I just found a cool tool to help me figure out how far I ran. It’s called Google Earth. It’s a free satellite mapping program offered by Google. You have to download the program and install it on your computer. Then, you type in a street address and it zooms you from space toward earth, all the way to your house. So cool. You can plot out your running path and it calculates the mileage. Since it’s using satellite imagry, you can even plot out trails not normally shown on a map.
To plot out a path, go under the Tools menu, and select Measure. Then click on the Path tab. Then start clicking on the map and it will connect the dots. Who needs a Garmin when you’ve got Google Earth!
Note: Google Earth does account for elevation.? For most accurate mileage, be sure to plot lots of data points!
Download Google Earth Here:
http://kh.google.com/download/earth/index.html
Here’s a good link explaining how Google Earth uses elavation:
http://home.nc.rr.com/kenlarsen/googleearth2.htm