The first part of today’s post is for Garmin users. I’ve colored it blue so you non-Garminites can skip ahead.

I use SportTracks with my Garmin. It’s a fantastic free program that does an incredible job of dissecting your runs every which way. The one thing that constantly bugged me on it, however, was elevation data. It was always really weird for me, so much so that I couldn’t use it. The ups and downs never correlated to my route, even the ever-present last hill before I get to my house always showed as going downhill, of all things, so I’d end up going to Mapmyrun.com to check elevation profiles.

Now there is an elevation plug-in that is supposed to correct all that, but I’ve continued to have these wacky elevation anomalies anyway. So, last night, in a fit of aggravation, I started reading more about the plug-in, which mentions for “custom elevation data” (whatever that meant), you need to also install the GDal plug-in and then get some other data from some huge-ass elevation databank.

I really wasn’t able to understand what I was supposed to do, but as usual, that didn’t stop me. Following their instructions, I go here and swipe Philly and some surrounding cities, saved the data and hoped that would automatically fix it. No change. Next, I changed the order of the elevation models in SportTracks under Settings. Again, no change.

Today, I finally got it in my thick head to un-apply Elevation Correction in SportTracks, then re-apply. VOILA! The elevation data is finally correct and usable! So for all my Garmin friends who have given up on having elev. data they can use, there is an answer and it works perfectly! Just download the plug-ins along with the correct elevation model for your area, change the order of the models in Settings so the downloaded ones are first, un-apply to all the runs (Ctl-A in My Activity Report, edit activity, undo elevation correction) and then re-apply to all. Beautiful!

Now, on a much more scary, sour note, Nick went out for a bike ride before dinner last night and got hit by a car. Some asshole tried to beat him at a light and succeeded, but the car behind him didn’t see him, so Nick went over the hood and landed in the street. Thankfully he is fine, save for some assorted protrusions and cuts.

Apparently, a crowd witnessed the whole incident and the woman who hit him was a runner of all things, going for her evening run. She was mortified. Nick got up though the crowd was yelling at him to stay down, the ambulance came but Nick refused the hospital, instead walking home with his broken bike. He’s more worried about possibly missing a 100-mile ride this weekend than the state of his health, crazy man.

This is why, as much as he and my friends try to get me on a bike, I prefer to run. He’s the third casualty in my circle of bike-riding friends to get hit by a car in less than year. Ugh. Be careful out there, people.

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