Street level feature give runners race level view

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A recent addition to Google Maps makes it easier for runners to get a feel for the News and Sentinel Half Marathon course before they ever set foot on Juliana Street Aug. 22.

The street level view allows runners to get a true sense of what the race course is like. Most of the race course can be found on the site. We have made it a little easier for you by providing entry points for each mile of the race. We have coupled the images with mile by mile description of the course.

You can find them both by clicking here.

You can use the feature to "run" up down the hills of the course with little effort and to cross the finish line in record time.

The description was written by Sharon Marks, an accomplished local runner who can be found most mornings pounding the streets of Parkersburg.

Google used a much more stealthy method to get the photos.

Google uses a fleet of cars to accomplish the photography. Google is reportedly using Chevy Colbalts on the project. The driver drives up and down every road that they can. The special camera, mounted above the car on a mast, takes photos in nine directions, including up. A GPS system notes the exact location of each photo.

The photos are later integrated into the Google Maps database. When using Google Maps, simply drag the little stick figure that is part of the navigation of the site and you will see the street level wherever on the map you drop the little guy. You can navigate up and down streets by clicking on arrows.

Google quietly paid a visit to the Mid-Ohio Valley in September of 2007. The driver slipped up and down area streets, apparently unnoticed. Google doesn’t tell you when they are paying a visit to your street. They just drive through.

In Marietta the photos provide some clues as to when they paid a visit. Sternwheelers line the riverbank, Construction on Marietta College’s Legacy Library is just getting started, and posters announce an upcoming play at the MOV Players theatre. You can see a reflection of the car in the window of a front street business.

Google is fairly tight lipped about their plans for the feature. They have been challenged a few times. An angry mop in Europe made the car turn around a few weeks ago, a marching band in Pittsburgh gave the car hero’s welcome though when it went down streets near Carnegie-Mellon University.

There are now hundreds if not thousands of U.S. communities on the site, allow you to take “trips” to both places of your past as well as places where you now live or want to visit. The feature is a great way to preview an upcoming race long before you lace up your shoes and head out the door.