Saving / Comparing Your Results

Setting and achieving personal goals is great, but sometimes a little competition is good too. Beyond the application itself, JMD software provides an active website located at www.marathon-mobile.net where you can store information about your tracks and times, and compare them to others using the software.

Figure 19: Here's the main page of the Marathon website which allows you to get the latest available version of the software and compare your results with other Marathon users.

The results are uploaded directly from the Marathon software on the PPC from the File Menu/Upload Result, but you will need an active internet connection at the time. Currently, there is no charge for the online service, but there may be charges from your cell phone service provider if/when you are uploading data

Figure 20: The Activity Map shows where Marathon users are located and have uploaded information.

Figure 21: The website also provides a top-10 list of longest distances and shortest times for various tracks. Apparently, it can also compare different users on the same track, but there wasn't anyone else nearby me I could check this with.

Conclusion

While Marathon is not a complete personal navigation system, it does a great job of focusing your efforts on the important factors in race training -- time, distances and speed. The interface is simple and straightforward, with lots of ability to customize, and the addition of the voice announcements is great for the running on the go, who can't regularly refer to the screen for updates.

Don Tolson is an Associate Director with Fujitsu Consulting, located in Victoria, BC, Canada. While the old legs can't do any more marathon running ;-), he is an avid hiker and walker along with this wife and Blaze, the wonderdog.

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