First Ever 5K Race! :) Glitchy Apps? :(

I just had my first ever 5K race today, and of course it was Zombie themed.

My goal wad to finish in under 40 minutes, but really wanted to be closer to 36minutes. After what seemed like forever, I finally made it to the finish line and was cheered on by fellow runners, Zombies, a crazy clown, and of course my super supportive boyfriend, and clocked in at 37.07 minutes! Later, when the official results were posted, it turns out my chip time was actually only 36.36 minutes!

So, with that being said, and this being my first ever 5k, I am a little confused about some things. I think that both my running apps were messed up during the race. Using the Zombies, Run! App, I wanted to do a race mission and downloaded the 5KUltra-Violet mission. I first thought something was off, when there was about a 2-3 song span between transmissions and wasn't picking up a lot of supplies or hearing much about my distance (there was no mile markers on the course), but I thought as one point I had at LEAST gone a mile. Then after a grueling run up a hill which I really didn't anticipate, The voice over finally chimes in that I am NEARLY a 5th of the way there? Are you kidding me? I've had at least 5 songs play while running and I have only done 1K? At that point I felt pretty warn down and actually walked the last yard or two up the hill out of discouragement. I felt that there was no way I had 4 more K's worth of energy if that was only 1K. Finally, after a total of 28 minutes, the app says I completed 1 mile. I know based off of previous runs, that should have completed over 2 miles in 28 minutes, since I average around a 12 minute mile. I finally try to open my pedometer app (MOVES) while I am running, and at that point in time it said about 2.2 miles, which seemed about right. However, when I crossed the finish line, Zombies App said I had only done like a mile and a half and Moves said I only ran 2.6 miles instead of 3.1. Has anybody else had issues with the race missions or just with tracking apps during the race. I am thinking it might have been since there was a lot of other runners, most likely with tracking apps as well, that GSP signals may have been jumbled somehow, and also, I was running through an amusement park and not on roads, so it could have been harder to find and track me?

I am hoping I can just take the chip readings as the most accurate and that I did my first 5K in 36 minutes (which was my ultimate goal!). Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this, or if anybody else has had something similar happen.

Thanks!

Replies

  • annenhie
    annenhie Posts: 91 Member
    Zombies, Run delays in transmission when your phone signal suddenly fluctuates. It happens to me a lot since I like running in places where signal is bad (not my intention, just the best places to run here). So yeah you just close the app, make sure you have good enough signal, and then open it back up.

    Moves is a worse app in my opinion. I run before and it counted my movement as cycling.

    Ohhh btw, congrats on your first 5k race! :)
  • psuhorseshoe
    psuhorseshoe Posts: 29 Member
    Thank you for the help Anne! Yea, Moves says I do a lot of cycling. I mainly just use it to track my day to day steps at work, mostly out of curiosity.
  • annenhie
    annenhie Posts: 91 Member
    Still best to get a pedometer instead of using the phone I think. Right now I'm using the fitbit flex and although it's very sensitive, if you set your goal about 1000 steps above what your real goal is, it still works well. Pls it's very motivational. Makes me walk 1.5-3 hours per day now.
  • TMLPatrick
    TMLPatrick Posts: 558 Member
    Great job!! Congratulations! I have my first *real* 5k coming up in a few weeks, and I can't wait....
  • Congrats on your first 5K! I hear the zombie run is pretty fun. I'll be trying it next time it comes to town. I do have a suggestion that might help though. I use a running app called Fitnotix. It's free for iphones. Gives turn-by-turn nav, mile updates, pace updates. It's all I use now.