The Dingle marathon, taking place on the 12th of September will be the first marathon in Europe to use a SecuraPAL tracking device. Developed by SecuraTrac, primarily as a dynamic provider of personal location services focused on protecting children, SecuraPAL can also be used to track marathon runners, follow hikers and keep an eye on children at amusement parks such as Disneyland.

The Dingle marathon has chosen Johnny Donnelly, former drummer with the Sawdoctors as the first person in Europe to wear this device. Johnny who has signed up to run the 26.2 miles across the stunning Dingle peninsula will wear this tiny GPS tracking device allowing people to track his progress throughout the course online.

SecuraPAL will use global positioning system satellites and mobile phone networks to pinpoint Johnny’s location at every stage of the course and then report it back to the SecuraTrac network. People will then be able to track Johnny’s progress from a link on the Dingle marathon website. Organiser of the Dingle marathon, Ken Dunne said he was “delighted to have been approached to be the first marathon in Europe to test run the product. I have high hopes for the continuation of the Dingle marathon and partnering with such a large company in our first year has certainly helped us on the road to achieving our goal of being recognized as a premier racing event in Europe”.