If it's not on Strava, it didn’t happen: People are paying Strava 'surrogates' to log runs for them

Gugs Mhlungu spoke to Director at Fitpro- Institute of Fitness Professionals, Derek Archer. 

Listen to their conversation in the audio clip below.

If it's not on Strava, it didn't happen.

That's the motto of the fitness tracking app, Strava.

"Strava is a space where you know that the data you're putting on there is valid. It's also a bit of a community thing - if you have a group of your friends that are all on Strava, we can check out each other's events or runs and so on."

- Derek Archer, Director at Fitpro- Institute of Fitness Professionals

There's reportedly a new trend where people are paying someone to run for them and then posting this data on Strava to make it look like they put in the effort themselves.

Here's how it works: You pay someone to run at a set pace for you (the faster they run, the more it costs), and they use your Strava login to track their run. Then, you can sit back and watch the kudos come in, even though you didn't actually run.

"We know that activities are good for health and that's why you participate. If someone else is doing it for you, you're not really going to get any healthier or any better anyway. It seems quite bizarre."

- Derek Archer, Director at Fitpro- Institute of Fitness Professionals

"It's quite disappointing. If you are going to run for someone else, rather run for a charity."

- Derek Archer, Director at Fitpro- Institute of Fitness Professionals

Scroll up to listen to the full interview.