Photo taken by Jonathan Griffiths - Owner of Rochester Running Company
Runivation is a motivational and educational tool for
runners - even if one doesn’t consider themself to be a runner. It is meant to encourage running and ultimately change people’s mindset to see running as more fun and recreational than intimidating. This site features quotes from members of a local running club that were asked what motivates them most. A selection of these quotes was used for motivational posters available for users to save, share, download, print, or order. The help page considers other factors that affect motivation to run, such as the weather, fear of injury, and helps runners who are seeking advice or need more motivation. Part of the research for this project was gathered from participants who were willing to run for 2 weeks. Their thoughts and feelings were recorded and their video responses help users who may be going through similar struggles.
Running is a simple, beneficial form of exercise that should be encouraged and introduced more for fun than just for sport. Personally, running is always something I wanted to get better at. I was on the track team in high school and run in my free time. I was interested in why it was so difficult to continue to longer distances. People often doubt
themselves (as I have) in what they can do and runners are often judged by others for running for fun in their free time. People lack the motivation to run or further their runs even when in the end they know they’ll feel good about what they did. Why is it so hard to start when we know we’ll feel this way in the end? This project aims to help and inform
beginner runners as well as those struggling to continue.
Throughout this project I have went on a journey to
further my distance runs and decrease pace. This was
unintentional but by continuing the early Saturday morning runs with the Rochester Running Company, using running as a stress reliever, having the desire to get better, and craving the resulted feeling from it, I was able to make it more of a habit and rid myself of excuses like “I don’t have the time.”
Since last year, before the start of this project, I have reached personal goals in both pace and distance. I plan to finish my first marathon this year. I can say with no doubt that Runivation has been a motivator for these achievements and hope it will motivate its users as much as it did me.