Why I Built IRL Arena: The Spreadsheet My Kids Wouldn't Stop Checking

July 16, 2026

It started as the McWilliam Family Tri Challenge.

The rules were simple. Every mile counted: one point per mile on the bike, three per mile running, ten per mile in the pool. Log your miles, and at the end of the month, whoever has the most points wins. That’s it. No prizes worth mentioning. Bragging rights and a line on a chart.

The chart was the whole thing, it turns out. I set up a Google Sheet with a running chart — everyone’s points accumulating day by day, five lines climbing across the month. And something happened that no fitness app had ever managed in our house: the kids checked it constantly. Not their own stats. The race.

Because a line chart of your own miles is a report card. Five lines climbing together is a race. When your sister’s line crosses yours on a Tuesday, that’s not data — that’s a provocation. Somebody’s going for a run before dinner.

I’ve used the apps that track everything — they’re great at measuring and mediocre at motivating. They show you your own graph and hope you’re the kind of person who races yourself. Most of us aren’t. Most of us will, however, absolutely get out of bed early to keep a sibling, a spouse, or that one friend from taking the monthly crown.

So the challenge worked. The spreadsheet didn’t. I was the scorekeeper, the data-entry department, and the guy fixing the chart when a formula broke. The kids couldn’t log their own miles from anywhere; everything went through me and my laptop.

IRL Arena is the app I wished I had: create an arena, set the points — your exchange rates, your rules — invite everyone with a code, and let people log their miles in seconds from any device. Kids without phones get managed profiles a parent logs for. The leaderboard and the race chart update on the spot, and the month always brings a fresh start.

The name says the rest. IRL — in real life. The competition lives on a screen so the activity doesn’t have to. If a chart can get three kids on their bikes on a random Tuesday, it should get your crew out too.

Start your arena — it’s free.