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Course Distance Accuracy!?!?

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  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,249 Member
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    A must read for those who think their Garmin or iPhone is the last word on distance!

    http://www.clevelandmarathon.com/resources/userUploads/CertifiedCoursevsGPSAccuracy.SRV_1338321859.pdf

    great read!
  • _Josee_
    _Josee_ Posts: 625 Member
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    A must read for those who think their Garmin or iPhone is the last word on distance!

    http://www.clevelandmarathon.com/resources/userUploads/CertifiedCoursevsGPSAccuracy.SRV_1338321859.pdf

    Interesting read! Now I know how to run my next race!
  • davemunger
    davemunger Posts: 1,139 Member
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    By the way, if you are running a half or a full and looking for a target time (such as a BQ), here's a post I wrote that goes in to great detail about how to adjust your GPS and your pace to account for GPS error:

    http://sciencebasedrunning.com/2011/10/the-basics-tweaking-the-gps-display-for-races/
  • dorianaldyn
    dorianaldyn Posts: 611 Member
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    In September I did the Half Moon Bay Marathon and even though the course was USTFA certified, they actually had a major distance problem! Due to numerous complaints from runners, the organizers made the USTFA come back and remeasure the course and low and behold, the half marathon course was indeed too long. My Garmin measured 26.6 for the full marathon, but when that course was remeasured it was determined to be correct. I swear I tried my best to run the tangents, so maybe my GPS was just really off (?). Either way, it was an interesting situation and the race organizers actually handled it really well with lots of communication and updates about the issue, making the USTFA come back, etc.
  • aldousmom
    aldousmom Posts: 382 Member
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    yeah, that to what everyone said about GPS and phone GPS etc. Unless you rolataped the course yourself, you have to believe what they advertise the course to be, especially if it's a ustaf certified course.

    what's funnier (or not?) is that on trail ultras, the conventional GPS watch won't match up with actual mileage, but most races are measured with rolatape and are accurate. so, you may go run a 50k, but only have 29 miles on your garmin. It doesn't mean the course was measured wrong, obviously. It does present a challenge for pace management, I suppose, but that's not an issue for me. I'm more in survival mode than pacing mode in those races, ha ha ha .

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