What a workout!

After packing up our Code the Road bus at the conclusion of Google I/O, it was time to hit the road. Our first stop was Logan, Utah on Tuesday, June 2, to visit ICON Health and Fitness for the world’s first virtual 5k run on ICON’s line of NordicTrack treadmills powered by iFit and our Google Maps APIs.

Over 1,000 people turned out watch 40 runners compete in the run, including two runners from the Google Maps APIs team: myself and one of our engineering managers, James McGill.

The event kicked-off with our lead runner arriving via helicopter(!) with a run she had recorded on her Android Wear watch while running the streets of Paris. Immediately she uploaded her route to all the iFit treadmills and we were off and running. As we ran, imagery from Street View was displayed on each treadmill so every runner was virtually running the streets of Paris together.

Even more fascinating, the treadmills increased and decreased their incline as we ran, via data piped in from the Google Maps Elevation API.

Before, during, and after the run, attendees toured the Code the Road bus to get a close-up look of what developers and customers are building with our API suite and to get the chance to try out some of those innovative experiences for themselves.

And then we were off again to Moab, Utah! Wednesday, June 3, we went hiking with Street View cameras at gorgeous Arches National Park and yesterday we hosted a Developer Meetup in Boulder, Colorado. Stay tuned for more updates and we can’t wait to see you on the road!

Posted by Ken Hoetmer, Product Manager, Google Maps APIs