In this example the triathlon will consist of Swim, Bike and two Running laps.
- Locate the exact starting point of your race on the map.
- Click on “My Places” in the left side menu and then click on the “Add a route” icon in the top menu.
- Click on the “Name” field in the pop-up window and give it the name of your event. In “Style, colour” choose the colour and thickness of the line of the stroke. Choose a color and thickness that is comfortable to see. This won’t be what it will look like in Sportmaniacs or Live.
- Select how you want to visualize your route: miles, kilometers, inches … Move to one side the popup window so you do not bother and you can draw the route easily.
- Click on the map at the exact point of the start and draw the route by clicking. In the pop-up window that is open you can check the length of the route you are drawing. To move around the map use the arrows on your keyboard and to zoom in and out use the scroll of your mouse. If you make a mistake in a point of the plot, click on it and press the delete key. Repeat this action as many times as you need. You can also drag the wrong points and adjust them to the track.
- Once you have the path drawn with its exact distance, center the pop-up window again and click “OK”.
In the left side menu you can see how the route has been generated. The next path will be the transition from Swim to Bike.
- Click on “My Places” in the left side menu and then click on the “Add a route” icon in the top menu.
- Name the transition path. In “Style, color” choose a different color than the previous route to differentiate them.
- Create the transition path.
- Repeat the same steps to create the bike route.
- When you have create the Bike route, center the pop-up window again and click “OK”.
In the left side menu you can see how the route has been generated. The next path will be the transition from Bike to Running. Repeat the same steps to create the Running route. In this example, the Running route has two laps.
- To duplicate Running’s route, right-click on it and select “Copy”.
- Then click on “My Sites” with the right mouse button and select “Paste”. It is very important that the layouts appear in the same order as in the race.
- Move the paths with the mouse until they are in the correct order.
- If the finish line is not located where the second round of Running finishes, you must add a last finish line.
You’d already have created the triathlon with all its intervals. Now you can export it.
- Right-click on the route and select “Save place as…”.
- Name the file and click “Save”.
When you have created the routes of at least one event of your triathlon in Google Earth you can use it to create the rest of events.
- Right-click “My Places” and select “Add” and “Folder”.
- Name the event you’ve already and click “OK”.
- Select the paths already created from your first event and drag them to the folder you just created.
- To create your next triathlon event, right-click on the folder you created and click “Copy”.
- Right-click “My Places” and select “Paste”. You’ll see that the first event you created has been duplicated.
- Right-click on the folder you just pasted and select “Get Info”.
- Name the second event of your triathlon and click “OK”.
- In our example, the Sprint has three laps of Bike and four laps of Running. Right-click on the Bike course and select “Copy”.
- Right-click on the event folder and select “Paste”. Repeat this step until you have three Bike laps.
- Sorts the paths of the event.
- Right-click on the Running path and select “Copy”.
- Right-click on the event folder and select “Paste”. Repeat this until you have four Running Routes and sort the paths of the event.
Now you have two triathlon events created. Repeat the process if your triathlon has more events.
To export the events, it is necessary to do it in separate files, one file per event:
- Right-click on the folder of the first event and select “Save site as…”.
- Name the event you are going to export and click “Save”.
- Right-click on the folder of the next event and select “Save site as…”.
- Name the event you are going to export and click “Save”.
Now you have all your triathlon events in KML format to upload them to Sportmaniacs or Live.
In order to speed up the loading of the map in the applications you can reduce the KML file size cleaning the number of points on the map generated in Google Earth. You can use the web tool GPS Visualizer to achieve this.