Navy Ten Nautical Miler United States Navy a premiere foot race to replace the disestablished Blue Angels Marathon. The length of ten nautical miles was chosen as the length because it is roughly the distance from the shore to the horizon when viewed at sea level. It was also the distance traveled by the Allied Forces on D-Day, significant because the inaugural run of the Navy Ten Nautical Miler took place on June 6, 2010, the anniversary of D-Day. A nautical mile is approximately the distance of one minute of arc of latitude on the Earth's surface. Sailors throughout history have used this form
Mercator 1569 world map that OE=OD, here approximately 54°. This is a measure of the rhumb line distance between the points on the sphere corresponding to A and B on the spherical Earth. Since each degree on the equator corresponds to 60 nautical miles the sailing distance is 3240 nautical miles for this example. If B is in the second quadrant with respect to A then the upper rose is used and if B is west of A then the longitude separation is simply reversed. Mercator also gives a refined method which is useful for small azimuths. The above method is explained in Legend