Strava broke me emotionally after my late husband died, and not in the way you might expect...

Picture this...

*How I wish that these kind of posts were still available!*

A number of years after her dad died, our elder daughter had just started cycling (and it meant a lot because it was a hobby that was a passion of my late husband's). As a consequence, she had discovered her father's Strava account.

Finding the account had been notable… it felt as though it brought her closer to her dad. Looking at all his rides, she could see what an amazing cyclist he was, the epic challenges he did, the messages his mates left and the pictures that they loaded up. Not only were the facts of the ride all there to see: the speed he went, the routes he took and the size of the hills he climbed... but it seemed as though it provided our bereaved children with slightly more insight into his personality.

I knew I ought to be sorting out my late husband’s digital legacy...

This niggling thought included things such as memorialising his Facebook account and closing social media accounts down.

But, the reality is that having an online presence for him provides a continuing connection. Even though he is no longer physically there, knowing that he’s in the phone provided welcome comfort.

Those who knew him would remember that cycling was a big deal to my husband. He had ridden the entire route of the Tour de France in the same time frame as the professionals and having all the details of these epic rides and the occassional runs that he did felt important.

So, a couple of years ago, I decided to get started on sorting out the digital legacy by memorialising the Strava account…

I thought it would be easy...

How wrong I was!

In April 2020, I contacted Strava to explain that I wanted to make all the Strava entries in his account into a book for our young children. I asked them to let me know how to do this because I wanted the details preserved for when our kids are older.

Strava initially asked for my ID, which I duly provided.

Then they needed evidence of his death, so I sent copies of the Grant of Probate and the Death Certificate.

Then they wanted confirmation of the email address he used to link with the Strava account... which I duly sent…

To my horror, I then got a response stating:

"I was able to locate Simon's account and have deleted it per your request."

Imagine my heartache...

My request had been entirely different...

I had desperately wanted to keep a record of all the amazing rides my husband had done.

I had specifically asked if I could create a physical book of his rides & runs, a bit like you do with Facebook & Instagram... What I was imagining was a hard copy of pictures, routes & statistics.

Feeling desperate and heartbroken, I begged Strava to help me and specifically repeated again that I had NOT wanted the record deleted. I explained that our children were only 10 & 12 years old & I wanted to keep a record of how physically fit & impressive their daddy was.

I was SO upset that we could no longer see his record.

Strava replied to say that they “sincerely apologized” for the error but they were unable to recover the account because they “begin to purge the data immediately after the account closure process has been initiated”.

Gutted and heartbroken did not come close to what I felt.

I wanted to complain and take it to the next level but their only response was to direct me to his Garmin device... but that didn't have the chat and photos that were part of what I had so desperately wanted to preserve.

That's where my story ended - total heartbreak and no satisfactory outcome at all.

My reason for sharing this lesson with you is to encourage you to think about your digital legacy...

Now that our lives are lived in our devices: our watches, iPads, phones, laptops and computers…. I am passionate that we all think about what we would like preserved for our loved ones after we go (and maybe what we don’t want kept too!).

How do you want to be remembered?

And, are you part of the 97% of individuals who have not protected their digital assets?

If you'd like some help with thinking about this... sign up to my next Sadmin course. There is a whole week dedicated to sorting out your digital legacy!