Busy start to June
June has been a sprint
Between South Downs Way 100 starting tomorrow and two of the biggest races in ultrarunning landing later this month, it's felt like race season arrived all at once. That's made the past few weeks a useful forcing function: get the app ready for the people who are going to be glued to it.
We've been heads-down on two things — keeping new users from bouncing before they see the value, and making sure existing users don't miss a moment when a runner they follow is about to toe a start line.
You tell us who you care about, we do the rest
The app now opens with a proper onboarding flow. First time in, you pick the athletes you follow and the races you want on your radar. That's it. Everything in the app — the feed, the race calendar, the news — starts to feel relevant straight away rather than generic.
It's a small change on the surface but it makes a real difference. Crewed is only useful if it's tracking the runners you actually care about. Now it asks you that question before anything else.
Notifications before the gun goes
If you've followed an athlete and they're running an upcoming race, you'll get a notification 30 minutes before the start. Just a tap, and you're straight into the race page.
That's the supporter anxiety problem in a nutshell — you know someone's running but you're not sure when to start watching, or you forget entirely. This is Crewed's answer to it.
What's coming up
The next few weeks are as good as it gets on the ultrarunning calendar.
South Downs Way 100 starts tomorrow, June 13th — 100 miles across the South Downs from Winchester to Eastbourne. One of the iconic British hundreds, and a race that tends to produce a proper fight at the front.
Then in late June, it's the double-header everyone waits for. Lavaredo Ultra Trail takes the field through the Dolomites — relentlessly beautiful, relentlessly hard. And Western States Endurance Run brings the elite field to the Sierra Nevada for what is arguably the most storied 100-miler in the world. One weekend, two completely different races, both unmissable.
If you've got runners in your list for any of these, the notifications are ready to go.
Worth a look
The website has race pages, athlete profiles, and a live news feed. If you're prepping for any of these races — who's in the field, what the course looks like, what people are saying — it's all there.
And if you haven't downloaded the app yet, now's a good time. Android is live on the Play Store. iOS is coming later this year.
More soon — there's a lot of racing to cover.