What to do with race day photos: gather, sort and keep them

The best way to handle race day photos is to gather them in one place on the same day, put them in order, pick the best moments and keep the originals. If you do that within a week, you will still have the day in ten years.

Race day produces a lot of pictures from a lot of people: the runner's own, the official race photos and everything friends and family took along the course. Left alone, they stay scattered across phones. Here is how to fix that in five steps.

Step 1: Gather your race day photos within a day#

Memories fade fast, and so do group chats. Ask everyone who was there to send their photos that evening, and remind them once. Ask for the original file, not a screenshot, because a chat message usually shrinks a photo.

Share race photos with family explains the options in more detail.

Step 2: Put them in order#

A pile of photos is not a story. Sort them by time, and where you can, by place on the course. A photo from the start loses its meaning when it sits next to one from the finish.

Phones save the time each photo was taken in its Exif metadata. That is enough to sort a whole day. RaceTale uses the same information to place each photo on a timeline and on the route.

Step 3: Pick the moments, not every frame#

Forty near-identical frames of one wave are not forty memories. Keep the sharpest, drop the rest and make sure each person who came appears in at least one picture.

Look for these moments:

• The start, with the sign or the nerves.
• The middle, such as a wave, a cheer or a hard stretch.
• The finish, with the clock and the medal.
• The people, like the family at the barrier or the friend with the sign.

Step 4: Add a few words#

"Mile 18, Dad's sign" is worth more than a file called IMG_4021. So ask contributors for a line with each photo, and then add your own after the race.

Step 5: Keep your race day photos safe, then share them#

First, keep a copy of the originals somewhere you control. Then share a story instead of a folder: one link people can open on a phone, with the time, the route and the photos together.

Before you post anything in public, remember that photos can carry location data you did not mean to share. Apple shows how to manage location metadata in Photos, and GPS in photos explained covers the risks.

Frequently asked questions#

How do I collect race day photos from everyone who was there?#

Send one link before the race, and ask people to add their photos that evening. With RaceTale, friends and family add photos, clips and cheers with no app and no account.

What is the best way to store race day photos?#

Keep the originals in a place you control, such as a drive or your phone's cloud backup. Then share a curated story made from them.

Should I share all the photos or just the best?#

Share the best. A story of 30 good moments is more likely to be watched than 300 near-duplicates.

Can I turn the photos into something to share?#

Yes. A race story puts the photos next to your time and route, and share cards make an image for your feed.