Athlinks - Automatically Collect Your Race Data
April 25, 2018 / Nicole HustonUpdated Mar 2, 2020
Disclaimer: I am reviewing Athlinks as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review, find, and write race reviews!
What is Athlinks?
I would best describe it as the Strava for races. For all the data geeks out there this is a great way to track your PRs and total number of races.
I'll be the first to admit that I have a Google Sheet that I used to track all of my races from. (Also my Races section of my website.) It's hard to keep those things manually updated but important for those questions from acquaintances like, "So, how many marathons have you done?"
Some companies have started to bridge the gap of manual race tracking like Ultrasignup, but Athlinks is much more well rounded in that it captures all race distances and even categorizes races into road vs. trail.
How do I claim results?
This part is so easy as Athlinks goes and finds your race results for you! All you have to do is confirm that the result Athlinks is suggesting is in fact yours and not someone else's who just happens to have the same name as you. In the beginning it was a little tedious (as I have 113 races currently on my Athlinks), so I confirmed my times over several sessions.
The best part is if Athlinks finds more they will send you an email, or you can just look to confirm past results next time you log in.
Social Aspect: Be Competitive or Follow Friends
You can easily search for friends if you know their name, but overall it can be challenging to discover new friends. I'd imagine this will improve significantly as the number of users on Athlinks continues to grow. Once you have your friends set up Athlinks will generate "rivals" who have ran similar races as you. Here you can compare your wins and losses as a means of friendly competition.
Holding Yourself Accountable
Convince your friends to sign up for races with you by posting your upcoming events. As an added bonus, you can add your goal time. Keep that in mind that you put that on blast to stay motivated during training! It's also a simple way to stay updated regarding what big races your friends are up to. And it makes it easy to remember to send a quick good luck message to your friends before the big race!
The Mobile App vs. Website
I am an Andriod owner and have had on and off issues with the Athlinks app. I started using the app in January of this year and several months later I have noticed massive improvements. Nonetheless, I'm excited to see Athlinks continue to improve the Andriod app option because the features are great! You can easily look for new rivals or discover local races in your area. I also found that some features that are easily accessible from the app are a bit more difficult to track down on the website, which is all the more reason to download the app.
Follow Me!
Here's a link to my Athlinks profile. I also added an Athlinks icon to my sidebar for easy future reference. Feel free to connect with me and say hello! Just make sure not be beat me in any races…
