A few days ago the 2013 Taiwan Ultra Marathon kicked off, a 14 day race that covers an astonishing 1100km. The runners are all carrying a Leadtek GPS device, and the organizers have put together this simple map to help track them.
However, Steven Ho (who has created tours such as this mountaineering trip and a neat tribute to Steve Jobs) wanted to be able to follow the race in Google Earth. Steven tried to get the organizers to produce a KML file of the runner’s data, but was unsuccessful. Instead, he built a handful of tours to help show off the race and included “rabbit” data to show the approximate location of the runners.
You can read more about Steven’s work on his blog and try it for yourself by clicking the image at the top of that page.
Along with that Google Earth Plugin integration, Steven has built a handful of KMZ files to help keep up with the event. You can use this KMZ to see a map of the course,
this KMZ for a guided tour of the course, or this KMZ to see the current location of the rabbit.Great work Steven!
About Mickey Mellen
Mickey has been using Google Earth since it was released in 2005, and has created a variety of geo-related sites including Google Earth Hacks. He runs a web design firm in Marietta, GA, where he lives with his wife and two kids.