Garmin users?

[laura35]

hello,

have any of you ran a 5k race with your garmins and had it come up short, the distance that is? I ran a 5k this weekend and my garmin said the distance was 2.98 miles. It disappoints me because this is the first 5k I have ran in a long time and was hoping to do well. I did okay but if the distance was correct then it would have been a new PR for me, if not a friend said to add another 50seconds onto my time. I didnt know if many of the 5k distances races where off or just this one.

 

[cheval]

Variable distance from a GPS unit can be due to many things. First of all, which model do you have? The model can make a difference due to the type of GPS receiver it has in it. Second question is where were you running? Deep urban canyons (tall buildings/narrow streets) prove to be a challenge to some GPS units, especially the older models. Third question is how good of a satellite lock did the unit have before you got going? Did you turn it on and let it get a good lock or did you just go? Also, when did you press the start button and when did you press the stop button? And at the end of the day, it's only a 4% difference, which isn't too bad overall.

April

 

[laura35]

april- yes I had it on in plenty of time. It was around a college university, no really inclosed areas other than a football field. we had to run inside the field ,it was outside but had walls surrounding it. I stopped it right at the clock as well as started it. I have the garmin 301,never had any trouble with the distance but have with the pace in certain areas. gets me thinking though that maybe something might have altered it.

 

[cheval]

The difference can also be explained by where the actual course was measured out and if this was an officially measured 5k. Some aren't strictly measured and can fall short or long. Not saying that happened at your 5k, but can happen. And if you ran inside of where they measured the course, then it's possible the distance could be lost that way. Hard to tell without looking at the track point data that was saved.

I wouldn't worry about it too much, though.

April

 

[mabdoo]

One other thing about a course being certified. If a course is officially certified (by a track and field assn like USTFA, for instance) then they will take the shortest possible route and "cut the tangents" meaning that on a curve that take the innermost route and go from shortest point to shortest point.

Ditto on what others said about things being in the way. I know that when I use my Garmin on the track once in a while it comes up short...and the track is certified, but if I use it on longer runs it is pretty accurate.

There have been lots of races that I have run that have been either long or short. If you truly believe the course was short you can extrapolate you time out using a pace chart. You can google to find on online.

 

[laura35]

thanks. I was just wondering because this was my best time and if the course isnt accurate then it wouldnt be my best time for a 5k. But inside a football field with 4 walls but no ceiling could affect it because I was standing outside the ymca but by the wall and door and my garmin couldnt pick up a signal right away, I had to walk away from the building.