Let’s be honest, RunKeeper is just a $9.99 iPhone application to track runs, right? You activate it, you start running down the street, it tells you how fast you are going, knows where you went via GPS, and remembers it so you can look at it later. It’s simple. Actually, it’s a little more important than that. To understand why, let’s back up to how my running life worked before using RunKeeper.

Recording Runs for 13 Years

As a statistician and a runner, I find tremendous value in knowing how I quantitatively progress (distance, speed, run types, etc) towards a goal. So since I began running in 1996, I’ve kept decent records of my runs in spreadsheets. Over the years, I’d created everything from bubble maps to sophisticated data tables, all by hand, all to focus on my real performance data.

Over the past year, I’ve had a simpler approach, using a simple Google Doc spreadsheet to track distance run per day across 12 columns (months) and 30+ rows (days). My only splurge of tracking effort? I’d go to Gmaps Pedometer, clicking to trace each of my standard running routes on a google map. The icing on the cake was that I’d be able to click another button to see an unattractive profile of the route to visualize the mountains (ok, well, humps) that I’d climb. Oh the joy.

This past Thanksgiving, I went for a 10K run, and got excited to show and tell my stepfather Randy about it. Randy’s no slouch - he’s a decorated Big Ten middle distance runner who was an elite 10K runner in his prime. He knows his stuff. I ain’t got nothing on him.

I’d used his watch to record splits, and then got home and mapped it all out on Gmaps Pedometer. Once mapped, I turned to a spreadsheet, entered my splits manually, and then printed my analysis and map to show him. He was impressed, perhaps since he’s possibly never used anything more than a wristwatch.

Along Cometh RunKeeper

Based on a twitterer I follow, I learned of RunKeeper just after Thanksgiving.

To be clear: I’ve never found a software application that even approaches the degree that RunKeeper was made for me. My reaction upon first use was visceral: I was hooked. The reasons are extensive:

• It tracks not only speed, distance, pace, but also calories and climb.
• It shows you where you are at in real time, on a google map, with mile markers. You can zoom in real time (although that gesture is slightly complicated while sprinting down a sidewalk).
• It uploads the data to a web app that displays all the data, the route on a google map, AND pace and altitude (climbing) graphed overlaid over the event duration. You can even mouseover the graph and it’ll show you where you were at at the time.
• It enables you to correct the minor inaccuracies of GPS readings by dragging points on the map. I guess that’s for the obsessive numeric types.
• It autoposts the run to Twitter. Ok, that’s easy in the day of Web 2.0. However, it’s critical: my wife then sees my profile pic with pearly white teeth muttering “Hey, I’m cool, I just finished a run, look at me, I’m special.” And thus, every night at the dinner table, she’s got ammo.

This application was so perfect, so useful, that I ran a couple week’s worth of runs (perhaps 20-30 miles) HOLDING the iPhone in my hand. Not on an armstrap. Not pockets available. I held it. That was stupid - it’s a $500 device that if dropped while running 8+mph is certainly doomed. Trips happen. But I was willing to do it, so awesome was RunKeeper.

Why Does RunKeeper Matter?

Running is important to me, and I’ve found an application that:

• Records statistical data that exceeds the amount I could ever dream of recording myself.
• Saves me around 5-10 minutes per run in manually recording data.
• Gives me an easy way for me to share my runs with people that care. That’s moreso Randy my pseudocoach stepfather than my wife.
• Motivates me to run more, alot more. Presumably, if I run more, I’m more likely to live longer.

Those days where the noon hour approaches, and I’m feeling too busy and buried at work, I look at my my iPhone and I feel a bit of that addictive feeling. Not addicted to running. Not addiction to the data. But more an addiction to the freedom and experience of running that’s been amplified considerably by RunKeeper. There’s a palpable difference there.

How Much is RunKeeper Worth?

On today’s run, I thought about it. I really really thought about it. How much would I have paid for RunKeeper given the positive effect it’s had on me? I started comparing it to other purchases.

Do I value RunKeeper more than my car? Actually, kinda. My emotional attachment to my car has waned as I’ve worked from home for the last three years. My car really doesn’t matter to me that much right now. It’s not a big part of my life. Cars are expensive to buy, expensive to fuel, and expensive to maintain. Ok, they are kinda essential, but on a practical level, not an emotional level.

Given the impact RunKeeper has had on my life, I’d pay alot more than $9.99 for it. At least $100. Maybe even $200, or $300. As I ratchet up the price as I write, I’ve not really hit my ceiling. In terms of it’s actual value to me, it’s worth far more than a couple hundred bucks.

iPhone email? Vital. iPhone Twitter apps? Lightly addictive. iPhone maps? Oh, you know I love that. But I could envision a life without those, returning to the days of a 2005 mobile device that was simply a cellphone. But running without RunKeeper? I just don’t see it, unless something else one ups it.

The RunKeeper of the Future

If RunKeeper is the start of a much richer running experience, I can’t wait for what’s ahead. I hope I live long enough that I can experience things like this, or even see them in years:

• Heart Rate. All the pieces are there - a device tethered tightly to my upper left arm. How soon before the iPhone includes a sensor or has a relevant add on.
• Run Types & Coaching. Enabling you to classify run types (tempos, fartleks, interval training, etc), configure intervals, and have the voice overs coach you.
• Route Recognition (and Labeling). It’s likely statistically possible to group runs based on their GPS trace similarity. The app should just know where I’m going and predict it after awhile.
• Smart Pacing. Imagine “You are running route 10K Franklin as a tempo run, and you’ve started the first half mile 17sec faster than usual and your heart rate is above normal.” That is, shouldn’t you be slowing down, idiot? It might as well say “Yes, Nathan, I realize you are listening to Linkin Park instead of Enya, but you’ll pay for it later.”
• Remote Coaching. First, it’d be a coach watching the data roll in and commenting that evening to give you tips. But really, why not messages sent to a coach when you start, they open a web browser app to watch and track your performance, and feed you live quotes / audio messages in real time through your mobile device that funnels it through your earphones directly?

That last one’s a bit more far fetched (or, rather, farther in the future). But I don’t know that it’s that difficult a chore to transform rather well-defined coaching and run planning techniques into a codified system that interprets your goals and real-time data comparatively with past performance.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s alot of nuance and personal touch to coaching. However, I ain’t no olympic athlete, I am rather (inwardly competitive) recreational runner. I can’t pay for coaches. But I’d love if coaching became as automated as the data collection I’ve now so warmly embraced. Maybe RunKeeper would even name the coach voice “Randy.”