R

unning alone can be boring, but new technology just made it possible to compete against runners across the globe. And it is all enabled by a simple sports band.

The band, records how fast and how far a jogger runs through a chip inserted into their training shoes.

The record of the distance and speed can later be uploaded on nikeplus.co.id, where people can measure their times against other runners.

To lure runners to join the new trend, the organizers from the sport brand Nike recruited presenter Paul Palele and model-cum-actress Sigi Wimala as local ambassadors for the campaign.

Paul, who is also known as P-Double, and Sigi were tasked to form their respective teams of runners to virtually compete each other.

In a week-long period, from Oct. 17 to 24, Sigi succeeded in recruiting 27 runners compared to Paul's 18.

Sigi's team recorded a cumulative distance of 1,198,89 kilometers, while Paul's team clocked 1,032,89 kilometers.

"I've always liked doing sports, but I never liked running because it was too individual for me," Paul said on Thursday.

"But now I have enjoyed it because I was able to interact with others, though the virtual world. It enables people to run individually, but in a group. People can compete against each other and compare how far they have run. You can also make friends with runners in other countries. Two of my team members are form Argentina and Canada," he said.

"It makes running fun. If running sounds boring and pointless, now we can have more friends, even if we are not physically running together," said Sigi.

The virtual running peaked with the Nike+ Virtual Human Race on Oct. 24. Dubbed "The Day the World Runs", the global run was hosted in 22 countries, including Singapore, with an estimated one million participants worldwide.