About · Pacer

Corinne Fairweather with a clipboard and Mateo Quiroga stacking cones by a riverside path before a club run

Sat long run · RSVP

Oct 2019

Dana

yes
Luis (if it's dry)

maybe
Priya + 1?

maybe
Gabe

no

31 replies, 9 at the start

We were the ones carrying the cones

Pacer started as a shared spreadsheet for the Eastbank Joggers' Saturday long run in Portland. Corinne led it; Mateo kept the sheet. Every Friday they counted the yeses, and every Saturday a different number turned up.

The fix was never a better spreadsheet. People came when they could see the route, the pace group that was theirs and who else was going. So that is what we built first, and in 2022 we gave it to the club across the river.

There are fourteen of us now, in six cities, and most of us still lead or sweep a group on Saturday. Anything we ship gets tried on our own clubs before it reaches yours.

the first club outside our own: 2022
people, in six cities: 14
clubs posting their runs: 412

What we will and won't build

Four rules we hold ourselves to. When a feature request breaks one, the answer is no, however good the idea.

No leaderboards

Pacer counts who came, not who was fastest. Paces are there to sort people into groups, never to rank them.
Members never pay

The club pays one flat price. Nobody pays to say yes to a Saturday, and nobody sees an ad when they do.
The group chat stays

We took the logistics out of it, not the banter. Every run card is a link that works in any chat.
Tried on a Saturday first

Everything ships to our own clubs a week early. If it slows down the start line, it doesn't ship.

The people behind the app

Fourteen of us, and these six answer most of your emails. Every one of them is at a start line most Saturdays.

Corinne Fairweather

Portland, OR

Co-founder

Led the Eastbank Joggers' Saturday long run for six years before Pacer existed.
Mateo Quiroga

Portland, OR

Co-founder

Built the first sign-up sheet in a spreadsheet, then the app that replaced it.
Hana Morikawa

Minneapolis, MN

Product design

Sweeps the walk-run group at Lake Harriet and designs every screen a lead taps.
Desmond Quaye

Raleigh, NC

Club success

Has helped 230 clubs post their first run, usually on a Thursday night call.
Lucía Ferrer

Tucson, AZ

Routes engineer

Taught the map about 214,000 footbridges, boardwalks and park trails.
Owen Tak

Pittsburgh, PA

Support lead

Answers [email protected], usually before Saturday and often from a start line.