TrackMe was designed and developed by high school sophomore Opal Siegal, a varsity cross country and middle distance track runner.
She started dreaming up this app in 8th grade after one year of running competitively. She very quickly grew to love the sport, especially how she could see her hard work paying off. It was particularly evident when looking at graphs of race times which she generated in a difficult-to-use spreadsheet.
Opal also loves how supportive the running community is. She continually looks for ways to encourage not only herself but also her teammates. Opal realized that other racers could benefit from an easy way to track their progress and get that same boost of confidence she feels when she’s reminded of her past progress.
It can get frustrating as a runner when you feel like you’re stuck and not improving, even when you’re working so hard. It helps to look back on and take pride in how far you’ve already come in order to push through the rough patch.
-Opal Siegal
In the fall of her freshman year of high school, she began developing this app simply because she thought it should exist. One year later, the app was finished! (Well, not finished. It is, of course, not perfect and is still being worked on as an ever-expanding ongoing project.)
In addition to running and coding, Opal enjoys photography (check out her nature photos on Unsplash!), graphic design, sketching, and digital art.
Congressional App Challenge 2024
Opal entered TrackMe – Race Log into the 2024 Congressional App Challenge. Here is her video submission.