Nike+ Human Race 10K - Racing Around the World

Nike+ is a device you hook up to your shoe and iPod Nano to track your running patterns and receive feedback while you're running. Already a million people around the world have been training with the device, with the U.S. putting up 2.4 million global training miles. This past Sunday was "the day the world stopped to run" in the Nike+ Human Race 10K.

I was in New York last week and got a picture of the giant Human Race display in the middle of Times Square.

It's a really great self-surveillance example. It's millions of people taking interest in themselves, collecting data, and then ultimately making a contribution to a group. In this case, people are grouped by countries.

Did any readers participate in the race? I'd be interested to hear how it went.

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Comments

Matt Alcock
Sep 2, 2008, 6:18 am

Nathan

I ran in London, my legs still hurt. I think we had one of the largest attendances so our ‘average time’ was affected slightly. I like to know how many people ran in madrid. The just beat us I think. http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikep.....rboard.jsp

That said I think we beat all the amercian cities :-) It was a great day even though in true London tradition it rained!
http://inside.nike.com/blogs/h.....-21-rivals

I beat my personal target of 55 mins so I’m pretty pleased. Had a great time and was good to be part of a larger day. Also good to know I was the right side of my cities average.

On a data visualization note the nike plus tracker and post run graphics are great I just wish it tracked my pace and speed a little more frequently so I could get more data from the run. Also I don’t think they make the raw data available which is a shame I love to run some analysis on my runs and race day performance.

Matt

Matt Alcock
Sep 2, 2008, 6:18 am

Nathan

I ran in London, my legs still hurt. I think we had one of the largest attendances so our ‘average time’ was effected by slower fun runners. I beat my personal target of 55 mins so pretty pleasede. Had a great time and was good to be part of a larger day.

On a data visaulation note the nike plus tracker and post run graphics are great I just wish it tracked my pace and speed a little more frequnelty so I could get more data from the run. Also I don’t think they make the raw data avialble which is a shame I love to run some analysis on my runs and race daya performance.

Matt

Nathan
Sep 2, 2008, 9:17 am

@Matt - wow, awesome. how did the tracking work exactly? like… did everyone get a tracker and at the end of race you handed it over? did everyone get sort of a personal report type thing after the race?

Gabriel Schuyler
Sep 4, 2008, 2:53 pm

I ran in San Diego, which makes me one of the “virtual” participants. Tracking-wise, it was the same as any other run. Transmitter in my shoe, ipod on my arm, run run run. Then when I got home I synced my ipod, which transmits my data to nike’s server.

When I logged in to view my running stats, the site recognized me as a registered participant of the race, noticed I’d run on the correct day (time doesn’t matter), and congratulated me on being “part of history.”

It’s a kewl proof of concept for expanding “race for the cure” events. Your miles are auditable without having to show up at a physical course. And you can time-shift your participation … I’m not a morning person; I ran the nike thing after sunset.