This last weekend’s Space Coast Marathon and Half Marathon in Cape Canaveral, Florida offered participants some serious medal bling, a fun venue and the latest in race day technology with RaceJoy. The Space Coast Marathon has been a long-standing local favorite and has grown in popularity as a destination race attracting people from across the nation. Race organizers go the extra mile to offer a quality experience for participants and also embrace the needs of supporting friends and family members. We had a great showing with 4,600 people using RaceJoy for the Space Coast Marathon & Half Marathon. Way to blast off with the technology, runners and fans!
Her name is Joy!
Thanks to the race organizers, people were treated to a futuristic race experience with all of RaceJoy’s bells and whistles, including two forms of runner tracking, instant race results, audio cheers and convenient access to key race information, like places of interest and the weekend’s schedule. Runner tracking included free race timed alerts as runners and walkers crossed timing equipment on the course. Participants also had the option to purchase advanced GPS tracking for 99 cents where fans tracked their blue dot moving along the course.
During the races, RaceJoy issued 43,600 race-timed progress alerts as runners and walkers crossed timing points along the course. Running Zone provided high quality (as in one of the best we have seen) timing services and uses ChronoTrak timing equipment to time the race – which enabled RaceJoy to deliver these real-time updates. Many race participants showed their adoption of social media and technology by opting to post their progress on Facebook and Twitter. More than 1,200 updates were posted to participants’ walls as they completed the race.
Hundreds of runners and walkers took advantage of the phone tracking option as well so that their supporting friends and family could see exactly where they were on the course.
We personally tracked one participant for more than eight hours on the course. Now that is someone truly dedicated to staying the course! We like that the race director goes out and personally cheers on the very last runners. It shows he values the very last runner as much as the very first.
It was great to see people use RaceJoy’s Send-a-Cheer feature as well. More than 2,300 cheers were sent, including RaceJoy’s new text-to-cheer feature. All kinds of messages were sent from heartfelt to quite humorous to, yes, even risqué cheers. Its always fun to be the one monitoring the cheers.
RaceJoy’s integration with the Running Zone also allowed for the delivery of immediate, scored results for finishers, and these were available within moments of crossing the finish line. Finishers can now view their official race photos from their results page in RaceJoy thanks to the integration with MarathonFoto.
One of the big attractions of this race is the amazing medals they give out. Finishers received an additional third year medal if they have done the race for three years in a row. Below is a friend of ours who came back from a year- long trip away just so she wouldn’t miss the third race experience. Supposedly, the fifth year medal is the size of a plate!
Third Year Runners – Third Year Bling
A cool thing about this race is how many people stick around after the race. People set up little party areas and laid out their Space Coast Marathon earned towels on the grass and enjoyed some good eggs, pancakes, pizza, beer, soda, OJ, fruit – and they didn’t run out! There was plenty of food for spectators too, which is nice for those who have been out there for hours to support participants. The music was great and people made their own dance floor and everywhere you looked someone was shakin’ their groove thing.
We were hanging out at the RaceJoy tent giving out results to those that didn’t have their phone. It was nice talking with the runners we’ve gotten to know at the races and to see their staying the course on their running journey –an amazing vivacious cancer survivor, another who had just started running when we launched RaceJoy and are now going to Boston, some who have never thought they would run a marathon – it is these personal stories that get us revved up!
Cancer Survivor, Lover of Life!
The Space Coast Marathon Weekend races start in the historic and quaint Cocoa Village and finish with a lap around the Riverfront Park amphitheater where family and friends can cheer and watch participants finish. The race is held within the shadow of the Kennedy Space Center and the entire event revolves around a space theme with fun photo opportunities and amazing medals. The half marathon sells out every year within moments of registration going live – so this is one you’ll want to put on your calendar (2/15/16). For more: http://spacecoastmarathon.com/
We’d like to thank the Running Zone Foundation and Space Coast Runners for continuing to adopt innovation and include RaceJoy in such a historic race for the 3rd year! You are amazing to work with and we appreciate all the race participants and supporting friends and family who embraced RaceJoy!
Together, we are changing the race experience!