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I need more friends.
Not in general — on the Athlinks website! I have been tracking my race results on Athlinks for a long time, but I’m now exploring other features of the site.
So many races’ results are already on Athlinks, and all you have to do to get involved is create an account and claim your race results.
I’ve been claiming my results for years, but I have mostly just used the site as a database to look at my race results and check back when needed. My oldest result dates back more than 10 years — to May 7, 2006. The larger races I have done are included on the site.
As you (hopefully) know if you have been reading this blog, I am a BibRave Pro — and what you probably don’t know yet is that I am a new BibRave Pro team captain for the East region! BibRave has partnered with Athlinks, so after learning about this partnership, I looked at the various features of the site that I hadn’t looked into before.
You can find Athlinks at www.Athlinks.com or via an iOS or Android app. My profile can be found here.
How does it work?
After creating an account on Athlinks, you can claim results that are yours. This was easy for me, as there aren’t too many Vanessa Junkins (there is at least one other one, but the only results on Athlinks were mine). As you run more races, Athlinks finds your results.
For example, the last race I did was the Rehoboth Beach Seashore Half Marathon. Athlinks found this result for me and I claimed it.
You wouldn’t claim results that aren’t yours, but you don’t even have to if they are — maybe you had a bad day or something and don’t want it displayed to the public. There is one race that shows up that I just barely didn’t finish because of dehydration, and someone threw my shoe (with the chip on it) across the finish line. I didn’t feel comfortable claiming that result, so I didn’t.
On the Athlinks home screen are my name, gender, age, location, personal records and statistics.
It’s cool to have the PRs right at the top, and if I click on personal records, it brings me to all of the distances. My actual 5K PR was at a race that was not chip timed, so it didn’t appear on here, but the one that’s logged is pretty close. (See below for more on how you can add times.)
If you look at the screenshot above, you can see the following tabs: Overview, Results, Following, Rivals, Statistics and Messages.
Here’s what can be found at each tab.
Overview: This shows upcoming events, upcoming events for users I am following and my three latest race results.
Results: Fifty-six race results are listed for me, with the newest results at the top and the oldest at the bottom. For each race, you can see how you placed within your age group, among your gender and overall, as well as your average pace and time.
Following: The athletes I’m following on the site, sorted alphabetically by first name, are shown here. You can see who other athletes are following, which can be helpful in finding friends. Athlinks also suggested some people I may know on the side of the page. To find fellow BibRave Pros, I went to our community manager Erin’s page and followed everyone she was following. You can also find friends by looking through race results.
Rivals: The rivals listed on my page have each run at least one of the same races as me. Athlinks shows how many wins or losses I have compared to each other runner. I don’t think rivals are matched by pace, because one of my rivals, for example, is much faster than me (I have zero wins and she has 14 wins).
Statistics: My personal records can also be found here.
Messages: I haven’t yet send a message on the site, but you can send a message by going to someone else’s Athlinks profile and clicking on his or her “Messages” tab.
The Start List
Athlinks members can use the website as a race calendar. Once you know you’re running a race, add yourself to the start list. As the website notes, this doesn’t register you for the race — obviously, you have to pay, sign the waiver and actually register. However, it’s fun to see who else is going and to set a goal time. When I ran the Crystal City Twilighter 5K earlier this year for BibRave, Athlinks was part of the sign up process, and I put in my predicted time there.
The race page has the race date, times, average weather, past results and website. You can also see anyone else who has added him or herself to the start list.
Once I know I’m running a race, I will be adding myself to the start list going forward. One cool feature is that you can see your average time for that distance.
For example, I added myself to the Tim Kennard River Run 10 Miler, which is coming up in March. Of the 11 10-milers I have run that have results on Athlinks, my average time is 1:29:21. Unfortunately, I have gotten slower over the years — my faster times were in the past. However, I made my 2018 goal 1:29:29 — which is super close to that average time.
I also will be participating in the Run For the Animals in April. This race didn’t yet have a start list for 2018, so I was able to create one. To do that, you just need to click on the race, go to “Start List” and then “Add Year.” You do have to have the date, time and distance(s), but it wasn’t difficult.
I haven’t added a completely new event yet, but to do that, you can go here. This also allows you to add race times you don’t see on the site, according to this Athlinks blog post. However, the blog post does say they’ll “do the work to verify your result” — so don’t go putting in some crazy Olympic time, or some other time you didn’t run.
So, speaking of goal times, Athlinks made a great point in that blog post: “Talk about putting it out there — publicly stating a goal is one of the best ways to ensure you stay motivated and committed to reaching it!”
So true! I find that it helps to put a goal out there. Once you tell people, it seems to be more real.
Also, if you haven’t been active on Athlinks in a while, don’t worry. Athlinks customer service was able to help me when I couldn’t log in to claim more results back in 2016 (I am bad at deleting emails so I even still have the exchange).
Enter to Win
Athlinks is also hosting a giveaway — all you have to do is sign up and claim your results.
Prizes, according to the Athlinks website, are “a free 2018 race entry from one of our amazing partners: Spartan Race, Life Time Tri, Leadville Race Series, Miami Marathon & Half Marathon, Chicago Half Marathon or a one-year premium subscription for TrainingPeaks!”
So, will you be my friend on Athlinks? Find me here.
See what other BibRave Pros had to say:
She Runs by the Seashore 