Forgive me if you already know about this, but I’m all wide-eyed wonderment…

As you know, I’m running Steamtown in October. The thing that defines this course as unusual is a huge elevation loss for the bulk of the race. Granted, there are three hills peppered so inconveniently at the end, but in a nutshell, it’s a downhill race.

To the uninitiated, you’d think this would be a “yippee and fabu!” type of situation, but 26.2 downhill has the potential to hurt and hurt bad – quads screaming for mercy long before the finish line is even in view. Or so I’ve been told.

Today, on the RW Steamtown Marathon thread, someone posted a smart tip about how she had trained for it last year, finding a mile-long hill to work on. I have several 1/2 mile hills to work with, but I love the idea of a long, miserable mile. So I posted the question to a local running club forum and was given an excellent road that fits the bill perfectly. Here’s where the awe and amazement comes in.

I was looking at it on Google Maps and something I hadn’t noticed before, “Street View”, makes itself apparent. Clicking on it, I was suddenly on that street! (virtually anyway) Pressing the little arrows took me on a tour up the whole road where I was able to see that, “ok, sidewalk is on the left, bike lanes on both sides, so the sidewalk ends here…no prob I’ll hop on the path right there”, not to mention seeing how steep it is and even where I can park. Street View rocks!

Unfortunately, it’s not available everywhere, just a few metropolitan areas at this point, and even here in Philly, not all the streets are covered, but WOW for the coverage it does have. If you’re in one of the covered areas, you’ll find this a wonderful tool, opening up a whole new way of “testing” new running routes beforehand.

Check it out in action. Click on the photograph that comes up in the white box. You might have to pan to get the Street View fully visible, but once you’re “in the street”, you can advance by pressing the little white arrow on the route (or you can move the little guy on the map itself).

I must go now to search out more swell running routes because this is So cool. Oh, who am I kidding? I’m really going to the store with Nick to get some candy. Later, my lovelies.