So, if you are looking to become mayor of something that could be major, try aggregating the online running community. . . somewhere (for when they aren't out running, I suppose) There is Runners Lounge, but, and this is possibly horrible to say, can any social site be legitimate without use of Facebook Connect?
I did happen upon traineo, an awesome site for someone who is looking to get seriously motivated about weight loss and fitness. Watch the quick 1:41 min video to understand. Basically, you set up goals, they use analytics to guide and motivate you. But, most importantly, you join in on a community of motivators who all help each other – that's huge. A resource like this should be used in any/all preventative health programs! I wrote about this back in June. FYI, fitlink has a similar model.
traineo in under 2 mins from traineo on Vimeo.
So there you go. . . I have not been missing too much online while I've been out running ;-) BTW, Today's run along the lake was amazing!
Did I miss any amazing online running gems that you know of?
UPDATE: Want to give mention to Weight Loss Buddy at http://tinyurl.com/ybkqpcj with features similar to traineo. And, it appears the site is halfway to perfection. They are on Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. . . but I want to see them (1) using Facebook Connect and (2) allowing users to share their ongoing successes via Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace. Thanks for the reference Stacy!
Recent Comments