The History of Running2Win
I have been a developer for many years and way back in 2006 I was itching to write a program as I was between projects.
After days of trying to come up with an idea my wife suggested I write a program based on the one thing I knew best: running. I decided to create
an on-line running log to store all of my past training. It didn't take long to get the basic site up (some of you may still remember version 1
and how I was not a designer). I soon recruited two of my students (runners) to help with the pages. Little by little the site became more than
just a "weekend project" and I decided to open the site up to the public.
Well, the site started to grow and with the influx of the users I found myself outgrowing the in-home hosting of the servers. Luckly, I had a friend
that had a small web development company and agreed to host my work. Although that helped, I, again, outgrew what I was using and had to purchase
my own server - which my friend still hosted - but that was a hugh expense. Still, I didn't want to charge for the service.
As the site grew with users flocking in, I was no longer able to host my server at my friend's company as they were closing down shop. I then moved
to a cloud service (AWS) and decided to pay the fees myself... The monthly cost came to anywhere from $700 - $1,200 per month due to the large
database and a dedicated web server but I was working and making enough to cover the costs and not go bankrupt... Well, if any of you who are
reading this have a spouse you will know what came next. After years of paying for r2w my wife and I realized with the growth of r2w it was
costing more and more each year and it was time to either close running2win or charge enough to at least cover my expenses. Many of you will
remember when this happened (I think it was in 2020 - so not that long ago). I implemented a subscription plan that was at a very low cost
(as low as $24/year) which actually allowed me to cover the growing expenses of the site. So, a BIG THANK YOU to all those who
understood and stuck with the site. Without you, running2win would not be here today
So, as I grow the site we will have hickups but I always keep you, my members, first and will always build a better site.