Runtastic Releases Scary, Exciting “Story Running” To Encourage Your Ploddings

Runtastic, an Austrian running startup with an aim of hitting the Polars and Nikes of the world where it counts, has released something it’s calling “Story Running,” essentially an app that tracks your run and replays an audio story that becomes more exciting as you approach the high points of an interval run.

There have been a few of these already, most notably Zombies Run! and, unless you’re ensconced in a long audiobook, they do add a bit of aural pleasure to the long slog of keeping you out of an early grave. There are a number of genres, including “Fantasy,” “Adventure” and “Travel.”

Runtastic also announced the Libra scale, a BMI, bone mass, muscle mass, and BMR/AMR calculating scale that connects to an iOS device to track your weight and important statistics. It costs 129 euro and will be available in November.