Monday, October 12. 2009

Race My Race: Google Earth Endurance Race Simulator

Everyone has seen maps and videos created to familiarize athletes with the course they'll run, bike or ski in the coming weeks or months. But Race My Race goes further: you enter 10 (real or projected) splits and your start delay time (how long it take to get to the "line") and off your avatar goes! Since the app is built on Google Earth you can change views from overhead to street level and watch as you run past key points - but without the cheering crowds.

Todd Goold, a land surveyor and endurance athlete from Wisconsin built the app which now offers eleven courses and hopes to expand to key events like the Boston Marathon. There's a $15 annual membership. The app includes this statement in the footer: "DUPLICATION AND REVERSE ENGINEERING ARE STRICTLY PROHIBITED AND WILL BE PROSECUTED TO THE FULL EXTENT OF THE LAW."

One of the big advantages, some suggest, is getting a sense of the topography before the event. I'm not sure I can get a sense of the nature of a hill without running it. We classify hills in my world based on the local Winter Hill (which we run every Thursday) and Derry (the big hill in the Boston Prep race in that town in New Hampshire). And, no, we don't use Heartbreak Hill as a reference. I can't say why.

- Chicago Tribune

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Google Earth at 07:35 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |

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