Do Stuff Quickly
Newsletter - Friday 9th July 2010
Back to Newsletter IndexDear Fetchies,
I think this is what people in the world of journalism call pressure. It's not only deadline day, but it's also past lunchtime on deadline day, and I'm staring at a blank canvas. I should really stop doing the first draft of the newsletter in watercolours, and learn to use a word processor, but you lose the feel that way. Anyway, very fortunately I have prepared some bits and bobs to thrill you with, so hang on a moment whilst I dig out my spreadsheets, and see what I had in mind.
Oh gosh. It was going to be something about 10k's, but the spreadsheet is nearly a fortnight old, and all I can see are masses of 1's and 0's, a bit like Neo in The Matrix, but a bit more like the sheet music inside a barrel organ, which must make me the monkey on the top, dancing for your money. So let's ditch the stats for this week, and I'll have a bit of a ramble, and see just how many "Please remove my details from your database" responses I get.
For the benefit of those of you that are new to Fetch, I thought it might be nice to explain a little bit about how the site came to be. Back in 1999, I watched this scene from Leon: The Professional. My fondness for red wine caused me to misremember, but the idea stuck, and the domain name was born. I had a thought about holding a party in Caerphilly Castle, whereby I invited my friends, and they invited theirs, and so on, but frankly I lacked the organisational skills, and the everyone, so the site remained in patient silence for another four years.
An increasing belly, and frustration at my village cricketing prowess at the end of 2003 led me to an induction at my local gym. The instructor was half my age, sporting a young offenders moustache, and I told him there was no point showing me the treadmill, because I hated running. A week later I finally let go of the sides, and a month later, I ran my first complete mile, in about fifteen minutes. My first race finished on sacred ground in the Millennium Stadium, and the electric current that ran through me as I lapped the pitch confirmed to me that my journey to the dark side was complete.
I was soon up to my ears in spreadsheets full of training data and pictures of me covered in big copyright symbols, and they found their home on Fetcheveryone, so I could look at them at work, and at home, without having to email them back and fore, or else carry them round in a little heart-shaped memory stick.
The spreadsheets slowly turned into a database with a web front end as my habit became more demanding, and it occurred to me that I could make these tools available to others, so I started a couple of threads on Runner's World. The feedback I got was amazing, and no-one seemed to mind that I never test my code before putting it live, because it made things quicker and more fun - I think this approach was a defining moment to the site. I won't name names, but you know who you are, and I thank you enormously for helping to shape not just the functionality of the core parts of the website, but also its ideology. It also helped enormously that you kept bumping the thread. You guys Fetched Everyone.
In 2006, we'd collected 6000 registered users, and the site was moving along nicely, but also costing more than a few quid to keep running, and struggling a little with the volume of traffic. Whilst training very badly for my first marathon, I got an email from Runner's World. They bought me pizza, asked if I had lost weight recently, nodded sagely at all the right moments, and asked to buy the site, and to hire me to look after it. It took me about 8 months to make the decision that it was the right thing to do, and I remember the depth of feeling it produced amongst the Fetchies at the time. I do hope that any doubts about the decision have faded, although I still wonder from time to time whether the site is just a cover for an international kitten laundering operation. But despite a few adverts, and the occasional meeting to discuss numbers and things, they let me get on with it, and I can't hear any purring.
I still find it weird to think that this has happened to me. Last month we were visited by over 50,000 individuals, and yet it still feels like I know most of you. I do get the occasional email that begins "Hey guys...", and in those circumstances, I feel obliged to read it out to the dog. He says hi.
Happy Running,
Fetch
PS In a nod to my corporate overlords, I am delighted to tell you that the lovely people at Sports Tours can organise everything you need to run the New York Marathon. They say that places are filling fast, but they'd be delighted if you'd consider putting some business their way. If you're from a company that sells things, and would like a polite mention in a future PS, let me know.
Your privacy is your right - if you'd like me to remove you and all your data from our database completely, let me know by replying to this email. If you want to carry on using the site without receiving these newsletters, go to About You > Settings, and untick the box marked "Fetcheveryone (Natmag Rodale Ltd) can send me e-newsletters and other information". We can still be friends. Natmag-Rodale is a limited company registered in the United Kingdom. Registered number: 00519122. Registered address: 72 Broadwick Street, London W1F 9EP. Bear with. Bear with. Bear with.
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