This is a DIY video of a runner, who is videoing his run so that people can experience it live via twitter and other social media. In a way I think this is ingenious, as it allows people who don’t run to see the beauty in the sport. Alternatively, it is an example of reality TV and social media ‘real time’ posting that is both innovative and slightly awry in the current obsession with instantaneous sharing.

The contraption itself is definitely something that would only be acceptable in Tokyo, a city that condones people that test inventions or unconventional ways of doing things. Among the top of my list of oddities in Tokyo was watching a man in a pink spandex bodysuit ride his bike across the city. He was widely photographed and met some of the hippies living in the area. Another was a girl with rainbow hair and orange skin, who had painted the rest of her face to be a strange version of a cat. It was a hideous ‘gyaru’ look, but for some reason I could not stop looking at her in Shibuya crossing (today’s ‘gyaru’ is a bit less mental than this).

In the way that marathons are typically shot, he’s perhaps got a contraption that would be useful in getting different views of the runners. However, to run with the extra weight would most certainly mean reduced endurance for the run. I hope that the next generation of iRun will be more user friendly.