“WAS that really 10 kilometers?” the girl in Nike LunarLites asked a male runner trying to catch his breath, “it felt like it wouldn’t end.”
The girl ran about 11 kilometers in what seemed to be her first 10K.
In the absence of a local certification body, you just take organizers’ word that their race routes really are the distances that they announce these to be.
MEASURING ROUTES WITH GOOGLE MAPS. Google Maps allows you to draw a line on its street, satellite and terrain maps to measure distances. CLICK ON PHOTO ABOVE TO VIEW LARGER IMAGE.
In most cases, they are, at least to within the margin of error of a few meters. But in some races, the distance is way off the chart you’d wonder whether the organizers actually measured the route in the first place.
To accurately measure a route, the best tool to use is a global position system (GPS) device. Many runners now use GPS watches to measure runs as well as determine such things as pace and even heart rate.
A popular GPS brand is the Garmin Forerunner line. Garmin is, in my opinion, the best GPS watch brand because it offers consumers a top-of-its-class device and an equally stellar after-sales support—the Garmin Connect website that not only serves as an exercise logbook that stores all of your runs but a repository of all the data related to each workout. With Garmin Connect, you can replay all your runs—a placeholder moves with your exact coordinates on a map and at any given point, you’d know your coordinates, distance and elevation.
If you’re really serious on your running, you’d do well investing on a GPS watch. It allows you to accurately measure your progress.
But if you don’t have a GPS watch, how can you measure your running route?
Race organizers drive through their routes and measure these using their car’s odometer. Some use bicycles. That method has varying degrees of success. I know of certain routes measured that way that came up short.
The easiest way to measure running routes is to do it online.
In the middle of this decade, Google gave rise to web mapping services when it started Google Maps, probably the best mapping application on the Internet.
For runners, Google Maps is almost heaven-sent. The website allows you to draw lines on street, satellite and terrain maps and measure points. That way, you can accurately measure distances.
To measure distances, go to maps.google.com and sign in with your Google account. If you still don’t have a Google account, sign up with the company’s popular free e-mail service Gmail to get one.
Once you’re in, go to the My Maps section and click on Browse Directory. Look for the Distance Measurement Tool and click on the Add it to Maps button under it.
To start measuring routes, just zoom into the area in the map where you want to run then click on My Maps and then click on Distance Measurement Tool. You can choose whether to use the Metric or English system.
Click on the point in the map where you want to start running. Continue clicking on areas where you want to run and the system will add it to the line. At the left portion of the screen, you will see the total distance of the route.
DAILYMILE. The social network for runners, triathletes and bikers offers a tool to plan and measure running routes. CLICK ON IMAGE ABOVE TO VIEW LARGER PHOTO
Another way to measure routes is to do it through DailyMile. DailyMile is a social network for runners and triathletes. It’s a community logbook for your runs and exercise sessions.
The site has a route planner section. In that section you can draw lines on a map and the system gives you a running total of the distance and even renders kilometer markers.
With the ease by which distances can be measured using online tools, there aren’t any excuses for organizers to make a mistake in the distance of their race routes.