Relay For Life 2019 – Technology meets sports

Singapore Cancer Society brought TalkMed Relay For Life 2019 was a Fundraise for the Singapore Cancer Society. On 2-3 March 2019, this 15 hours overnight event offered everyone a chance to CELEBRATE cancer survivors’ and caregivers’ triumphs against the disease, REMEMBER loved ones lost to cancer and FIGHT BACK against the disease. Each one of us had a chance to create a team or to run in a team for 100Kms. The team never sleeps just like cancer.

Event highlights include live performances, workout sessions, and carnival activities for everyone. Team Burnouts against Cancer ran overnight to clock 100Kms to symbolize that no one fights cancer alone and that the fight against cancer never sleeps. I ran in my team at the National Stadium, Singapore. It was an electrifying event by means of technology and mobile apps were truly helping out the event.

It was a relay for Life 2019, so it was a relay race where members of a team take took turns to add in the numbers while on the track to match 100 KM mark. The runner finishing one leg is passed on a baton to the next runner while both are running in a marked exchange zone. Any relay race is incomplete without mentioning a baton. Going back in history, the baton, a hollow cylinder of wood or plastic, was introduced in 1893. It is carried by the runner and must be exchanged between lines drawn at right angles to the side of the track 10 meters or 11 yards on each side of the starting line for each leg of the relay. In sprint relays (400 and 800 meters) a 1964 rule change permitted the runner receiving the baton to start his run 10 meters or 11 yards before the zone, but he had to take the baton within the zone itself.

This time Relay For Life 2019 used an Electronic Baton, where a runner takes it on the track and crosses the sensor area that detects the baton and marks a lap of 400 meters. Each team using one baton was trying to clock in with their best while dumping more and more mileage into their team score. For 15 hours this kept on going without taking a break.

What is more interesting is how people were inspired using technology they use without getting noticed. We must understand how mobile technology has played a dramatic role in the way we operate on a daily at work or in our personal lives. There were people running with mobile phones and sometimes using selfie sticks to add in their videos and pictures that ultimately will land into their social media. Beyond these were leaders and coaches clocking and analyzing their runner’s performance on mobile devices.

These days, more functional mobile apps in Singapore are also available, offering users numerous practical benefits to owning a mobile device, whether it’s monitoring daily workouts, diet, wellbeing, or lifestyle.

With mobile technology now a key enabler in the way in which we can communicate, individuals are now able to work flexibly and remotely, approaching work in a new, more fluid manner, which fits their own requirements as well as that of the business.

All of this means that the sports can reap considerable rewards from the use of mobile technology – enabling a more effective and efficient way of managing workout data, and delivering analysis for improvements, as well as future planning and decision-making.