KNOW YOUR ROUTE BEFORE YOU GO
Runners can be on the compulsive side about how many miles he or she runs each day and how many each week. Some know how many miles they have run so far this year, and some, yes, some know how many miles they have run in their lifetime.
I recall taking a friend on one of my favorite road routes. I had estimated the distance to be about seven miles and never worried about the accuracy of my guess. She called me once she had reached home and told me that I was a half mile short on my estimate. How did she know? She drove the entire course in order to clock it.
Nowadays with gasoline costing $2.50 or more per gallon, she might have restrained herself. These days you do not have to drive a course, you can wear a GPS device, but those also add to your cost of knowing. There is now another way to know your course.
This latest aid to runners is actually free and available to computer users who can go online. The website is www.routeruler.com.
After downloading their program to your computer you can then pull up a map of the area that you will be running and using the route ruler draw your course. The route ruler will then calculate the distance, in miles, or kilometers, whatever you ask for.
There is only one drawback to this latest gadget. Actually there are two. I would guess that because the program and website are free to you, you must endure countless, very annoying pop-up ads. That is drawback number one.
That did not stop me though and I just scrolled down the page a bit and they were hidden from view off the top of the page. No, what stopped me was the installation process. Since I am the poster child for computer illiteracy, I ran into problems immediately. I follow computer directions like the proverbial little old lady, hoping that by going very, very slowly, I will not make a mistake.
In this case, my strategy did not help. I registered, as that appeared to be required. Then an email arrived thanking me for registering and in it I was provided with a link so that I could go through the process of installing the program.
That’s when I hit the roadblock. I did what I thought I had been told, and the website appeared to want to do something. There was a lot of action going on with flashes and flips ending with a “done”, only to begin again to bounce around. This seemed to be a perpetual action and one that I could not stop without exiting the site.
I sent a message to the designers relating my experience. That leads to another road block when one person, me, cannot speak computereeze, and the other person, the computer guru, cannot understand pidgin computereeze.
I am sure this is a very helpful site and recommend it to those who are not only able to run a distance worth measuring, but just as adept at following computer directions.
PFIZER LEAVES A VACANCY IN SEPTEMBER
By now I am sure that there is no runner in Morris County who does not know that the Pfizer United Way 5K, that is always held on the first Thursday after Labor Day is not happening this year. I drove past the Pfizer corporate complex just this week and it is obvious that the road construction along Route 53, the course of the 5K, would not be ready for a road race by September 8th.
There has been a dearth of road races in Morris County this month and now in September one of their favorites is missing. The Pfizer had built up a loyal following that numbered well over two thousand runners.
24 HOUR BIKE RIDE NEXT WEEKEND
Runners can take a look at a sister sport next weekend at the Boy Scout camp at Allamuchy State Park when mountain bike riders take off for their 24 hour endurance race. Teams of two, four and more, as well as absolutely incredible athletes, solo riders, begin the race at noon on Saturday. The cyclists traverse a mountainous ten mile loop course with each completion recorded via computer chip. Scoring is simple - the teams and individuals who complete the most loops by noon on Sunday win.
Parking for non-competitors is at a site at Waterloo Village with a shuttle bus taking spectators to the site of the race, which has very limited parking. Competitors have campsites in the park. For more information go to www.24hoursofallamuchy.com.
Published in the DAILY RECORD of Morris County
On Sunday, August 21, 2005
Copyright, MADELINE BOST 2005