How often do people you run with get distances wrong?

Not legendary, but you can't shake a stick at the number of runners.that will claim a course is measured wro g if their GPS records it longer (eg 13.2 vs 13.1), or they will presume the Delta is in the non-optimal tangents they took, and therefore adjust their pace downwards, and assume the more likely scenario is that their consumer GPS watch in an urban environment with tall buildings is more accurate than the certified course they just ran

Until GPS became standard yes people used to estimate quite a bit over, as for the point that GPS is not infallible - this is true but it is good enough to measure a regular training route to way more than the required accuracy to not be deluding yourself whilst obviously not as accurate as a Jones Counter

I used to just estimate based on how I felt. Some days this was pretty accurate, sometimes wildly off. I once ran an easy run and felt tired after, I thought I was flying, and it took me 52 minutes or so...I logged 8 miles, and my friends berated me later saying we'd only run 7.5 or so. Another time I went for a standard 90 minute long run and ended up running like 13.6 and initially logged only 13 (very flat terrain, wasn't used to that).

That's why it is best to go by badger miles.

Mark Bedford wrote:

Do you have a buddy who always gets distances wrong on his running routes?

I admit that I have always used the distance my car gives me plus 1/10 of a mile.

(So if it measures 5 miles, I call it 5.1 miles. Someone once told me that all cars

measure short.) I seldom told people how fast I ran for a training run, even when

I was younger and fast.

But don't lots of people think they ran 6.5 miles when in reality they ran only 6 miles?

Maybe that is more rare now with GPS and phone apps.

Do you have a legendary story?

(I can remember once as a cross country coach trying to measure a race course for the 5k.

It kept coming out as 3.4 or 3.2 miles. That happened with a measuring wheel! It's tough

to get an accurate measure sometimes.)

I would guess that cars would actually measure long compared to what someone runs. Most people will run so that they are going to take a sharper turn at intersections (inside lane) and run angles while crossing sides of roads (if no cars are coming) while the car has to stay on the right side of the road and has a wider turn generally. If you are going shorter distance, the difference is not that big but the further you go, the more it would be noticeable.

measuring for training purposes should always be longer than the runners probable route

racing should be done along the shortest possible route

Almost all! They go purely by GPS.

I've found that GPS on average reads long. My measurements (my watches) ~1.6%. I have run a few certified courses 4 - 6 times each and averaged the distance error to get my number. Each GPS sample point has some random error. Error in your direction of travel will average out. Error perpendicular to your direction will add to the distance. I assume they have an averaging algorithm but there I'm sure there are limitations.

Sit and kick wrote:

Not legendary, but you can't shake a stick at the number of runners.that will claim a course is measured wro g if their GPS records it longer (eg 13.2 vs 13.1), or they will presume the Delta is in the non-optimal tangents they took, and therefore adjust their pace downwards, and assume the more likely scenario is that their consumer GPS watch in an urban environment with tall buildings is more accurate than the certified course they just ran

Amen, it's obvious when you zoom in on your route that GPS error adds distance all over the place.

People think that GPS makes it more accurate but it's actually quite the opposite.

Camille Herron had 173 miles on her watch after the 24 hour world record last month. But officially she ran only 162.919 miles

https://imgur.com/a/u5NiFZE

Badger miles FTW wrote:

That's why it is best to go by badger miles.

Exactly. Why the heck does it matter? You run a road race, it's against people. Run to win. You run on the track, you can be fairly sure it's 400 meters around. I guess if you must run accurate distances every single time, just go run on a track.

Otherwise, just go run. No wonder everyone is so damn slow any more.

Badger miles FTW wrote:

That's why it is best to go by badger miles.

Ditto, but when I got my GPS watch there was definitely an adjustment period, my easy mileage was off by like 20%. Now I just let Strava keep track of my mileage but I always have to add 20% in my head if I'm comparing my mileage to what I used to do.

If GPS watches are wrong, then what else are you suppose to use. When you run on trails your GPS will be wrong but on roads I would say they are pretty accurate. In the long run running the extra .04 will not matter.

I’m glad to say that no one I run with cares about trying to get the distance “right.” If we’re doing a 60 minutes run, we just go run for 60 minutes. It would be really pointless and annoying if my running buddies wanted to quibble over whether we’d run 8.4 miles or 8.6 miles.

Mark Bedford wrote:

Someone once told me that all cars

measure short.

I don't think that's true, I've heard they can be short but tend to measure long and are not precise either way.

People are rightly pointing out that GPS isn't perfect, but before GPS watches were common, some people I ran with were terrible. Many would always assume we were running 7:00 pace or faster when it was closer to 8:00. I measured a run at 12.5 miles once and most my teammates counted it as 14.

Do you have a legendary story?

Had a guy at our school (UDM) that used to go for a run without a GPS Watch or even a regular watch. He would come back from his run and tell us that he ran "x miles at 5:30 pace". He would then proceed to take a shower and then actually put on his Garmin watch and walk around with it on. He would literally take it off for running, just so he could say he ran really fast and far and wouldn't have to prove it. People on the team started saying that they were running 5:30 pace when they were running slow to make fun of him.

The best part was his freshman year when he told everyone he could run a 1:59 800, but then went out and ran like a 2:11. The next week he said "no doubt I'll go 1:59...and then he ran a 2:08. So funny. We used to troll him so hard.

I just go by time

40min easy

1hr easy

80 min mod

90-120 min long run

Blah blah blah wrksouts on the track are the only thing I keep distance for

Even threshold training is more based on effort (heart rate) rather than pace/mile

Stopped obsessing over miles years ago, but still run 80-100mpw “unofficially”

My girlfriend( bless her soul) will stubbornly use known short courses as representative of her ability and then get frustrated when she doesn't run nearly as fast on a properly measured course.

Sit and kick wrote:

Not legendary, but you can't shake a stick at the number of runners.that will claim a course is measured wro g if their GPS records it longer (eg 13.2 vs 13.1), or they will presume the Delta is in the non-optimal tangents they took, and therefore adjust their pace downwards, and assume the more likely scenario is that their consumer GPS watch in an urban environment with tall buildings is more accurate than the certified course they just ran

This is the craziest at trail races. Who even cares how long a trail race is, just round to the nearest mile or km...

In college we had an indoor track that was 2.5 lanes, ~260m around, and square.

We actually hosted meets there*, and one time in the 3000m they clearly stopped it a lap short. No one could remember how many laps it was supposed to be. 11.6? 10.6? The final times made no sense after the mile splits.

Anyhow, I had two teammates maintain they set PRs by 40s that day on the square track (with a blazing last 1391m).

In retrospect maybe they were pulling my leg, but I didn’t think so at the time, and they listed that race for their lifetime PRs in the following year’s media guide.

* The 4x400m was wild. Every year someone would wipe out going around a corner and slide into the wall.