Tag: marathon

Runners Urged To Follow These Tips If Using Strava Or Similar Apps

With marathon season in full swing and the London Marathon fast approaching, more runners are hitting the pavement, and many are turning to apps like Strava to track their progress, connect with fellow athletes, and stay motivated. While these platforms offer valuable insights and a strong sense of community, they also present potential privacy risks if not used carefully. Expert, Joerg Nottebaum from SportsMillions shares crucial insights on how runners can stay safe while using tracking apps.
“Apps like Strava are fantastic tools, but they can unintentionally expose runners to security threats if they don’t configure their privacy settings correctly. It’s essential to take simple precautions to protect your data while enjoying your training.”
To help runners stay secure, here are five crucial tips that can safeguard privacy while using Strava and similar apps:
1. Adjust Your Privacy Settings 
Most running apps, including Strava, offer privacy controls to limit who can see your activity. Enable features such as “Private Mode” or “Enhanced Privacy” to restrict visibility to approved followers.
“Many runners don’t realise that by default, their activity may be visible to anyone. A quick check of your privacy settings can significantly reduce potential risks.”
Additionally, consider hiding your start and end points to prevent revealing your home or workplace location.
2. Be Mindful of Route Sharing 
While it’s tempting to share your favourite running routes or personal bests online, doing so publicly may expose sensitive location data.
“Think twice before posting routes that start or end near your home. If someone is tracking your activity, they can easily figure out your daily patterns.”
Opt for generic or pre-set route names instead of personalised titles that disclose your location.
3. Use a Different Name or Alias 
Instead of displaying your full name on Strava or similar apps, consider using a nickname or initials. This simple step helps reduce the risk of strangers identifying you and finding personal details online.
“If you’re part of a running club or event, double-check your settings to ensure your participation isn’t visible to unknown users,” advises Nottebaum.
4. Limit Third-Party Integrations 
Many fitness apps sync with other platforms, such as social media and wearable devices. While this can enhance your training experience, it can also expose additional data.
“Limiting third-party connections helps you control where your data goes. The fewer platforms that have access to your running history, the better.”
Review which third-party apps have access to your data and disable unnecessary connections.
5. Be Cautious with Social Features 
Strava and similar apps encourage social engagement, allowing users to comment, give “kudos,” and join local running challenges. However, interacting with unknown users can pose risks.
“Be selective with follow requests and avoid sharing real-time activity in public groups. While running is a community-driven sport, safety should always come first.”
If you participate in virtual races or community runs, double-check that your data remains private.
Running apps like Strava are excellent tools for motivation and performance tracking, but staying mindful of privacy settings and data security is crucial. By following these simple yet effective tips, runners can enjoy their training while minimizing potential risks.
“As a runner, your focus should be on achieving your goals, not worrying about digital safety. Taking a few small steps to secure your data can make a world of difference.”
Apps, just like its users, should understand the importance of running safely both online and offline. Whether you’re training for a marathon or simply enjoy casual runs, taking precautions ensures that your fitness journey remains enjoyable and secure. Stay smart, stay safe, and keep running strong!

Stocktaking.ie and DigiTally Launch Fundraiser for Childhood Cancer Charity with Marathon and Steps Challenge

Ireland’s leading stocktaking service Stocktaking.ie, supported by food service software DigiTally, has launched its 2023 fundraiser to support the Cancer Fund for Children, an all-Ireland charity that provides emotional support to children diagnosed with cancer and their families. The fundraiser officially kicked off on Tuesday 18 April with a coffee morning, while on Sunday 23 April, CEO Patrick McDermott ran the London City Marathon in aid of Daisy Lodge Mayo, a short break centre for families.

Last year, Patrick also successfully ran the Chicago City Marathon, raising funds for Daisy Lodge Mayo. This year, the Stocktaking.ie team will support him with their own Steps Challenge to the equivalent of 55 marathons. The steps challenge also commenced on 18 April and will end on 25 May.

Daisy Lodge, in Newcastle Co. Down, is a nurturing and restorative space that provides families with a chance to connect during a difficult time. The charity urgently needs to build a second centre in Mayo, and the funds raised by Stocktaking.ie and DigiTally will contribute to this effort.

In 2022, Stocktaking.ie raised over €4,000 for the Cancer Fund for Children through a local table quiz and the Chicago City Marathon, with an additional €1,300 raised from the coffee morning. The fundraiser will now continue with former Irish rugby captain Rory Best’s walk from Dublin to Cong, which Patrick will assist with, to raise additional awareness for the cause.

Commenting on the fundraiser Patrick said: “We are proud to launch this effort to support the Cancer Fund for Children and contribute to the building of a second Daisy Lodge in Mayo. We hope to raise as much awareness and funds as possible to support families affected by childhood cancer.”

For more information visit www.stocktaking.ie

TCS is New Title Partner of TCS London Marathon: Promotes Technology for Sustainability and Healthy Lifestyles

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) today announced its priorities and new innovations as title partner, to enrich the TCS London Marathon experience through technology, and to make the event more sustainable, inclusive, accessible, and enjoyable.

Through the six-year partnership, TCS will prioritise enhancing the participant and supporter experience of the event to deliver on TCS London Marathon’s vision of inspiring sports-related activities and charitable giving. TCS has launched several new features for its official race app, which in 2021 set a record by being downloaded nearly 500,000 times. It is now available for download on the iOS App Store and Google Play Store.

The new app features include:

  1. The Belief Booster feature enables supporters to share encouraging messages for participants. A selection of messages will be displayed on the finish line LED gantry as runners approach the famous TCS London Marathon finish line on The Mall. Messages will also be shared in a post-race email to the participant, along with an option to upload to social media.
  2. Event participants could already allow up to three spectators to find their live location on the course in London. This feature is now available for virtual participants too, so they can share their actual live location, as opposed to their distance run being shown on the TCS London Marathon course.

TCS will continue to promote the innovative use of technology to transform marathon experience for everyone. This year TCS is providing an enhanced data warehouse with conceptual data modelling, which has helped London Marathon Events (LME) derive customer insights from diverse datasets to support decision making and strategy.

The TCS Mini London Marathon and TCS in the community

This year, the first ever mass TCS Mini London Marathon, where children of all abilities aged 4 to 17 can run, walk or wheel a 1 mile or 2.6km course. TCS has pledged to donate £10 per participant to the schools taking part, to be used to buy new IT equipment. The new mass TCS Mini London Marathon will also include the traditional Championship events for the best young runners across the UK.

TCS is working with its chosen charity of the year, City Year UK, to register all 20+ of its schools for the Mini London Marathon this year. TCS is also partnering with City Year to help address education inequality in some of the UK’s most disadvantaged communities. The Mini Marathon events will be held on October 1st, 2022 in London, and between September 26th and October 21st in schools across the UK.

To enhance its sustainability, LME will be using the ReScore app for the 2023 TCS London Marathon, developed by TCS for the Council for Responsible Sport. This will help LME verify the event’s sustainability progress to help reach its goals of net zero carbon emissions across its own operations by 2024 and remove more carbon than it emits across all operations by 2025. ReScore is a TCS-designed, cloud-based application, which enables event organisers to measure, track, report, and verify their progress on a broad range of environmental and social indicators for sports events.

Amit Kapur, Country Head, TCS UK and Ireland, said: “In our first year as title partner of the TCS London Marathon, we will use technology to promote inclusion, sustainability, and healthier choices for communities. We believe in using technology to reimagine and transform companies and communities to drive a positive impact in society.”

Hugh Brasher, Event Director, TCS London Marathon, commented, “We are delighted that TCS is now our official title sponsor and are excited about all the different initiatives we have planned. As we build and develop our six-year partnership with TCS, we are working together to drive forward LME’s digital transformation, allowing us to inspire millions more to build a healthy, active lifestyle, as well as raising even more for charities.”

In addition to the TCS London Marathon, TCS is also the official title partner of other distance running events around the world, including the TCS New York City Marathon, the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon, the TCS Amsterdam Marathon and TCS Lidingöloppet.

TCS’ mission is to provide trusted and innovative, best-in-class consulting, IT solutions, services and digital transformation support to ensure enterprises achieve their key business objectives. TCS is the number one supplier of software and IT services to the UK market, by revenue. It currently employs over 20,000 people in the UK and Ireland, including over 1,000 people located at the TCS Global Delivery Centre in Letterkenny, Co. Donegal.