Molly Seidel Started Hiding Her Runs on Strava Because of Creeps on the Internet

I'm a female, have a decent Strava following, and use 1 mile privacy radius. I regenerate the radius every month or so and it changes the borders. Sure you could probably figure out the general subdivision in which I live but I don't understand the people who say that you can triangulate the exact address based on that, especially since I don't enter and exit that radius at the same spot.

Someone care to enlighten me?

When I heard the interview my first thought was that she isnt beeing honest. I think she didnt wanna show us that week of training. Maybe she was ill or hurt. If it would have been a privacy issue she could have filled in this gap in training later!

It’s not just the start and end point that matters. if you keep a routine and run alone then you’re still vulnerable to crazies.

This ^.

Runalyze is a less social media option.

Given 3 random points on a circle it just takes a bit of math to find the center of that circle. So two days' worth of runs using different routes would be enough data to do that. The assumption here is that your address is at the exact center, so this method would be easy to thwart by just offsetting the center by a hundred meters or so. Shouldn't be a big deal if you're using a 1 mile radius.

Found the dickhead.

You’re a brave lady to put your data on Strava. I’m a 6’2 200 lb man, and and I had a man stalked me on my runs one day. Luckily, he just wanted a running partner in my area. With the 20 minutes, a name, and a general location much less than Strava data, I can stalked just about anyone. If I was a female, I’d never broadcast my location on the internet (pictures, social media posts, or Strava). The world has too many creepy and better internet savvy people than me!

Was she then introverted before, I'm assuming. She seems super-cool IRL though.

I don't know how Strava sets it, if they're "smart" and move the circle around or not, otherwise anyone could just plot the exit points and back it out to the center where you live.

But either way, once someone knows the vicinity you live in, they just look for other details you've posted, like your car. Or if they know you run a route every day, they just wait and follow you. Yeah, a determined stalker could figure out anything regardless, but it's like locking your bike...at least deter the unmotivated and idiots.

Thank you! I appreciate the helpful answers.

There are different ways to skin a cat. In the end, many (certainly not all) ways lead to the same outcome. Bolt, Kipchoge, Bekele, etc. were all legends not because they had any special access to training that others lacked. If their training leaked, their dynasties wouldn't have come to an abrupt end with everyone else leaping past them.

What matters is that you have a good enough training plan and that you find one that works with how your body responds to physical stress. What works for Seidel isn't going to work for many others.

Coaches want to keep it secret because they want to believe their athletes' success is dependent upon them. But there are podium finishers who run back-to-back workouts on the same day, and there are podium finishers that stick with the Sun-Wed-Fri model. This is what you are missing and being downvoted.

Why would you assume she "changed", and not that this creepy old dude's distant assumptions of her were false?

It is not just the start/stop location that is good to keep private, but the timing. Most runners follow a pretty standard routine, so if you know where someone lives within a mile or two, and know exactly when they run every day, you can easily track them down. She said that she was approached by someone and that creeped her out.

Strava does give you the option to obscure the start/stop location within a mile so that people can't see your exact address. I think it would make sense to offer an option to completely remove all gps and clock time data. The public would still see the date, run time, distance, splits, elevation, etc, but no clock time, no gps track. This would not be hard to implement. I am a cyclist and I use a similar existing option to obscure my HR, cadence and Power Meter data from the public view. I can still see the data, but the public cannot. Since power is the holy grail of cycling, there is a tendency to try to push the power higher if the public is watching (let's face it, we all strive to impress on social media whether we intend to or not). This way, I don't have to worry about pusing too much power for the given workout and can focus on the goal.

If Molly is savvy, she should engage with Strava immediately now that she has everyone's attention, become a paid sponsored athlete, and work with them to implement these basic privacy features, and then publicly advertise that Strava is a healthy and safe place for all athletes to share their experiences.