RaceJoy 4+

Just ran my first 26.2, Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon. Had just loaded the app on iPhone 7, which I carried in a waist mounted zippered pouch. Also had my Apple Watch series 2.

My perspective: once I pushed the “start race” button, I stowed my phone. Muted all the audible updates. Notifications of each mile status was impossible to read. A lot of data for the small watch display, I had my prescription sunglasses with no bi-focals and I was running so I couldn’t keep the watch still enough to read. It also did not do split times, just overall average pace, I think, because I couldn’t read the display. I did notice some cheers come thru also. Again, couldn’t read much more than who they were from. Not sure if they were generic or custom, because I don’t know how or if I can go back and read cheers. Happy at the end that it tracked my overall finish time. Overall, app was not difficult to figure out and very importantly, did not crash.

My fans’ perspective: they loved being able to see where I was, so they could get ahead to the next cheering location on the route. That made it worth loading a new app the day before a big run, and my first marathon!

Overall, I would recommend app as is for sending your live location to spectators. Work on the notifications display for watch. Since I didn’t use it as my in-run tool, I can’t speak to its features for pace tracking.

When clicking on the “My races”, then my particular race, a page comes up with many icons to click, but many are covered up by a top and bottom banner. So the icons cannot be read.
When someone sends a cheer, unless you have your phone in your hand, the cheer does not automatically play. I had all the notifications for the app turned on. When someone sent me a cheer I would have had to take my phone out (I keep my phone tucked away when running, don’t want to have to fiddle w it), to listen to the cheer. I thought they would have recorded to listen after the race, but they did not, so I missed them all. Very disappointing! They should have played automatically.
The results thru text was good, it hard to find participants.
Not sure I will use this app again since the mileage and time information I am also able to get thru Map My Run and tracking for spectators of me could have used Life360.

I used RaceJoy at the Wineglass Marathon. It was ideal for keeping my husband updated on my progress so he could get to the finish in time, and I found out later that several other running friends were tracking me. So they knew my results as soon as I did! The cheers I received were a lot of fun, too, although I didn’t see most of them until afterward because I had turned off the audio splits (I didn’t want to stress too much over my pace). I was listening to music on iTunes, through Bluetooth headphones. It would be great if cheers could still get through the audio, even if splits are turned off.