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Reply to "Measuring the Equinox Marathon"

I will take issue with Pete's assertion regarding the accuracy of a Google Earth measurement (I usually agree with Pete, but not always).

When I measure ANY course, I always do a very careful mapping in MapMyRun. All online programs use the GoogleEarth underlay, I believe, so they all measure the same. But, I always map it out 2/100 of a mile long, whether a 5k course, or a marathon course. (My marathons map to 26.24 or 26.25 miles.) That usually yields a mapped course that measures with a Jones to be the desired length.

Satellite imagery is rubber-sheeted to make the edges and corners of different images match. If you happen to be in an area where many images were distorted to make them fit, your online measurement could be very different than an on-the-ground measurement. That's why I don't trust online measurement for precision. But, this may be your best method, if you allow for the rubber-sheet variance.
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