A lot of you will remember the COGH run The "virtual" relay run from Novo Siberk to Cape of Good Hope was EPIC - and a lot of fun :)For those who weren't here for it - participants were able to enter their milage and the map would update showing "how far" we were along the actual route as if we were running it Updates each week included the milage pw, cumulative milage, distance from end and news and interesting trivia from the places we passed through
I would dearly like to set up another run. The problem is - Charlies1 who was the genius behind the mapping/website is no longer active in the Forum. Every other part is doable - but a huge element that added to the enjoyment and motivation to run was the "real time" mapping.
If any member can organise this vital part - please let me know
This time, hopefully, we will be running the route shown in the photo. Yes, the Darien Gap does not have a paved route , but we could call that the "off road" section
Anyway, let me know if you can help and, pending Admin approval of course, we can set it up
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Irish-John
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I think you could order one now. The people at Sprinters are very helpful and will probably still have the logo.They have just set up a club page for my ukulele group (possibly the only non-running group on their web, although we do have at least 3 runners )
All of the above seem to use the low level tools I found above. They don't appear to cope with a route that's going to be about 20,000-25,000km in length.
Just the bit from Albuquerque New Mexico USA to the Darien Gap is over 6700km.
Yes, I was rather assuming that anything free wouldn't be able to handle it nowster . It was more so you could evaluate, in a way that I can't, how those sites worked.
It looks like you've already done a huge amount of work looking into possibilities. I really appreciate that.
What sort of time are we hoping this would kick off? There's a good few evenings and weekends of coding ahead for someone (possibly me). Getting a track on a map is possibly the smallest of the problems.
The Start date would definitely be up to the IT Genius - the beauty of COGH was everyone being able to see on the route how far and where it was run in "real" time :)That also made it very handy to research and give the weekly update on the history, culture, news, photos, trivia etc of the places we would have seen if being on the route in reality
Just announcing "so many miles run today" and a vague point on a map doesn't have the same engagement imho, hopefully someone can emulate Charlies1 computer prowess
I absolutely loved COGH. I was wearing my t-shirt at the gym last week and one of the instructors asked me about it. It made me think it's about time for another one, but I'd be no use organising it 🙁 You can sign me up for the running, though!
I enjoyed walking and running two years ago while doing COGH, that new map looks like the distance from North of Fairbanks in Alaska to Cape Horn at the bottom of South America, coding is quite a complex subject, you would have to do a college course to understand it.
Oo, I do like the sound of that! No help on the virtual side, I'm afraid, but Latin America, and Chile in particular, is my emotional home from home 🥰. Not sure I fancy running down Route 5, the Pan-American Highway though 😱🛻🚐🚗🚚🚛🚙🚗🛻🏍️🛻🚚🚚🚚🚚!!!
Hope you find someone to do this. I work in IT but it's way beyond me. COGH was brilliant. Wearing the t-shirt has sparked loads of interesting conversations
Hang on!? 😳🤨🧐 Wasn’t COGH the longest route in the world? 🤣🤣
Looks great! I’m intrigued to run through the Darian Gap. I lived in Scotland for 10 years, and the Darian Explorations are still a sore point in Scotland’s history!
Ooh this sounds great. I would love to join in the running if you manage to set it up. I’ve just asked my teenage son if it it would be a good project for his A level computer science, as he is casting around for something, and got the usual teenage response – uh-uh-uh – no idea what that means 😊 Best of luck.
My thought is that the Darién Gap is generally thought of as impassable and dangerous, and there's an airstrip at Yaviza (Panama) and one at Turbo (Columbia), so we could take a natural break there, and hop between the two.
It'll be less visible progress now as I work on the back end for people to log their runs.
I'm going to implement an open login system, with "set your own password" and no other verification. As long as it's advertised behind a Community Only post, the bots won't find it, and I won't need to do things like using CAPTCHAs or verification emails.
The back end is started. The distance database is in. I can now feed in a number and it will move the pointer to that place on the trail. I've also tried out the OpenTopo map which shows relief detail.
A fabulous idea. I really enjoyed COGH and reading the contributions from so so many on this forum. I still wear my T shirt! It seems like nowster is up for a huge challenge. 🤞🤞 Wishing you luck
COGH was an amazing event Leo. Runners logged their individual miles which moved the pointer along, we had virtually pin point precision of where we would be as the cumulative miles built up, and every Friday a "travelogue" covering what was along that weeks section :)It was one of the most fun forum events, but I don't think we could run it again as the original IT organiser seems to have gone dark. And, tbph, it was fun because it was a new challenge as well as a "new route" so I don't think we'd have the same enthusiasm for repeating it. But - who knows?
Incidentally, Charles1 has reached out with an offer of help (and to reuse the COGH stuff). I'm enjoying this challenge too much (and have got so far already) that I don't really want to abandon it now.
What I will need is help with the prettification. I tend to do stuff that's quite minimalist and functional. I also tend to go for simpler colour schemes as I have deuteranomolous vision (shifted green colour blindness).
For example, this is the control page for my central heating system (yes, I wrote my own rather than getting something like Hive). The buttons on the lower half change the settings and they turn yellow when active. "Advance" means "do this until next programmed event". "Force" means "just do this".
A screenshot of a website for controlling my central heating system.
I'll be up for this IJ. It looks as though nowster is making amazingly good progress.
I just mentioned it to my husband - his comment when I said Darien gap was "well that usually ends well" . It always amused him that COGH was taking in so many dangerous countries
loved your COGH input - d’you know, I think this might really happen 😀 nowster seems to be going great guns with another winning idea from Irish-John 👍
I'm getting excited now.! I really enjoyed COGH!! When I first read your post I thought it was a brilliant idea but looked like the IT was going to be an issue. Now it looks like THE nowster has stepped in to help it become a reality ! I have everything crossed that this will happen.
As a complete IT numpty all I can offer is my thanks for your idea and the hard work of all who can make it a reality .
I loved the COGH (still wear my t shirt with pride 😊) and am up for the next challenge! Minimal IT skills I’m afraid but Nowster looks like he’s your man 👏🏻👏🏻
It was indeed great fun, HW Hopefully this one will be just as much, and as motivating to go out the door We had a lot of contributors - people basically posted any memories, news, odds and ends etc as we 'ran' through the route Russia took FOREVER lol. A lot of people remarked how it really gave the sheer physical size of it in a context they hadn't thought of before There were lots of interesting gems along the way regarding local people and culture - it really was fun
I'm in touch with a couple of gung-ho Aussies who made the trip through the Darien Gap a few years ago They did a brilliant write-up about it so there will be more coverage of that 'Rest Section' part of the route than I thought at first would be possible - in other words, will now be able to 'fill in the gap of The Gap" lol. And, when you read it you will see why there is no way in heck you would want to travel through it 150kms of sheer real estate insanity lol
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The "virtual" relay run from Novo Siberk to Cape of Good Hope was EPIC - and a lot of fun :)For those who weren't here for it - participants were able to enter their milage and the map would update showing "how far" we were along the actual route as if we were running it 
The parkrun BIG '50' - who's up for it?
(not)parkrun / Virtual 5K
Half Marathon Done!
