Life My virtual run across America, and a business idea. - Page 14

**Rain Man** · 12-29-2009, 01:58 PM

So I'm getting over my little knee problem and have started running again, and I thought it'd be cool to plot my progress on a map of the U.S., running across the country. I've always thought it would be cool to walk across the U.S., but I can't figure out how to get my work done in that scenario, so this is my fallback.

And then I thought, "Hmm, this is a pretty good idea for a website. If I started a website, could I get enough people to sell some advertising and stuff and maybe make some money?"

So I went out looking to see if it's already out there. The concept isn't overly innovative, so I see a fair amount of sites out there that talk about it, but they all seem to be pretty lame. Here's a map, print it, color in your progress with a crayon kind of stuff.

What I'd like is a web site where you plot your progress and then see a google maps street view of your location, and then a virtual tour of towns that you walk through, and an atlas so you can pick your route as you go, and an interactive map so you can plot your route. That doesn't exist.

Is there money in this? What's the revenue model? Any web designers out there who would want to collaborate on this?

In my 15 minutes of looking, I found one web site that's actually kind of close, though it's still basic. http://exercise.lbl.gov/index.html is a federal government site, and they do the street view pictures, which is pretty cool, and the online log. However, they only give you one route, an inexplicable Yorktown, Virginia, to Florence, Oregon, route, and you can't vary from that. Also, you don't get local information along your route as far as I can tell.

I signed up for it, though, since it's the best option out there, and am now 11 miles into my journey. I've left Yorktown and am now on this nice road about 2 miles from Williamsburg. Anyone else want to wander along?

**Rain Man** · 05-29-2012, 08:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Old Dog

Making good time.
I'm @ 1857 right now and should hit halfway (2031.5) sometime around the 3rd week of July.

So is that roughly central Kansas?

**Old Dog** · 05-29-2012, 09:05 AM

Yep, roughly 150 miles to Colorado.

**Rain Man** · 05-29-2012, 09:25 AM

I think rageeumr is just about to hit the coast. For some glitchy reason I frequently get updates that he passed me even though he's ahead of me, and his last one was at 3,848 miles.

**Old Dog** · 06-07-2012, 06:04 PM

Flippin' site has been down for a week now.

**Rain Man** · 06-07-2012, 06:35 PM

Yeah, I'd been meaning to see if you had the problem too or if it's just me. This morning I resorted to writing my miles down by hand. It seems to go down frequently, but never for this long. I hope it comes back up soon.

**Old Dog** · 06-07-2012, 06:41 PM

Yeah, I have been keeping my miles on a spreadsheet as well. The first time it went down after I started I made a by month spreadsheet just in case. I have also made note of each state line.
I'm addicted to it and I blame YOU Mr Rain Man (Thank You, I'm in a hell of a lot better shape than I was when I started)

**Rain Man** · 06-07-2012, 06:44 PM

Y'know, I'm six months from finishing and I'm not sure what I'm going to do after that. I don't really want to start it again since there's only one route, and I experimented a while back to see if I could put in negative numbers and run it backwards, and it won't let me do that. I wish they had another route.

**Old Dog** · 06-07-2012, 06:47 PM

Ditto (well, other than that whole 6 months thing....I've probably got another 18 months to 2 years). I E-mailed them about a year ago and asked if there was any possibility of another route and never got a reply.
I'm sure there's another site somewhere similar. I'll have to try to find one. Hell, at this point I would pay for another site.

**Rain Man** · 06-07-2012, 07:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Old Dog

Ditto (well, other than that whole 6 months thing....I've probably got another 18 months to 2 years). I E-mailed them about a year ago and asked if there was any possibility of another route and never got a reply.
I'm sure there's another site somewhere similar. I'll have to try to find one. Hell, at this point I would pay for another site.

Want to invest with me in building one?

Funny thing is, I just had dinner with a friend who started using it when she saw my updates on Facebook. Her daughter is also starting to use it as a fundraising tool, getting pledges for every mile. That use is something that I was thinking about as a potential moneymaker.

rageeumr · 06-07-2012, 08:28 PM

I missed when this thread was bumped last week. I think I'm fairly close to being done, but obviously I haven't been able to enter any mileage. I have my half Ironman on Sunday, and I think the 70.3 (I guess the swim doesn't count, so 69.1) will probably put me over the top if I'm not already there.

Have you guys noticed that the site has been in various states of "downness"? Like right now I get an immediate error saying the site isn't available. Sometimes it seems to time out after a while. Earlier this week I could get onto the site, but it would time out when I tried to log in. Weird.

**Old Dog** · 06-08-2012, 04:31 PM

The site is back up

**Old Dog** · 06-08-2012, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Want to invest with me in building one?

I would probably be little to no help where CPU type stuff is concerned, but I would certainly be willing to listen to any ideas and invest time and money to do what I could.

**Old Dog** · 06-08-2012, 04:38 PM

It would appear that at 1882.1 I just tripped and fell off of the road or something.

-King- · 06-08-2012, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Want to invest with me in building one?

Funny thing is, I just had dinner with a friend who started using it when she saw my updates on Facebook. Her daughter is also starting to use it as a fundraising tool, getting pledges for every mile. That use is something that I was thinking about as a potential moneymaker.

Wow, I was actually thinking the same thing. Told my sister about it and then totally forgot. But it would be a good idea for a site with multiple customizable routes so they can take routes that pass through their favorite cities and what not. Also instead of some lame photo, it would be cool if the map were interactive so when you reach a city, you can explore it a bit kind of like using Google Street.

Don't even know how to begin starting that, so I guess that's why I forgot about it the first time.

**Rain Man** · 06-08-2012, 06:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by -King-

Wow, I was actually thinking the same thing. Told my sister about it and then totally forgot. But it would be a good idea for a site with multiple customizable routes so they can take routes that pass through their favorite cities and what not. Also instead of some lame photo, it would be cool if the map were interactive so when you reach a city, you can explore it a bit kind of like using Google Street.

Don't even know how to begin starting that, so I guess that's why I forgot about it the first time.

Yeah, exactly. I think you could market it as a fundraising tool.

Dibs on the idea unless you want to partner on it.

12-29-2009, 01:58 PM
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3358491 VARSITY	My virtual run across America, and a business idea. So I'm getting over my little knee problem and have started running again, and I thought it'd be cool to plot my progress on a map of the U.S., running across the country. I've always thought it would be cool to walk across the U.S., but I can't figure out how to get my work done in that scenario, so this is my fallback. And then I thought, "Hmm, this is a pretty good idea for a website. If I started a website, could I get enough people to sell some advertising and stuff and maybe make some money?" So I went out looking to see if it's already out there. The concept isn't overly innovative, so I see a fair amount of sites out there that talk about it, but they all seem to be pretty lame. Here's a map, print it, color in your progress with a crayon kind of stuff. What I'd like is a web site where you plot your progress and then see a google maps street view of your location, and then a virtual tour of towns that you walk through, and an atlas so you can pick your route as you go, and an interactive map so you can plot your route. That doesn't exist. Is there money in this? What's the revenue model? Any web designers out there who would want to collaborate on this? In my 15 minutes of looking, I found one web site that's actually kind of close, though it's still basic. http://exercise.lbl.gov/index.html is a federal government site, and they do the street view pictures, which is pretty cool, and the online log. However, they only give you one route, an inexplicable Yorktown, Virginia, to Florence, Oregon, route, and you can't vary from that. Also, you don't get local information along your route as far as I can tell. I signed up for it, though, since it's the best option out there, and am now 11 miles into my journey. I've left Yorktown and am now on this nice road about 2 miles from Williamsburg. Anyone else want to wander along?
Posts: 141,249

05-29-2012, 09:05 AM	#197
Old Dog Supporter Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: North Central Kansas Casino cash: $4766131	Yep, roughly 150 miles to Colorado.
Posts: 10,662

05-29-2012, 09:25 AM	#198
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3358491 VARSITY	I think rageeumr is just about to hit the coast. For some glitchy reason I frequently get updates that he passed me even though he's ahead of me, and his last one was at 3,848 miles. __________________ I'm putting random letters here as a celebration of free speech: xigrakgrah misorojeq rkemeseit.
Posts: 141,249

06-07-2012, 06:04 PM	#199
Old Dog Supporter Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: North Central Kansas Casino cash: $4766131	Flippin' site has been down for a week now.
Posts: 10,662

06-07-2012, 06:35 PM	#200
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3358491 VARSITY	Yeah, I'd been meaning to see if you had the problem too or if it's just me. This morning I resorted to writing my miles down by hand. It seems to go down frequently, but never for this long. I hope it comes back up soon. __________________ I'm putting random letters here as a celebration of free speech: xigrakgrah misorojeq rkemeseit.
Posts: 141,249

06-07-2012, 06:41 PM	#201
Old Dog Supporter Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: North Central Kansas Casino cash: $4766131	Yeah, I have been keeping my miles on a spreadsheet as well. The first time it went down after I started I made a by month spreadsheet just in case. I have also made note of each state line. I'm addicted to it and I blame YOU Mr Rain Man (Thank You, I'm in a hell of a lot better shape than I was when I started)
Posts: 10,662

06-07-2012, 06:44 PM	#202
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3358491 VARSITY	Y'know, I'm six months from finishing and I'm not sure what I'm going to do after that. I don't really want to start it again since there's only one route, and I experimented a while back to see if I could put in negative numbers and run it backwards, and it won't let me do that. I wish they had another route. __________________ I'm putting random letters here as a celebration of free speech: xigrakgrah misorojeq rkemeseit.
Posts: 141,249

06-07-2012, 06:47 PM	#203
Old Dog Supporter Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: North Central Kansas Casino cash: $4766131	Ditto (well, other than that whole 6 months thing....I've probably got another 18 months to 2 years). I E-mailed them about a year ago and asked if there was any possibility of another route and never got a reply. I'm sure there's another site somewhere similar. I'll have to try to find one. Hell, at this point I would pay for another site.
Posts: 10,662

06-07-2012, 08:28 PM	#205
rageeumr Veteran Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: St. Louis :( Casino cash: $9989900	I missed when this thread was bumped last week. I think I'm fairly close to being done, but obviously I haven't been able to enter any mileage. I have my half Ironman on Sunday, and I think the 70.3 (I guess the swim doesn't count, so 69.1) will probably put me over the top if I'm not already there. Have you guys noticed that the site has been in various states of "downness"? Like right now I get an immediate error saying the site isn't available. Sometimes it seems to time out after a while. Earlier this week I could get onto the site, but it would time out when I tried to log in. Weird.
Posts: 2,313

06-08-2012, 04:31 PM	#206
Old Dog Supporter Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: North Central Kansas Casino cash: $4766131	The site is back up
Posts: 10,662

06-08-2012, 04:38 PM	#208
Old Dog Supporter Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: North Central Kansas Casino cash: $4766131	It would appear that at 1882.1 I just tripped and fell off of the road or something.
Posts: 10,662