Route mapping site roundup

I'm only exaggerating a little when I say that my life changed the day my friend Jackie--a successful 2008 Boston Marathoner--introduced me to gmap-pedometer.com. I have no sense of distance, whether I'm running or driving, and I'm just not one of those people who can estimate how far away their school or office is practically down to the yard. But I do love truly knowing how far I've gone. It gives me a sense of accomplishment and shows me how I can push my limits. Coming home and mapping out my route gives me a strange feeling of calm, almost like when you finish a test and you just know you've aced it.

It was only this past summer that I discovered there were more websites like gmaps. I've tested out a few of them, starting with my old stand-by, and here are my completely non-scientific observations.

Gmaps Pedometer: www.gmap-pedometer.com

This is my holy grail of route mapping sites. Sure, it's very basic and doesn't have many super-special functions, but it works, and it's quick. I like to zoom in to 16 or 17 so I can get up close and personal with the streets, but I live in New England, where the roads are like labryinths so you have to get in close to see where you are. Gmaps Pedometer cemented our love affair in recent weeks by adding a new feature: automatic route mapping. This is a savior for those windy back roads I mentioned earlier. If you're not running on a straight-lined city block, you could spend an hour obsessing over getting the little lines to match up to every curve on a long run. Of course, you could fudge it and just cut the corners, but for those of us who are perfectionists, it's hard to accept an imperfect route. Enter automatic route mapping--just choose your starting point and click along major points of the map as you go, and it will automatically mark the streets to get there, in perfect lines. In my neighborhood, there's a lot of new construction and so the map doesn't always recognize new footpaths and road extensions, so for those, I just switch back to the regular mapping tool that uses straight lines. It's the best of both worlds.

Pros: Quick and simple to use; automatic routing rocks.
Cons: No cool bonus features.

MapMyRun: www.mapmyrun.com

This is one of the more hi-tech sites available, for those who want all the goodies. MapMyRun has a community feature, unlike some of the others. It includes race information, allows users to post stories and photos, and has a route-sharing function that works great. Even in my small Massachusetts town, there were several routes listed, which I didn't expect. It also has a really cool training log function, which allows you to include cross training and log the circumstances of your day, including morale, the amount of sleep you're running on, and your weight (although it can be tough to face the scale during the holiday season). Then, the site will generate reports on how many calories you burned, your pace, and your average heart rate, although the last one only comes with a premium membership. Maps include international locations as well, for those of us who love to run and travel.

Pros: Lots of options, and it supports training log creation. Plus, it has the community to keep you going.
Cons: Too many options for simple routing. Automatic routing takes a bit longer than Gmaps Pedometer.

USA Track & Field: www.usatf.org/routes

The USA Track & Field site as a whole has a lot of interesting information as a whole, and it's fun to poke around there a bit. The athlete bios make me feel a bit inadequate, but hey, if you can handle it, all the more power to you. However, the route mapping software definitely isn't the best out there. It does have a cool elevation-measuring tool and uses the same Google maps as Gmap Pedometer does, but the interface is harder to use. There's no automatic routing, and the map doesn't recenter as you click your way along. It does have a route-share function, and again to my surprise, there were a couple of pages of maps even for my small-town location.

Pros: Serious site; route sharing; elevation measurement.
Cons: Clunky mapping interface; no automatic routing or recentering.

WalkJogRun.net: www.walkjogrun.net

This site automatically starts in satellite mode, which is refreshing, but you can switch back to map view if it bothers you. As soon as you type in your address, it'll show you routes in the area that other people have entered, or you can start mapping your own. The routes database is easy to search, and you can view them either by what's visible in the view of the map you have up at the time or by city. There's no automatic route function, and the screen annoyingly zooms in as you click, but the functionality is pretty much the same. The best part is the little box at the bottom of the map that shows you your speed, distance, calories, and time, all of which are customizable based on your data.

Pros: Calculates data for you as you go along so you can track your progress.
Cons: Not the best routing interface out there.

Run.com: www.run.com

Run.com is still in its beta stage, but it's a cool way to find routes if you're traveling and want to run. You can search by country--some have more than others, of course--or by address. (As usual, if you're running in an unfamiliar city, you should check first to make sure the route is in a safe neighborhood and follow all safety precautions.) The mapping interface itself is annoying. As I clicked, it kept zooming and and going past the spot where I clicked off the road, so I ended up with a route that zigzagged across the street over and over again.

Pros: International.
Cons: Poor routing interface.

RunningMap.com: www.runningmap.com

This site has a clean look and feel to it, plus it offers functions to save and print maps, although that isn't unusual. The map doesn't automatically recenter as you make the route, which is a deal-breaker for me. And this might just be a Firefox issue, but if my cursor was hovering over to the left of the starting address box as I was typing in the address, it would automatically highlight all the text, so as I typed, it would replace the text I already had. Very annoying.

Pros: Clean and white; not overwhelming in design.
Cons: No automatic recentering, and text box entry was weird.