Category Archives: resources

Google Earth – Enhanced Features Free

Leave a reply

You can do some great things with Google Earth if you spend some time getting to know the program.  It can be fun to zoom around the world and look at different city and countries.   Lots of organizations have created mashups using Google Earth, like this one about the genocide in Darfur.

I wasn’t convinved about Google Earth until I found the feature that allows you to add your GPS “tracks” and create an image of your run.  Most recently I did this for the Securian Frozen Half course.  Here is what it looked like:

You can spin it, zoom in on the image, add the 3D skyscrapers, add landmarks, and a lot more. Last year I paid a whopping $20 to have the privilege of adding GPS technology to my free Google Earth software. I thought it was a small price to pay for some cool images.

I recently received an e-mail saying that the latest upgrade to Google Earth 5.0 will now include free GPS data imports. Err they took my money and now offer it for free. If you still want to pay you can get a Google Earth Pro account which offers some excellent features (but not ones I need).

The latest version of Google Earth lets customers import and track global positioning system (GPS) data. Our Google Earth Plus customers told us GPS tracking is one of the main reasons they choose Google Earth Plus. Now, since you can use this feature for free in Google Earth 5.0, there’s little separation between Plus and the free product. In order to simplify the decision of which version of Google Earth best meets our customers’ needs, we decided it no longer made sense to continue Google Earth Plus.

So if you’d like some new images and a different look at your running routes via GPS download Google Earth 5.0, for free!

[tags] Google Earth, Earth, Google, GPS, Garmin [/tags]

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Indulgence: Ultra Running

Leave a reply

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SUZ5xB_Skk

That was a clip from Indulgence: 1000 miles under the Colorado Sun.

From their website:

Indulgence: 1000 Miles Under the Colorado Sky features ultra-marathon phenom Anton Krupicka in a high-definition running film inspired by mountain ski and bike films. The film will offer the viewer a first-hand look at Anton’s life as he trains in the mountains of Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and California during the summer of 2007. The film’s presentation will reflect Anton’s simple approach to life and running and his continued pursuit of this minimalist ideal amidst the expectations of modern society.

It looks pretty good.  Anyone seen it yet?

[tags] Indulgence, Ultra-running, movies [/tags]

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Can You Run Across America?

4 Replies

Do you have what it takes to run across the entire country? Probably not for most of us.  But Charlie Engle and Marshall Ulrich are planning to run across our great country from San Francisco to New York City while filming a documentary called Running America. It sounds like a great project as Engle and Ulrich make the long journey they will be running with running celebrities and average runners from every walk of life.

That’s right if you live near or are able to drive to their route across the country you might be able to be apart of their documentary.  I went through some of the initial steps, but they aren’t coming near Minnesota at all.  They will be going through Indiana and Ohio though.   You can see their full route which has a lot of Super 8 hotels on it!  Super 8 is one of their main sponsors. The route tends to skip around major metro areas, but gets pretty close. The run begins on Sept 12 and finishes on Oct 27.

If you are interested in being a part of the documentary go to the Screentest website where you can “audition”.  It is basically filling out a questionarrie and submitting your application.  If you have trouble finding it you can click here to be taken to the Running America Screentest page. It does appear there is a $3.95 charge to submit your application to be reviewed (not really sure where it goes).

Here are the bios of the two main characters:

Charlie Engle

has run through some of the most forbidding terrain on the planet and has learned many lessons about life along the sway. With a lot of determination and the ability to endure hardships in every way, Charlie has moved from a life of drugs and alcohol to a life of understanding and learning to live with himself. After many years of sobriety, he has become a top athlete, spokesperson and philanthropist.

Marshall Ulrich

is the only person in the world to complete the Triple Crown of Extreme Sports: world class ultra runner, record setting adventure racer, and Seven Summits mountaineer. His specialty is competing in extreme conditions including desert and adventure racing, as well as mountaineering. Marshall has: * Completed over 116 ultra marathons averaging over 100 miles each. * Completed 12 expedition length adventure races, including all nine Eco Challenge adventure races – something only two other people in the world have done. * Reached the summit of each of the Seven Summits, including Mount Everest, all on first attempts.

Are you going to or have you already signed up to join the documentary? Let us know.

[tags] Running America, documentary, Marshall Ulrich, Charlie Engle [/tags]

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Can You Be An Olympian?

Leave a reply

Two average guys, Dennis and Christian decided as part of the 5 in 5 Challenge that they would see how they fared against Olympic athletes in 5 different events. You can read more about it at the 5in5.com blog.

The 5 events were:

  1. 100m freestyle,
  2. 100m dash,
  3. 110m hurdles,
  4. long jump and
  5. the rings (in gymnastics)

It is a pretty neat video, so be sure to watch it.  I won’t spoil the fun, but I bet you can guess the outcome!

Finally, there is some bonus footage at their blog entry.

HT: Get Fit Slowly

[tags] Olympics, Video [/tags]

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Twitter Tagging

1 Reply

Last week I wrote about the great tool, Twitter. I mentioned it was great for building friendships and community with runners and other people.  One of the great ways to build discussion around a specific topic or event on the web is by using tags.  I use tags all the time on this blog to make sure others looking for something about running can find it easily.

With Twitter you are able to tag your tweets as part of a broader discussion using something called a hashtag. One of the popular uses of Twitter is during conferences or meetings to help broadcast what is going on or for possible meetups. To help facilitate this happening someone decided to start using hashtags to make searching for related tweets easier. A hastag is simply using the hashmark or pound symbol (#) before a series of letters. It was made really popular during the San Diego fire and was being used for the Iowa flooding. If you go to a Twitter search engine such as Summize (now Twitter Search) and searched for the hashtag #IowaFlood you’ll get hundreds of Tweets about the flooding.

Why is this important? Every major group, organization, conferences, etc has a hashtag. As of today I haven’t seen any for running. I think it would be nice to find other Twittering runners and see how their workout went. Most of the runners I follow on Twitter tweet a summary of their daily run or race report.

I was going to propose the already famous ORN be used for a hashtag, but a quick search pulled up some unsavory content – add a “p” to the beginning. So, let’s scratch that idea! Back to the drawing boards, I did some more research and found that some people had already started using #run, but that is a little simplistic and maybe boring! Then I came along a tweet from @runnershigh that #runlog is being used by Twemes to create Twitter Running Meme. Twemes also allows you to get an RSS feed of tweets posted with the hashtag.

Therefore, I propose that from here on out we all use #runlog to tag running posts.

Anyone else have thoughts on a better hashtag?

Used appropriately I think this would be a great addition to our running community.
Step One: For it to work properly you should follow @hashtags on your Twitter account. This will help facilitate the hashtags bot to find your tweet and index it in their service.
Step Two: Start using #runlog.
Step Three: Use the Twitter search engine of your choice to find out how other runners ran today. I recommend Summize (now Twitter Search) or Tweetscan. You can also use the RSS feed from Tweme.

Can you do it? I’ve been using it for awhile now and a few others have picked up on it. You can follow my Twitter Running Log here at Hashtags, or via Summize, or at Twemes.

Note: According to hashtags.org their service has been broken since July 10, due to a Twitter-side error.  You can continue using the #runlog though and it will make it easier to search for.  And the service should resume normal processing eventually!

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]