I'm forever getting stern lectures from my dog's veterinarian about how many lbs. she has packed on, largely due to her less-than-active lifestyle living in the city. (A friend once told me she looks like a stuffed sausage. Nice. It's really just that she has a few bad angles.) Every time I have to load her chunky little body onto the scale I break into a sweat, knowing he's clearly judging my dog-parenting skills. As a result, I've started taking her on hardcore walks in Central Park to drop her winter weight, and I got to wondering how far we were actually going. (She stops to sniff things so often that trying to gauge distance based on time is just ridiculous.)
A friend pointed me to this website where you can map your route and figure out the approximate distance travelled. It can be a little tricky getting it just right, but it's pretty cool. Our record so far is just under eight miles.