Goodbye spreadsheet, hello Athlinks

It was easy to track my races when I first started out as a runner. I would do about a half-dozen races a year, which I logged on a spreadsheet.

Now with more than 50 races under my belt, the spreadsheet has outgrown its usefulness. I needed something else to track my performances in races from 5Ks to 50-milers. Athlinks offers a way to easily compile your races, plus compare yourself with friends or “rivals.”

Athlinks is very intuitive, and it’s easy to add your completed and upcoming races. Here’s a quick tour:

Easy-to-find results and more

The main page lists your personal records, upcoming events for you and friends, and offers clickable tabs to find results, rivals, statistics and more. A search bar at the top of the page allows you to track down your unclaimed results.

I believe there are only two small races I have completed that I was unable to find in the database. All of the others were very easy to upload.

And one of my results, the Leadville Marathon in 2017, was somehow linked to another account and locked me out. The Athlinks support team was able to correct the problem quickly and easily.

You can even use Athlinks before races.

In getting prepped for the upcoming Allstate Hot Chocolate 15K in Indianapolis, I added my name to the start list on Athlinks. It’s a really cool feature that allows you to check out other runners who will be running the same race. I will continue to use this feature to preview my races and learn who I will be competing against.

Introducing your rivals

One of my favorite features is Rivals. It shows how you have fared against other runners who you have connected with. I have about eight rivals, including those from three countries —the United States, Canada and Australia.

I also had no idea that I have run races with Trena Roudebush, who lives in Indianapolis where I work. Though we never actually met — yet — we have run the same race eight times.

However, when I pointed this out on Twitter, we started a conversation and plan to share a run together sometime soon.

Sortable results

Your results page is quite simply just that. It defaults to show the races you have completed in reverse chronological order. But it also allows you to sort by category, distance or event. Each race shows your overall time, pace, and your finish overall, by age group and by gender.

A neat feature is that it also separates trail and road races so you can better evaluate performances. (I didn’t even do that on my spreadsheet.)

Friend or rival, come join me on Athlinks so we can push ourselves to even better performances.