Wanna get paid for skating? There’s an App for that, I s#!t you not! That’s right son, forget about trying out for NSC next season, and just let that skating clown in Duluth keep the Northshore purse money for his coffee fund, cause I’m here to clue you in to the secret that’ll let you keep skating the same pace you are today, and pocket da paper you’ve long deserved!
Meet your new sponsor – YOU!
The App is Gym-Pact and it’s too legit to quit. Here’s the nutshell: you make a pact to workout a certain number of days a week. Fulfill your pact, get paid cash by people who don’t fulfill theirs. How that works is this: in making your pact you set the stakes you’re willing to cough up if you come up short on the workout count at the end of the week, meaning you’ll get dinged dineros if you don’t suit up, show up and (in our case) SKATE! It all works though your iPhone, with the promise of an Android version in the not too distant future. I’ve been using the App since February, and I’ve already made some moolah…
Don’t even think about hacking my pizza money account!
Frealz son, that’s all there is to it. Well…that’s all there’s to it if you’re a pedestrian who wants to waste their existence inside LA Meatmarket, Gold’s Sausagehaus or 24 Hour Fatazz’. Not you, intrepid Speed Weenie – for you, there’s one more step. You need to use the integrated RunKeeper App to track your skate-leg log. You can link the Gym-Pact and RunKeeper accounts (they’re both FREE!) right at the Gym-Pact site too. Be sure you follow the instructions for linking the accounts!
And don’t get thrown off by the “…Run, Walk or Bike” language they use at Gym-Pact. You can count any activity that RunKeeper tracks. Just choose “Skating” from the Activity Type menu.
Select Skating in RunKeeper – swimming with the iPhone not advised.
Now don’t get me wrong – this thing has been great to use in the gym. Seriously, it’s really been the ONLY freaking reason I’ve dragged my non-competing butt out of bed every week to complete my pacts, when I’m not skating. When you’re making between $.50 – $.75 per workout, and you potentially lose $5-$10 (as high a stakes as I’ve set) or more if you miss your pact, the little financial incentive really does act as a motivator!
So here’s the deal – I’ve seen a lot of you using EndoMondo and other GPS trackers to brag to your Facebook friends that your butt won’t be as big as theirs cause you’re out there working it. But now, with Gym-Pact, you can do that AND get paid! And if enough of us Speed Weenies get together in the online community and create our own Challenges, we can have a lot of fun, and post some pretty impressive numbers. Hell, how many of you are skating 6-7 days a week as it is? This is the biggest no-brainer in the history of mankind.
Be warned though – these guys ain’t dumb. They’ll keep you honest. When you make a pact, you’re committing to working out a set number of DAYS per week, for at least 1/2 hour per workout. It’s not a set number of sessions. So for you World Team members, two and three-a-days ain’t gonna zip you through a 7 day pact by Wednesday morning. But you will earn some much needed cash to pay for that trip to Italy, so you got that going for you!
And think about the applications this has for your club. If you don’t want to pocket the bread yourself, think about getting your entire club to download the App, start tracking at the start of your warm ups, and start a fund for your club! Or start skating now, sock away your earnings in your PayPal account, and this time next year, dedicate the money you made to helping send some of our World Team members to 2013 Worlds! Or, be like me, and save it up for a big, fat, sloppy pizza. Cause that’s the only reason I’m skating this year…so I can keep sloppin’ down the slices.
No matter what your motivation, this is truly the only way 99% of us will EVER get paid for inline speed skating. So I guess I need to replace my oft quoted line, “There’s no gold on a rope at the end of the inline rainbow” with a new mantra as I strap on my skates tomorrow morning: Cash, Grass or Ass, No One Skates For Free.
Or not.
First Loser 