I use MapMyRun.com periodically for different reasons. At home, it is to map the distances of my runs and create new routes. On the road, I've used it to search for ideas for running routes. This time I used it to determine the elevation and elevation changes of my short run...because it almost killed me!
I did a quick run outside of Mama Gerties campground. Didn't really know where I was going or what to expect, but just running for time. Knowing the hills we drove in on, I told Andy to expect about 20 minutes for my return - I knew I wouldn't last long.
MapMyRun is a great tool. It has it's issues (it's sluggish and there are a lot of ads to contend with), but still very useful. My map route was initially drawn when I was further zoomed out, so it is less precise than if I zoomed in closer before drawing. You can click on the map to View Elevation. The elevation changes might not seem like much to mountain-folk, but for me (the only hills we have in SoFl are the Causeway bridges) it sucked the breath out of me.
Andy joined me on Thursday for another short run. I would've loved to have mapped it but we didn't use a road. We used someone's gravel driveway (currently vacant) and went straight up a mountain-hill. Then straight down. We better appreciated the slope of this driveway when we turned around. Instead of having to propel ourselves forward, we had to work to maintain our speed to keep from tumbling forward!
Friday's run was a trail run on Warren Wilson College campus. We had searched for any options for a *flat* run. This was as flat as we could find. It was a nice, singletrack dirt trail that followed the Swannanoa River before becoming a wide gravel path that circled a fishing lake. I found this running route on MapMyRun.
There's other mapping routes for bikers, hikers, walkers, etc. on similar sites like MapMyRide, and so on.
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