It started, as so many good stories do, with smack talk. It turned into a captivating contest that had followers glued to their phones and laptops for hours. That's what happens when two guys race across the state of Missouri – one by plane, the other in a Porsche. You can get Team Plane's perspective at the Southwest Airlines blog, and Team Porsche previewed the race at the Aristocrat Motors' site. But here's how the race unfolded from my role as referee, spotter and unbiased observer.

At 9:30 on a recent Monday morning, I met Justin from Kansas City International Airport and Kris from Aristocrat Motors in downtown KC at Missouri's second-tallest structure. The plan for the day: Get to Missouri's tallest structure (the Gateway Arch in St. Louis) as quickly as possible. Justin's plan was to walk to a metro bus stop, take public transit to the airport, check in and wait for his noon flight to St. Louis, where he would hop in a taxi bound for the Arch. Kris had a more simple tactic: Drive a Porsche across the state, obeying all laws and speed limits along the way. And that's where we come in. The Porsche was outfitted with three Garmin devices, each with a specific purpose. First, a nuvi 2460LMT would give Kris the best routing options possible, guide him around traffic when needed and provide an accurate ETA. Second, an Edge 500 (the new red and black model to better match the Porsche) would display even more detailed metrics on the customizable data fields while storing all of the information to share on Garmin Connect (below). Finally – and most important for those of us following from afar – the GTU 10 tracking unit allowed me to monitor the Porsche's current location and share that info with everyone following the #RaceAcrossMO hashtag on Twitter or checking the event page on Facebook. In the end, Kris and his copilot had a comfortable ride across the state, but Justin's bus-plane-cab combo proved to be faster by about 20 minutes. We had a lot of fun teaming up on this event, and our wheels are already turning for future promotions that we'll share with everyone following Garmin on Twitter and Facebook. 

Source: Garmin
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Jake’s Journal: Garmin guides and tracks unique Race Across Missouri

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