How to measure any road race course

In a moment of madness I decided that as I was going to be in England on business, I would take the steam train up north to Lancashire and compete in the British Masters 5k championship road race. Everything went fine until I sent off my entry form; then it all unravelled.

First, my "sponsors" decided they didn't want me over in June, but in September instead. That means I have to find my own air fare. Ouch! Second, my form is coming, but slowly -- maybe too slowly. Third, although it is a championship race, can I get any information about the course? Can I 'eckers like (terrible version of northern England dialect).

The title race is part of the Horwich Carnival races. The organizers helpfully put a map of the course on their website, but don't say which way you run it, nor how many laps you do. They provide pictures of the course, but have arranged them in what seems to be random order. The course is described on the website and on the online entry form page as both "undulating" and "flat". I won't go on.

The thing is, IF there is a darn great hill in it, which their seems to be, judging from the pictures, then I'll adjust my training accordingly. If it is just pancake flat, then I'll train for pure speed on the track...etc etc.

So I posted a query about the course on the event website's forum: two weeks - nothing. I emailed the organizer: nothing. Finally I emailed the guy who took the pictures, the e nior coach with the local Horwich RMI Harriers, Norman Matthews. Now you'd think a local would just tell me straight out, wouldn't you? But no. Instead Norman's given me a lesson on how to measure a road race course using the Internet. I guess this is along the lines of the "teach a man to fish...." philosophy. Using his method, I found that the circuit is one mile round, and what looks like a substantial drop in elevation from the pictures, is actually a total variant of only about 50 feet. So... train for flat, fast and high cadence to take advantage of the trending-slightly-downhill sections.

I remain a bit miffed. This is a championship race after all, and anyone entering a race of that calibre is entitled to up front information. You'd think. Anyway, here's what Norman told me:

"Hi Simon,

The way to go about these things is first to look up http://www.gmap-pedometer.com this will allow you to measure any road race - if you have the route.

"In our case the route is on the carnival site, http://www.horwichcarnivalraces.co.uk/locationcircuit.htm, but who ever put that little map next to my pictures did not clearly indicate that from the start you head down Lee lane in an anti clockwise direction for three laps of the course.

"The way you check elevation is to look on 'Google Earth', home into Horwich - in this case - and put the marker on any part of the course to see the height elevation. If you follow the course round with the mouse the elevation number goes up and down showing you just where any hills are.

In our case you also have the photos to give you an idea of what the course actually looks like.

Hope that solves it for you."