I just finished mapping out a few of my last runs and I am wondering how accurate it is. Most of my runs are coming up longer than i was guessing when running on time. Also, i would think that some of the tangents of going point to point would actually cut off distance.
Does anyone have experience with this site and it's accuracy??
Why do you ask? Will your legs fall off if you happen to run 2-5 more or fewer miles in a week than you think you did?
maybe you can compare the results with the results from other pedometer map sites. let us know what your conclusions are
The runs are longer even though the tangents are cutting off distance? WTF are you talking about?
The beauty of reading comprehension. Try to follow, confused man:
Most of my runs are coming up longer than i was guessing when running on time.
Makes the observation that mapmyrun.com seems to make his runs longer than he originally thought.
Also, i would think that some of the tangents of going point to point would actually cut off distance.
Makes further observation that mapmyrun.com is probably not accurate by stating that the tangents would actually reduce the distance.
This post was well thought out and he gave two arguments for why mapmyrun.com is probably inaccurate. I thought this style of advocacy and argument was taught in 8th grade debate class.
Geez, instead of getting on here and writing venomous replies, why don't you try reading every now and again?
a friend of mine just had an issue with this, the site confirmed that a person thoguht the run was a certain length, but she thought it was shorter so she got in her car and drove it. it was a little shorter but not a whole lot (.3 miles or so)
I just plotted a couple of runs, and found a .08 difference over 3 miles, and a .3 difference over 16.5 miles.
What's it matter? wrote:
Why do you ask? Will your legs fall off if you happen to run 2-5 more or fewer miles in a week than you think you did?
I ask because i like to know my training pace and I'm trying to slow it up a bit as im feeling a bit overtrained. So if i run a 10 miler in 1:10 or an 11 miler in 1:10 there is a big difference.
thanks to everyone else for the input, i think i'll drive the runs today and compare the results. A .2 - .3 difference in distance is not a big deal so if that's the case the website could be useful.
Magic Eight Ball says: Your car is a equally, if not more, inaccurate.
I find mapymyrun to be pretty good to get general estimates of routes. You need to use a decent resolution level for the streets and click on enough points to get a reasonable amount of the tangents. I've checked it against some known routes (certified courses) and have always been within 1/4 mile over 10 miles, usually closer. Sometimes it's a little over, sometimes a little under. That's less than 1.5 minutes +/- over an hour run so insignificant. Even works pretty good for some bikepath type areas that don't have streets.
If you're off ~10% on a 10 mile route (the 10/11 miler example above) you mapped then I'd say you did something wrong when inputting your route.
You're right that there's a big difference between running a 10 miler in 70 minutes or an 11 miler in 70 minutes. That's 7:00 pace vs 6:22 pace. Please tell me you can feel the difference between 7:00/mile and 6:22/mile. If these feel the same to you then there are bigger issues here than is mapmyrun accurate.
your best bet is usatf/routes, i have found it to be very accurate
now come on wrote:
Also, i would think that some of the tangents of going point to point would actually cut off distance.
Wow, that is a quite an observation.
And I think you are expecting a rather prcise measurement of your runs that will be somewhat difficult to find if you are expecting it to take into account tangent lines.
now come on wrote:
I just finished mapping out a few of my last runs and I am wondering how accurate it is. Most of my runs are coming up longer than i was guessing when running on time. Also, i would think that some of the tangents of going point to point would actually cut off distance.
Does anyone have experience with this site and it's accuracy??
I do. I have loops that I have wheel measured (with a meter wheel) and then measured with mapmyrun.com and it is very accurate. Within 10-15 meters per mile. I have a 1501 meter loop wheel measured that comes in at 1510 on the website and a 5000 meter loop on the wheel and comes in at 4980 meters on the website. The same 5000 loop comes in at just a hair over 3.1 miles on the car (5k is 3.107 miles). So I think its pretty accurate. I recommend using the satellite view and zooming in fairly closely so you can more exactly follow how you run the course (tangents, side of the road, sidewalk, etc.) something you can't always do in a car. I also noticed that the site slows down after you have mapped a few miles. To over come this, simply note the most recent marker (mile or kilometer) and then get off the site for a minute then go back in and it will be faster again.
Before I get a lot of comments about how anal I am (wheel, car and website measuring the same courses) let me explain. I live in the city and so often run smaller loops where there are less cars, buses, etc. but I run them multiple times each. So if you are doing 10 times around a 1500 meter loop or 4 times around a 5000 meter loop you want to be pretty sure its an accurate distance or you could end up significantly off after a while.
MTH wrote:
...run smaller loops where there are less cars, buses...
Fewer. Fewer cars. "Less" describes volume while "fewer" describes quantity. Thus "less traffic" would be correct, and "fewer cars."
Fewer. Fewer cars. "Less" describes volume while "fewer" describes quantity. Thus "less traffic" would be correct, and "fewer cars."
As Malmo once said, a simple "thank you" would suffice.