We learned this week that Apple has become an official partner of this year’s London Marathon, which takes place next month.

The Apple Watch has of course helped a great many runners prepare for their own marathons and other long-distance races, but one of them wonders whether the sponsorship indicates plans to go further …

Apple isn’t the lead sponsor for the event – that’s IT consultancy TCS – but has the rather clunky title of “official performance technology product partner” for this year’s event.

The company’s fitness lead said that Apple technology helps runners in three ways.

Jay Blahnik, Apple’s vice president of fitness tech, said: “Apple’s technologies support runners at every level with powerful tools and insights that help them stay motivated, track their progress, and better understand their health and fitness.”

CNET‘s Giselle Castro-Sloboda wonders whether the deal might indicate that the company has plans to deepen its support for those participating in organized runs. She notes the existing tools and says she hopes for more.

It currently has tools that help runners track their runs and collect advanced metrics via the Apple Watch, heart-rate tracking with AirPods Pro 3 or Apple Fitness Plus workouts […]

Perhaps future updates could look like race-specific tools that incorporate competitor insights […] As an Apple Watch owner and recreational runner, I’d like to see a personalized training plan for different race distances based on your data. 

She also sees a role for AI.

Another helpful feature would be if the Apple Watch could use AI to detect if you’re running at the right speed for a prescribed workout based on your collected data, or if you could use an extra rest day. 

Would you like to see Apple offer these kind of features? Please let us know in the comments.

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Photo by Miguel A Amutio on Unsplash