Just Let Me Win! (Fighting Strava)
Strava ranked me 5th on a segment during yesterday's hike, so this morning I ran it flat out for 1st place. Strava gave me nothing: the segment is classified as a hike, and a run does not count. The difference between the two is mostly speed. I'm coming for you, Michael Choyce.
I did my now-usual route this morning – running – which is about 5 miles. I did the same route yesterday afternoon, as a hike. Total time was 52 minutes, which is 7 minutes faster than last time. As an aside, the same route was longer when I hiked it than what I ran it: 4.81 mile run this morning, and 5.09 mile hike yesterday. That’s some serious GPS error. Anyway. Strava announced that I had come in 5th place on a certain segment of my hike. This particular segment is near the very end of the route, so I'm maximally exhausted. I looked at the map to figure out its start and end, so that this morning I could – while running! – get that coveted 1st place position.
And so I did. I pushed and went way faster than I did on my hike yesterday. Expecting the best, I collapsed into the patio rocking chair, sweat dripping everywhere, ready for Strava to confirm my every hope and dream (slight exaggeration). But, no. Strava didn't show any ranking at all, much less the 1st place ranking I was hoping for. Huh.
I finally figured out the cause. Apparently the segment in Strava is classified as a hike. Since I was doing a hike yesterday, my hike yesterday was classified as an attempt on that segment. Since I did a run this morning – the exact same route though – it was not classified as an attempt on that segment. It wasn't a hike, you see. I get not letting cyclists compete on running / hiking / walking segments, obviously. But the difference between hiking and running is your speed, and little else. Is the app going to pop up an alert and ask for pictures of my hiking boots to make sure I'm not cheating by wearing running shoes??
Whatever.
