It’s on like Donkey Kong! or… The Nike Support Fail MEME-a-thon…
SUNDAY
There is so much more to running than just running, don’t you think? Let’s take the last 7 days for example. Last Sunday was to be epoch making, the longest run of my life, the longest run of my Berlin marathon training plan. You saw the post, I tried Runderwear for the first time, thumbs up (not literally), and the Camelbak marathon vest, again positive. These were running related positives. I had kit, I tried it, it worked.
After I got home, absolutely exhausted the Nike Connect application was not doing the Connect part very well and so I looked at the Nike+ website to find that it was down for scheduled maintenance. Now, this does happen from time to time but the bright sparks at Nike should realise that taking down the servers for their Running Application for a Sunday pm (morning US time) coincides with the times people normally post their longest runs of the week and 99% of European races finish around this time. But that was cool, all I had to do was wait. And wait. And wait. Until it seemed to work.
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| Emphasis on the word “seemed” |
You see it didn’t work. It loaded up, although it didn’t alert me to this fact, the pace and time but not the GPS. And then, infuriating as it can be, the app failed at the same point over and over again. So I took to twitter and asked those wonderful people at Nike Support what to do.
Let’s take a step back. Hundreds of people are trying to log into an application that states it is now and up and running, however, it is not working for them. It is breaking when they try to connect. So rather than look into the issue, what do we think Nike+ support came back with as a first option to try?
Yes! The utter bastards asked me to reboot. Why, pray tell, would I need to reboot if what you did was just, as advertised, scheduled maintenance? But it did not end there!
Yeah, what that did was lose all the history that makes internet navigation easier and made not one blind bit of difference to the stupid Nike application or it’s site.
When it finally could be loaded up (THE NEXT DAY!!!) the GPS loaded and linked to the run but guess what?
- The run does not appear in the total for the month.
- The run does not appear as my farthest run even though it was by 2 KM.
- The run has not updated any challenges.
But you know what? It is annoying dealing with them but I will run farther and that will take the award for my longest, and August will come and go and all this will be forgotten (until they fuck it up next time). So we can say that running that distance was a running positive but dealing with the imbecile turd blossoms at Nike Support is a real running related NEGATIVE. But let’s move on.
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| This week’s Nike + runs. |
MONDAY
I booked myself a spot in the Copenhagen Marathon.
This was an impulse thing. By then I would have run in Berlin, Paris, Luxembourg, Lucerne, Edinburgh, London, Dublin and Amsterdam in Europe and wanted a European marathon in a place I haven’t been to (so I can organise a long weekender away). I heard good things about this race too. So positives all around.
TUESDAY
The Saxon Shore aka Saxons Vikings Normans races are very popular for their amazing bling but have such small fields that there is waiting list to get on the Agicourt anniversary run, the Cakeathon or the very popular Caucus Race with it’s spectacular Alice in Wonderland medal.
Marty (@greasygringo666) turned me onto their races a while back and so I added my name to the waiting list for the Caucus run ages ago with the idea that I would never hear from them. This is getting a seat at the Metropolitan Opera in NY or a season ticket to the Green Bay Packers, people do not just give them up. How wrong I was, as on Tuesday the email came through that someone had dropped out and would I like to sign up. And so I did. Another race for 2016? This one with awesome bling. Running related positive? TICK.
Also, the photos from the shoot with Paul Roberts were released.
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| Flyin’ |
This put me in a good mood, and more so after it turned out that one of the three that I had requested would not be released as it was being checked by the campaign organisers for use. So my mug could be on a poster or banner somewhere online. No doubt I will find it in time.
WEDNESDAY
The tube drivers were on strike yet again. And so I decide to 1. walk home and 2. lighten the mood. I did so by offering up another place in one of the MOVEMBER races with MO RUNNING UK. I did the same last month and @Baztav was the first name pulled out of the hat for then. Barry will be running Battersea, whilst this weeks lucky winner was Gemma, who will be runnig Liverpool.
Sometimes it is good to give back, so I shall get a place in September and October for people too. It combines, I think, charity and getting people out running for bling. WIN-WIN.
THURSDAY
I ran 10K easy in my new On Clouds, my first outing in them. They are certainly heavier than the Cloudracers, but have more spring on the sole and they are more robust, the fabric making them more suitable to getting a little beaten up. I took a 4 day weekend due to the tube strike so a midday run was a treat.
SATURDAY
The plan for today was inspired by the online side of running. I follow Runners Need, why wouldn’t I? They the prime place to get anything I need regarding running. Hell, my Twitter name is inspired by them (and my knees). So when I saw this I knew this was an opportunity to score some swag. And so I forwent Hampstead Heath Parkrun, which is ok as my plan for the day was only 1-2KM brisk walk anyway. I ran to Primrose and was there in time to be first to win a £100 Runners Need voucher.
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| Not sure about the guy groping himself |
Of all the vouchers I could win this is one I will actually use. And thanks to paying attention to what people are saying online you can win stuff. Running related positives aplenty there.
And finally the bib for next weeked is here… so YAYS! all around…
Runners Knees 