The crew car following Andy has a Delorme InReach Explorer Satellite GPS so you can track Andy LIVE! Follow him on his journey to complete 1,000 miles in under 96 hours.
Messages. On the live tracking map there is an option to send a text message to the GPS unit in the crew car. Andy would love to hear from you on the course, but please do not overuse this feature (especially at the start and finish). The course has very limited cell phone coverage so the resting crew and following crew are using two satellite GPS' to communicate with each other. (As a side note, the start and finish does have cell coverage so feel free to post messages of support on the website or on Facebook during that time.)
Also, the crew car most likely will not be able to respond to messages. All of the posts you are seeing on the website and social media are coming from the crew who are resting in Marathon. It is clunky to communicate on the GPS so communication from the crew car is limited.
But, if its 3 AM and you can't sleep or more realistically its 3 PM and you're bored at work, absolutely send a short message to Andy. The crew will be sure to read each one to him. Additionally, when the crews switch every 12 hours we will let him know about your messages on the website and social media.
Locate. A second option on the live tracking map is to "request the location of the specified user." Please do not use this function. Assuming the tracker is working correctly, the GPS should send a location ping every 10 minutes. If the tracker isn't working, please leave a comment on this page and we will try to assist as soon as we can.
Send. Another option is to "send your location" to the GPS. Again, please do not use this function. We will have a hard enough time keeping Andy on course as is....
How do you see the speed, total mileage, elevation, etc.? To see the statistics of the crew car, click on the blue arrow on the map. If you want to see more details, click on the black arrow under Dorene Welch. Please note, these stats are from the crew car -- not from Andy's bike (yes, he is a freak of nature, but no he isn't riding at 60 mph).
I clicked on the black arrow under Dorene Welch and now I see multiple track summaries. There isn't a way for us to delete previous tracks so if you are seeing tracks from the drive to Texas or tracks from Richmond, you can ignore those. If you click on the most recent track it should zoom in to the current track. Alternatively, you can click on the white arrow beside MAP FILTERS and change the date and time ranges to filter out old tracks.
The race just started and it looks like he is sitting still 10 miles away from the start. The start of the race was a mass start with riders following a pace car out of Alpine and meeting their crew cars somewhere on RT. 118. Remember the tracker is in the crew car not on Andy.
Leap frog support. During the day the crew car does "leap frog support" so it may look like the car is doing 60 mph at one point and 0 mph the next point. Leap frog support is when the crew car goes a few miles ahead, stops and waits for the rider to pass, and then "leap frogs" ahead again. At night (7 PM - 8 AM) the crew will be directly behind Andy the entire time.
Wasn't he just in Alpine? Wasn't he just in Marathon? Wasn't he just in Marfa? Wasn't he just in Big Bend? Over the course of the race he will go through several locations more than one time. So, if you looked at the map and he was in Marathon and then a day later he was in Marathon again and then on day three he was in Marathon AGAIN don't worry you aren't going crazy (he probably is, but not you).
Click HERE to view the tracker.
CONSIDERATIONS
Messages. On the live tracking map there is an option to send a text message to the GPS unit in the crew car. Andy would love to hear from you on the course, but please do not overuse this feature (especially at the start and finish). The course has very limited cell phone coverage so the resting crew and following crew are using two satellite GPS' to communicate with each other. (As a side note, the start and finish does have cell coverage so feel free to post messages of support on the website or on Facebook during that time.)
Also, the crew car most likely will not be able to respond to messages. All of the posts you are seeing on the website and social media are coming from the crew who are resting in Marathon. It is clunky to communicate on the GPS so communication from the crew car is limited.
But, if its 3 AM and you can't sleep or more realistically its 3 PM and you're bored at work, absolutely send a short message to Andy. The crew will be sure to read each one to him. Additionally, when the crews switch every 12 hours we will let him know about your messages on the website and social media.
Locate. A second option on the live tracking map is to "request the location of the specified user." Please do not use this function. Assuming the tracker is working correctly, the GPS should send a location ping every 10 minutes. If the tracker isn't working, please leave a comment on this page and we will try to assist as soon as we can.
Send. Another option is to "send your location" to the GPS. Again, please do not use this function. We will have a hard enough time keeping Andy on course as is....
TIPS, TRICKS AND FAQs
The race just started and it looks like he is sitting still 10 miles away from the start. The start of the race was a mass start with riders following a pace car out of Alpine and meeting their crew cars somewhere on RT. 118. Remember the tracker is in the crew car not on Andy.
Leap frog support. During the day the crew car does "leap frog support" so it may look like the car is doing 60 mph at one point and 0 mph the next point. Leap frog support is when the crew car goes a few miles ahead, stops and waits for the rider to pass, and then "leap frogs" ahead again. At night (7 PM - 8 AM) the crew will be directly behind Andy the entire time.
Wasn't he just in Alpine? Wasn't he just in Marathon? Wasn't he just in Marfa? Wasn't he just in Big Bend? Over the course of the race he will go through several locations more than one time. So, if you looked at the map and he was in Marathon and then a day later he was in Marathon again and then on day three he was in Marathon AGAIN don't worry you aren't going crazy (he probably is, but not you).
QUESTIONS? PROBLEMS?
Please feel free to leave a comment below if you are having any problems with the tracker or if you have a question. The resting crew in Marathon will do their best to respond as quickly as possible. We know we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for your love and support so we want to bring you on the journey as much as possible. We will try to keep the website updated with as much information as we can but please be patient with us (we might be sleeping, showering, eating or in the middle of a crew swap).