The discussion on measuring the distance of walks in the Events section of the forum brings to mind a couple of stories. Back in the 1980s I was an accredited road race course measurer for the Southern Counties AAA. We used a simple counter recording front wheel revolutions on a standard road bike which was calibrated against a straight line of a few hundred yards measured accurately by steel tape. I was always surprised at the consistency of results from this technique. Repeated measurements of a ten mile course would produce results within a range of a foot or two at the most. My most memorable course measure was of a 10k race which was two laps of the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit. The circuit is much wider than it appears on TV, it felt like cycling down the M1, and the tarmac surface was the smoothest I have ever seen.

At the other extreme I have been reading a guide to the Appalachian Trail. Myron Avery, whose forcefulness and dedication played a big part in getting the Trail established in the 1930s, rolled a measuring wheel the entire 2000 mile distance of the Trail.