Course mapping

And not a bad distance calculator, either. It will definitely get you in the ballpark if you want to lay out a course from the comfort of home.

I generally use

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/

This may have been one of the first online mapping programs. It provides elevation charts, and is more Mac-friendly than the USATF version, which often won't do distance for me.

Thanks, fellows, for the info. As with so many things, I feel like the last person to learn about this stuff. Anyway, after putting in my address just for introduction, I've discovered both mymap & gmap put in some things that aren't really roads...they're more like driveways and in some instances, roads that don't exist. This could potentially be bad if copied off for use as a cert map.

I'm going to try one of the two sites for my next measuring map...see what happens.

Dang, it just started snowing & it's only Oct 12th!

It's a good way to make a background map on which to draw a course map.

I wouldn't recommend doing this for certification maps. Because the maps are currently scanned in as black & white rather than greyscale, they won't look very good by the time they get to the USATF site.

We can upload a color map, as long as the filesize is manageable (under 300 KB) and it's in our standard 2550x3300 pixel size. E-mail the file directly to me when you send the paper copy in for certification, and I'll substitute the color version for the B&W when it's upload time.

As a courtesy to those who don't want to have to use color copiers to distribute course maps to their race workers, any color maps should be checked to be sure that everything reproduces clearly when copied in black and white. This should be done by the mapmaker, and not left as a job for the registrar.

Color maps I prepare from "Streets" are 30-40 KB, and 90 KB if I add low resolution photos of the start and finish. Conversion to the USATF format increases the size by a factor of 2.5-3.0.

Maps in digital format these days are normally distributed over the internet rather than than as black and white hard copies.

I upgraded to Google Earth Plus ($19.95) which gives me added features -- e.g., adding path and polygon layers, image overlays, etc. With the GE+ app I can:

• layout draft courses
• share works-in-progress with RDs
• catalogue my final courses; and
• add other features, such as an elevation profile

For an example, see Mohawk Hudson River Marathon

Haven't solved the BW issue yet, but I agree with Neville: everything's electronic and in color. Dinosaurs are black and white

You may also view Jim's KML file that he created in Google Earth in Google Maps.

Google Map display

Google Maps has the advantage of being web based. The RD does not need to install an application on his PC to view the course.

I cannot understand why we don't REQUIRE measurers to submit their course maps as an 8.5x11 PDF file.

I believe this type of file will open on any browser looking pretty much the same, and will print directly from the browser to a single page.

Just about every computer program known to man will let you output to this format. People still creating hand-drawn maps would have to invest $60 in a scanner and learn how to create PDF's, but I really don't think this is too much to ask. My guess is that most scanners come with software that will do this in a few clicks.

This would eliminate the need for Stu to scan in dozens of maps each month, and would probably be welcomed by the vast majority of measurers.

It would also open up the possibility of submitting multi-page course maps, since displaying or printing a multi-page PDF file is no different than a single-page PDF file.

Here's an example:

http://www.dukerdog.com/Run_for_Humanity_certification_map.pdf

Does anybody's computer/browser setup have trouble viewing or printing this? By the way, this file was 98kB.

I can't remember what the issue was with PDF's off the top of my head. We went through an extensive discussion back when I got started about file conversion, storage, etc, and arrived at PNG as the format of choice.

I think it had to do with the reproduction quality in PDF. Many maps (particularly marathons) are drawn with fine lines and small letters, and get pretty blurry when you PDF them.

Google Earth is kind of addictive. Gives you a God's-eye-view of the earth.

Iceland is particularly interesting. Hawaii's not bad, either. In the high-res areas you can see the individual sheep in a Scottish meadow.