MotionBased Dot Races
Another really cool feature of using MotionBased alongside your GPS (in my case the Garmin Forerunner 305), is the ability to create “Dot Races”. Dot Races allow you to race against yourself online if you’ve completed a particular course more than once. You can also race other people if they’ve named their workout the same as yours. For example, here’s how I set up a Dot Race for last weekend’s Frederick Marathon:
1. Navigate to MotionBased.com and click on the “TrailNetwork” link at the top of the page.
2. Once the page has loaded, click on the “Advanced Filter” link to get to the following screen. (Note: please be patient - it may take a short while for the list of activities to displayed. Clicking on the link a second or third time will only put a bigger strain on the MotionBased server and my cause your browser to lock up.)
3. From the Advanced Filter dropdowns, select “Activity Name” from the first one, “Equals” or “Contains” from the second one and type “Frederick Marathon” in the text field. Finally, click on the “Add” button. In this instance, the “Frederick Marathon” filter returned 4 results as can be seen below.
4. For each activity you’d like to view as a Dot Race, click the checkbox next to the activity name. Last but not least, select “View | Dot Race” in the dropdown box next to the “Add Filter” button. You’ll probably need to be patient as you wait for the Dot Race to load, especially if the activity files are quite large. However, once the Race is ready you should see something similar to this:
(click on the map above to open the “Dot Race” in a new window)
You can change the simulation time (in seconds), select real time and change how the map is displayed (street, basemap, photo etc.) If you right-click on the map several other options are available too - you can pause the race, zoom in for greater detail and even save the Dot Race as an .svg file, which you can then email to your friends and family. Note: you’ll need to have Adobe SVG Viewer installed to view the .svg file.
You can also Dot Race your own activities by selecting them from the “My Activities” tab. If you have the free MotionBased Lite membership you’ll only be able to select from your previous 10 uploads. To have complete access to all your activities, simply upgrade to MotionBased Standard. You can find a comparison of the two membership levels here. I think MotionBased Standard is excellent value for only $7.95 a month (annual plan), but it’s probably worthwhile trying the Lite Membership to see how everything works before you fork out the cash. Good luck and Happy Dot Racing!
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May 8th, 2006 at 2:12 am
Hi,
Like your blog, in case you didn’t realise it, you can also insert your runs into your blog by using “Viewports” from the Activity Options Menu from within MB.
Have a look at mine if you’re not aware of this feature.
Dex.
May 8th, 2006 at 5:28 am
Hi Dex,
Thanks for the “Viewports” tip. I like to use the Complete Viewport option, but the 530px width of the iframe is a little wide for my content area. I know you can resize the map only Viewport, but am not aware of any way to resize the iframe of Complete. I usually take a screen capture and shrink it down in Photoshop before I add it to my posts. Anyone know how to produce a 450px wide Complete Viewport?
Thanks,
Steve