Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Somebody's Watching Me

No workout or run today.

Today is all about running errands, getting my hair done, and cleaning up!

The SDRNR Marathon is having the Bones In Motion wireless run tracker "LIVE TRACKER" (for the first time) at the event this year, so that someone else can monitor progress from their phone by text messaage or on their phone's GPS, OR on their computer. It shows the marathon route and you can view up to 10 runners who have live tracking at the marathon on June 3, 2007. Ironically, yesterday, on the BIM site, I was looking at their discussion boards and one of the BIM administrators posted something about needing people to drive the marathon route to test the tracker. I volunteered and will be driving the route with my tracker set to the marathon route, and they're going to follow me on their system, which (I think) is in Texas.

Then, last night Jon from Bones In Motion (wireless run tracker) contacted me to go over what they need me to do. He walked me through setting up the live tracking feature on my phone. On Thursday, they're going to turn on their tracking system (in Austin, Texas) and follow me as I drive the marathon route. They're looking for dead spots on the route BEFORE the event, so that Verizon can set up temporary transmitters at those dead spots, as to insure tracking is not interrupted. I told him my only concern was not being able to get into the military base at MCRD for the last mile, where most people had issues with their Garmins and cell phones last year. My compensation for doing this is free stuff at Road Runner Sports. I don't know the dollar ammount yet, but at least I get something! Jon said he would be in contact with the GM of RRS. Pretty sweet!

Check out the link to the route HERE.

Peace
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8 comments:

IronWaddler said...

How fun that would be and something waiting for you -priceless.

Anonymous said...

Holy moly! The hills, the length! How cool that you get prizes for doing that! Yay! LOVE gifts.

Anne said...

That's pretty cool, Irene. You find the neatest "running projects." How are you going to do the 163 part since we run in the opposite direction of car traffic on the freeway and come off an on ramp?

barbie2be said...

rockwell!

what a cool project. and such a great idea!

Pamela said...

oopos barbie got it!
what a NEAT tool! technology never ceases to amaze me~!

KatieFeldmom said...

That sounds like fun!!!!!

Irene said...

Waddler26.2,
Luckily, we had gorgeous weather to drive the route. The gift certificate and T are a nice bonus!

Evelyne,
The hills look worse on the chart than they actually are in real life. It's the little overpasses towards the end of the marathon that seem killer because I'm so tired by then. Now I have to figure out what I want to spend my gift certificate on...

Anne,
They just wanted us to drive the route as close as possible, so we took 163 North to the Friars Road West ramp. They were aware of the direction of regular traffic, etc. We had issues with street closures downtown, and the little neighborhood near Missiion Bay High School, because that back entrance was closed, but it worked out okay.

Barbie2be,
Winner! After that post, I had that song in my head all day... It was fun driving around the route.

Pamela,
You've gotta be quick to beat Barbie! LOL... Yep. Technology is amazing.

Katie,
It WAS fun!

Anonymous said...

It's amazing what's done with technology these days!

Rockwell!