Raw Data wrote:
Free_the_thigh wrote:
Don’t forget Strava gives moving pace, not average pace. So the pace you see is often quicker than they were actually running.
On my run yesterday strava had me around 20 seconds a mile quicker than garmin a average pace did.
Also, how do you know people were racing their workouts like this before strava?
You people are relying too much on the GPS data being 100% accurate about what actually happened on your run. Try zooming in as close as possible to a chart of a run and look at how "smooth" the line you ran is. You might even find a point where you suddenly moved backwards at a spot while you were actually racing forward. To really see how poor the data is try running a zigzag course with star turns -- the results will be ugly.
I have never seen my line go backwards.
Every service I've used has algorithms that smooth your line out.
I will concede that yes, if you make a concerted effort to run zig zags and star turns to 'prove' your GPS is not accurate you will succeed.
In normal use by a sane person, GPS is more than accurate enough to calculate distance run.