One of the joys of running is discovering new places or new courses near home. Running is the ideal speed for touring the countryside or city neighborhoods. In a car everything flies by to quickly to appreciate and walking is too slow.

Often, runners will drive or run a course before the race. Many runners want to know what to expect and be able to anticipate hills and general conditions. Avoiding surprises can help with race performance. A hill on a map never looks the same as when you are at the bottom looking up.

Now you can re-con a course from the comfort of home with

View The Race

View The Race has created race course videos for about 200 races across the country. They drive the race route and provide a narrated, condensed video. In about 5 minutes for a 5K or 10K you get to see the entire race course. You may have seen their videos on some race event web sites. I always thought the videos were fun to watch and helpful. But getting a course video was rare.

When I discovered View The Race I felt like I hit the jack pot. Granted, there are over 40,000 races in the US each year and this site only has 200. But what a great way to scout out your next race.

If you think it’s exciting to go to a race web site, look at photos and read about a race, try viewing some of these course videos. That will have you reaching for your credit card!

Well over half of the videos are for New England races. I live in the GBA, so yeah for me! Other locations include California, Canada, Florida, The Carolinas and Virginia.

Check out View The Race and let me know what you think. Is this the coolest thing ever?

Run well my friends,

Andy