One of the world's largest marathons took place in New York, with about 60 thousand runners taking part.
People trained for months, prepared to cover 42 kilometers, gathered their strength and dreamed of reaching the finish line.
But the mobile app created specifically to track the participants turned out to be unprepared for such loads.
And it dropped out of the race almost right at the start! 😂
The runners are running, but the app is down!
The organizers of the New York Road Runners marathon offered spectators a convenient digital service.
With the help of the official app, you could follow the movement of relatives, friends and favorite athletes across all five boroughs of New York.
Imagine: you're sitting at home with a cup of coffee, you open your phone and see where your husband, wife or acquaintance is running right now.
Perfect!
But on the day of the competition, thousands of fans encountered an unpleasant surprise.
The app began throwing errors, freezing and periodically stopped working.
The organizers' website also ran into glitches.
The result was a completely absurd situation: tens of thousands of people were successfully covering kilometers through the streets of the metropolis, while a program that didn't even need to get up from the couch couldn't handle the load!
"A complete disgrace!" the spectators fumed
Of course, social media users did not remain indifferent.
One of the fans called what happened "a complete disgrace", reminding everyone that millions of people had been counting on the ability to follow their loved ones.
Others were indignant that similar problems had already arisen the previous year.
The organizers acknowledged the technical malfunctions and said they were working to fix them.
As a temporary solution, they offered an alternative results page, which kept working.
However, the internet was already joking about the situation to its heart's content.
And indeed, picture a family conversation:
"Darling, can you see where I'm running?"
"No, the app has frozen!"
"I'm already at the thirtieth kilometer!"
"And the app, it seems, is still at the first!"
"Well then, tell it that the main thing is not to give up! 🤣"
The most unexpected participant in the marathon
By the way, the New York Marathon distance is 42,195 kilometers, and the route passes through five boroughs of the city — from Staten Island to the finish in Central Park.
This year the competition was especially symbolic: it marked 50 years since the marathon first ran through all five boroughs of New York.
And while the athletes demonstrated incredible physical endurance, digital technology reminded us that even the most modern systems do not always withstand a mass influx of users.
So it turns out the marathon has gained another participant — a mobile app.
True, it isn't entitled to a medal.
It never made it to the finish! 😂
And the main takeaway from this story is simple: a person can run 42 kilometers, while a computer sometimes can't even open a single page! 🤣
