Walk/run

I have been all over my running tracking site lately.  I have a sensor I wear on my running shoe that tracks my workouts.  It stores all my stats; distance, time, calories and posts them on a site specific for me.  I can go there to view what I have done like my best and longest runs.  It keeps score for me.  I can  filter it down into the year, months, weeks to see where I stand with myself and my progress.  It's another great device that is so cool.
It also lets me join challenges with the other runners that are hooked into the sensor in this virtual community.  These challenges are varied.  They can be over a long period of time...say 365 miles in 365 days for the year...or 50, 75 or 100 miles this month.  They can be individual challenges or team challenges and if I win at the end they give me a trophy that is displayed on my site.  It seems a little "gameish" for me but it can also motivate me to run.  It shows where you place with all the other runners during the challenge time frame.  For example, I am currently 118th out of 661 participants in one challenge.  The challenge might be virtual but the running is real.  The miles being posted up are true (unless someone is sharing a sensor- [cheaters!]).
The best part about the site is that it isn't equipped to handle chats, networking or any real contact with other runners.  It does have the option of the friend request.  The only thing this does is let you view what workouts this friend has posted up or comments they might have made within a challenge.  Comments (or trash talk as it is politely called) can only be posted within a challenge you have joined.  So thankfully there is no interaction between runners except what you see being posted up as far as miles or comments within a challenge.
I ran into one small problem when I found a challenge that sounded really perfect for me.  It was a month long and it was an over 50's club - and they didn't mean miles.  Perfect!  Here was a challenge that had runners in my age range.  I thought it would be a perfect motiviation for me.  I even accepted the friend request from the lady that organized the challenge when I signed up thinking I would know what other challenges there might be out there that she had signed up for that were in my age group.  I didn't realize my mistake until a few weeks into the challenge.  I believe this group are not runners.  This group, and especially my new "friend", are walkers.  But they are extreme walkers...like 8-10 miles a day!  I really think they plug their sensors on and walk the malls all day!  Okay, that is probably unfair.  But it's a tough cookie to swallow when your hard earned running miles reach 50 and they are all at 95-110 miles!  So as if that isn't bad enough, my new found "friend" comments on all the 30+ challenges she has joined that I am now avoiding since I can't bear getting beaten so badly when I am running every mile and they might be - well, whatever long strolls they may be walking.  Now, my profile is filled not with motivating runs my "friends" have accomplished but a page of comments this walker keeps spewing.  She obviously was looking for a social network and is using this as her means of getting her say in.  Or maybe, in all fairness, she is just cheerleading her group on.  Whatever.  I will let the challenges I am in with this new "friend" end and then silently slip out and find other challenges on my own.
I did join another challenge I found on my own yesterday that was a team effort.  You needed to pick which team of the seven deadly sins you wanted to run on.  It wasn't surprising that Lust was in the lead, but I chose Pride instead.  I checked on it this morning and my team had jumped from third to second place behind Lust. Can you see how it can motiviate?
Oh, then I noticed I had a friend request from someone that was in this new challenge.  I am not sure about how I feel about that.  I am holding off accepting that for now.
I just want to run.
TT