Tim West, founder/owner/programmer of LogYourRun, began his website (www.logyourrun.com) as an extension of a spreadsheet his wife used to train for a marathon. While in graduate school completing his PhD in neuroscience, Tim had taken a hiatus from his programming college days in London, UK. LogYourRun became a fun programming hobby for Tim that developed quickly into a free website with thousands of users logging and blogging their experiences. In his spare time from working a full-time position as a laboratory director of a St. Louis biotechnology company, he learned how to program for the iPhone. In 2010, released the LogYourRun application for the iPhone on the AppStore. Tim’s primary mission is to encourage and help people be healthy, so he has kept all functionalities of the website free to users, including Garmin GPS, Google, Facebook, Twitter, and DailyMile integration.

Additionally, the free edition of the LogYourRun application maintains greater than 95% of the functionality of the paid app, drawing thousands of new users a week for its distance measurement, music integration, and uploading to various social network sites. His app was perhaps the first known to have an “In Case of Emergency” icon to dial a designated number for an emergency contact or 911, and upload real-time pace and time results to Twitter. He developed TweetMyDistance.com, for use in tracking your athlete’s progression through runs and races. Collaborating with WahooFitness™ and 60Beat™, Tim integrated heart rate measurement into his applications, included with his free and paid apps.

With so many users of the website and application, Tim personally answers their emails and suggestions. LogYourRun has expanded its reach to individuals worldwide primarily by word-of-mouth advertising. Tim’s creativity and success in single-handedly programming and operating several fitness-related websites and iPhone applications in his “spare time” is deserving of recognition in its own right. How he has been able to thrive in a competitive market of fitness applications and websites as a leading entity while maintaining a high level of attention, autonomy, and privacy for his thousands of satisfied users is truly special. Tim has been nominated for his software, social networking, and hardware implementation in the fitness arena, and for his worldwide impact as a programmer and businessman.

In speaking with Tim, it appears that the best is yet to come with LogYourRun as he expands his mission for extending fitness tools for the global community to include ideas and implementation for humanitarian efforts.