Tracking with neon watches

Many around Mountain Brook may have noticed teens running through the community while sporting neon yellow watches. Well, thanks in part to a grant from the O’Keefe Family Trust of Chicago, all Mountain Brook Junior High cross country runners were recently issued Nike+ SportWatches to use during the 2012 season.

“This Cross Country Team of 248 athletes is the largest ever, and with that number it would be virtually impossible to give feedback to runners on a daily basis,” Coach Mike Abercrombie said. “However, with these watches, the kids can get up-to-the-moment updates on their pace and distance.”

Watches can be registered on Nike+ online system and act like a personal running coach to track calories burned, run histories, personal achievements and new records.

“I really like the watches because you can get home and plug it in the computer, and the watch tells you your average pace, how fast you ran, what route you took and loads of other information,” said Natalie Womack, a seventh grade runner.

“It’s nice to be able to monitor how you’re improving,” said Helen Camp, a ninth grade runner.

Almost two-thirds of Mountain Brook runners elected to purchase the watches, which allowed the grant money to be used for other positive program reinforcements such as awards, including Spartan head car magnets given to runners who reach 100 miles.

“I can tell that the watches have improved our team’s performance because we don’t usually win the first meet we participate in, and this year we did,” said ninth grader Bailey Womack.

MBJH Cross Country is coached by Abercrombie, Amelia Breeze, Trish Carey, Chris Cence, Kelli Moore and John Phillips.