For many years we published elevation gain numbers for the Superior Fall Trail Race that were rendered using LiDAR in commercial GIS software (ArcGIS). This method produces some of the most accurate elevation gain numbers you can get for the Superior Fall Trail Race; 100MI: 21,000, 50MI: 12,500, 26.2MI: 5,500. These numbers created confusion as more runners started running with wearable GPS devices (i.e. GPS watches, phones, trackers, etc.). GPS watches are not as accurate as the method referenced, and become less accurate as users increase elevation sample frequency settings for the longer races in order to stretch battery life. That said, GPS watches are a great tool, and a provide a great basis for comparison between different trails and races, and as a result offer useful insight into how one can approach training for a given race. We have since changed the published elevation gain numbers for the Superior Fall Trail Race. We are currently averaging around 50 GPX tracks for each race distance (100MI, 50MI, 26.2), from actual race participants wearable GPS devices. We have analyzed each track used in order to confirm that it represents the exact race course, without deviations, or other errors / anomalies. We also discarded drastic elevation gain outliers – then averaged. Over time we will continue to add more data to the dataset, and will revise the dataset as real world changes take place on the race courses (i.e. changes to the actual alignment of the trail). Doing the calculations in this way we get following numbers; 100MI: 17,350, 50MI: 7,950, 26.2MI: 4,050. This should be consistent to what most people running with a ‘Garmin’ see upon finishing one of the race distances. While this is clearly not the most accurate method available to calculate elevation gain, we provide these data to remain consistent with participants wearable GPS watches, and to remain consistent with how most other races represent the overall topography of their courses.
LiDAR: Light Detection and Ranging; is a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure ranges (variable distances) to the earth.
GIS: geographic information system; GIS software provides the ability to create, store, manage, query, analyze, and visualize geographic data, that is, data representing phenomena for which location is important.