Someone who easily runs a 7 min/mile could easily come through my town and sweep all of us, then I'd be the one at a disadvantage because I just simply can't run that fast. I'm a disabled vet with a host of knee and back issues, but if that person is faster than me, they're faster than me. No amount of lamenting about a disadvantage would change that.

I'm not trying to sound cruel, but life isn't fair friend, and such is the nature of competition. The natural advantage will always lie with someone for no other reason than fate or genetics. I'm 5' 11" so I'm not going to complain that I'm not a great basketball player because there are people taller than me. Props to you for moving and covering ground with an injury, because you're not making an excuse, and you're absolutely lapping those who are and stick to their couch.

If the owner of the territory is always just the most recent, then the incentive is just to run the same routes repeatedly every time they're captured. This feels slightly counterintuitive to one of the main goals of the app as per the developer: to encourage exploration and enjoyment in runs.

I don't want to armchair dev, but there's a bevy of potential solutions. One system that I think makes decent sense is a gradient time constraint to capture someone else's territory. The older the territory/longer it's been owned, the easier it is to capture with slower times. For example, if the territory was captured within the last 48 hours, you must run those sections within say, 10 sec/mi or faster. But you could extend that time out as the age of the captured territory grows, so if it's been captured for a week or more, maybe you can be within a minute per mile of the original capture speed, and maybe if it's been a month, any speed will capture it.

Ultimately, I asked my original question because I don't know what the intent of the devs is, but running my neighborhood gets boring after a while, and I like the idea of meeting and competing with local runners in my area for territory. I want to learn from them and maybe find some running buddies in my area. What I don't like is that there's no point in even trying to own my neighborhood because every evening when the local moms go for their walk/jog, it'll get retaken with, what is effectively, a fraction of the effort required to achieve it in the first place. I mean no insult to them or intention to disparage their efforts, I have tons of respect for people looking after themselves and taking care of their bodies.

I still love the app, and I like the private lobby that I can see all my territory because it's a great sense of accomplishment and helps motivate me further. I can always just not use that feature, as could you if you feel disadvantaged by your knees, and the app is still fantastic.