I received the following email yesterday from a RunKeeper user:
Just an update on my progress…
Sent at: Fri May 15, 2009 1:24 pm
From: xxxx.xxxxxxxx
To: jason
So I wanted to update you on my weight loss and running progress, so here goes:
Starting weight – 278.5 Lbs in August of 2008
Current weight – 194.0 Lbs as of today (May 15th, 2009)
I am up to running 6 miles and I recently competed in a Grand Prix 10K. My standings look like this:
I ran it in 48:15 in a torrential downpour (no kidding we picked up 3.5″ of rain during the race). I came in 98th out of 365 total racers. I was 81st out of 199 total men. I was 15th out of 28 men in my age group (34 – 39).
I had been hoping to run it in 46:00 but I had to stop and tie my shoe and I felt like I was carrying an extra 2 Lbs of water weight in my shoes alone!!!
Anyway, I wanted to again thank you for the RunKeeper application as it has given me the feedback I have needed to help motivate myself and push myself to where I am right now! I do not know if I could have done this without RunKeeper!
Keep up the GREAT work!
Sincerely,
Xxxxx Xxxxxxx
The above email made me really happy. Here is a user that is experiencing exactly what we hoped people would experience when we set out to build RunKeeper. And what is even more exciting is, if this is his experience today, we can’t wait to show him what will be possible as we get further down the path.
This is still the first inning of a long game. We know it. And we know all of you know it. Why else would our inbox be flooded with requests from users for features to add, problems to solve, improvements to be made, and general messages of support and encouragement? We know why! It is because all of you see the same opportunity that we do.
We have two things going that have me very excited as we enter this next phase of growth. One is the platform. We are getting to the point where this little tracking platform we have built is pretty solid. And it is only going to get better from here. I say ‘platform’ because tracking is only the first of many things you will be able to do as we grow, and without the foundation layer being solid, it would be much more difficult or even impossible to build all of the subsequent layers. More info to come on this soon (hint, hint).
Two is all of you! The community emerging around RunKeeper is our greatest strength. We love the interactive nature, we love the feedback pouring in, and we LOVE how invested each one of you has become in making sure that RunKeeper lives up to its potential! While we may have bags under our eyes from working so hard, we would not trade this opportunity for the world. We are breaking new ground here each and every day, and we could not be doing any of this if it wasn’t for all of you!
Expect big improvements from us in the coming weeks and months. We have a complete web redesign on the way that we think you will like a lot. And we are hard at work on new features, both on the device and on the website. Some of these you would expect, and some maybe you wouldn’t expect, but all of which we can’t wait to show you! With your help, we will continue on this exciting journey, and look forward to whatever the future may bring.
Jason