Runners with a taste for travel can pound the pavement to explore a host of global cities thanks to a new GPS-based application. Runnin'City offers 5- 10- and 15-kilometer running tours taking in predefined points of interest such as monuments, parks and museums. At each city sight, runners get a 30-second audio commentary of relevant historical and cultural information.
For the creators of Runnin'City -- a new application combining running with urban tourism -- the world's cities are effectively giant open-air museums which runners of all levels can head out to explore. The app offers an accompanying audio commentary and a GPS-guided tour to help visitors take in the sights without getting lost.
Ultra-trail runner Christophe Minodier and sporty tennis buff Olivier Lebleu found that they were reluctant to slip into their sneakers when traveling to unknown cities on business. With that in mind, they came up with the idea for "Smart Runs" or GPS-guided running tours taking visitors to major sights like monuments, streets, museums, parks and buildings, and automatically launching 30-second audio summaries at each stage.
Currently, the app offers "Smart Runs" in 70 cities worldwide, with a choice of three routes available in each. These include European destinations like Paris, Lyon, Berlin, London, Brussels, Luxembourg, Rotterdam, Geneva and Lisbon, US cities including New York, Washington, Boston, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, Dallas and Houston, as well as locations in Canada (Montreal, Quebec, Toronto, Vancouver) and Asia (Tokyo, Singapore, Seoul).
There's no need to be a jet-setter to make good use of the app. Anyone who's bored of their usual urban routes can break the routine with runs that take in local point of interest, pinpointed by GPS. The app also provides performance data measured by connected devices, such as time, distance, speed, incline and calories burned during a run.
The app's routes can also be enjoyed at a slower pace, as vacation or weekend walking tours with no performance objectives.
Available to download free of charge for iOS in English and in French, the app is expected to cover 150 cities by the end of 2016. The first "Smart Run" is free to download with further routes costing $1.99/1.99 each. The service can be used offline.
