Many people think that GPS is always used to map routes, but this is far from the truth. When I create race course maps, I almost always capture the course remotely using high-resolution aerial photography. Rather than engaging in time-consuming and costly travel and GPS capture, I can sit in the comfort of my office and on-screen digitize the route very accurately and precisely. I don’t have to worry about satellite connection, tree cover, and topographic obstructions. In the end, it saves the client money and creates a quality product that can be trusted.

But the cool thing about digitizing data in a GIS is that you can later convert the data to a GPS-ready format, and load it into your GPS unit for easy GIS-based navigation. For my mapping, I tend to store and edit my data in either shapefile (.shp), MS Access geodatabase (.mdb), or an ESRI file geodatabase (.gdb). While these are good formats for GIS consumption, they do not help GPS users, but I can export to a more universal, “friendly” format, such as Keyhole Markup Language (.kml), which is similar to XML. Many software programs can read and convert KML files, and it can be used to make data GPS-ready.

Most people’s GPS units can accept GPX format, which is also similar to XML. Thus, to get my GIS data into a GPS, export to GPX would be optimal. However, no GIS software that I’ve seen (yet) converts directly to GPX. But most GIS software can import and export KML, and KML is easy to convert to GPX. So the general process is:

1. Convert your GIS format to .kml format. I use Manifold Systems to do this, but there are several free plugins for ArcGIS that can do this as well. Just search Arcscripts for “kml”.
2. Convert the KML to GPX. There are several programs that can do this. I personally use GPS Babel for all GPS conversion tasks, and Babel handles KML to GPX (and vice-versa) very well. Also, I do know that Garmin Trackmaker Free works for this, but I have not actually used it myself.
3. Load the GPX into your GPS unit. Every GPS software will be a little bit different, but people have had a lot of success loading the files I’ve given them with Garmin Mapsource, so I know it at least works with that. But GPX is a pretty generic file type, and I expect compatibility to be pretty good.

Many participants have been contacting me and requesting the Ragnar Relay Del Sol route. The race is coming up in a few weeks (Feb 29-Mar 1), and they want to import the course route and exchanges into their GPS units to help them prepare for the race, navigate the van, know exactly where the exchanges are, and avoid getting lost during this 24-hour, 190-mile race in the desert.

Due to popular demand, I’ve decided to just post my GPX files here. Over the next few months, I intend to post and make public the GPX files for all seven Ragnar relays.

• Download Relay Del Sol KML files (for Google Earth)
• Download Relay Del Sol GPX files (for GPS)

On February 12th Ragnar Relay announced the addition of three new races to their ever-growing armada of overnight relays. These races will take place this year in Washington D.C. (Sept. 26-27), Austin, TX (Oct. 24-25), and Daytona Beach, FL (Nov. 14-15), joining their existing races in Utah, Arizona, Washington, and Wisconsin/Minnesota.

As with Ragnar’s other races, I have the pleasure of making the course maps for the new relays. From the mapping standpoint, it appears that once again Ragnar has devised three more fantastic routes that will showcase the best of the areas they go through.

I was particularly impressed with the Maryland-Washington D.C. route, about half of which consists of the C&O Trail along the Potomac River. It’s looks truly beautiful, and you can’t beat running on a designated footpath. No traffic=good running.

Cumberland, Maryland to Washington D.C. (September 26-27, 2008)

San Antonio to Austin, Texas (October 24-25, 2008)

Tampa to Daytona Beach, Florida (Nov. 14-15, 2008)

(All course maps by Marathon GIS)

The Utah USATF has released the preliminary LDR Circuit schedule for 2008. At these point, I imagine the schedule is still fairly tentative, but my initial reaction is that I hope that they either add more races or reduce the number of races we need to run from 8 down to 6 or so.

Key changes from last year:

• Only the Striders Half Marathon is on the Circuit, rather than all five Striders races. This really shortens the racing season, but increases travel time for people coming from Ogden or Logan.
• No more Salt Lake City 5K. Not big deal, especially since this wasn’t a money race, and shouldn’t have been on the Circuit to begin with.
• No Judges Run 5K this year.
• The Sandy Classic 10K has apparently been replaced by a mysterious “Provo” race on July 4th. This is probably good, because the Sandy and Murray races were only a few miles apart, whereas any race in Provo will bring in a different crowd and/or reduce the commute for Circuit members down there. In general, I’d like to see more races in Ogden, Logan, and Provo in order to extend the “boundaries” of the Circuit and invite greater participation.
• The Great Salt Lake Half Marathon has apparently been voted off the island. This race is disliked by nearly everyone, but it’s been on the Circuit forever. I disliked it mostly for the stench of the lake. Still…it is one of the few honest, certified half marathon courses in Utah. As it stands right now, 8 of the 11 races lists for this year are record-ineligible (ie - downhill). Potentially 9 of 11, since I don’t know anything about this Provo race.

We’ll see if they add more races. As it stands right now, the Circuit this year strongly favors those who get out and run every race (ie - Sasha), particularly the limited number half and full marathons. Right now there are 10 possible races to run, and you can score your top 8. Not a whole lot of wiggle room.