Lakeshore Marathon Debuts New Technology

By Rachelle Bowden in News on May 18, 2004 12:33PM

MarathonGuide.com and Chicago's Lakeshore Marathon are debuting a new real-time runner-tracking technology called VoiceTrak at this year's marathon on May 31. VoiceTrak sends phone calls announcing runner progress as they pass the 10K, Half-Marathon, 20M and finishline. This is the first time the use of voice messaging will be tied to a runner performance and will be offered in addition to the older technologies of text messaging, website searches and email updates. Friends, family, and runners can register for voice phone calls that will tell them the current status of a runner, estimated finish time, and other options. MarathonGuide.com offers up this example VoiceTrak call:

Sarah just passed the 10K mark in the Lakeshore Marathon in 45 minutes and 14 seconds. At that rate, she's on target to finish in just under 3 hours 18 minutes which is ahead of her goal and she's currently second in her age group. The weather is perfect at 56 degrees and a slight westerly wind, which should not affect the runners.

Chicagoist is proud of the Lakeshore Marathon for being an early-adopter of this new technology and even though we don't know anyone running the marathon this year, we may sign up to track a random person just because we think the technology is so cool.