10k confusion

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michis05
michis05 Posts: 99 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Had a 10k this morning. I finished in 58:12. However i dont think that was correct my pace way 8:57 (according to my watch). Will running "outside" the track affect your time? Will it add more mileage I am not sure how to exactly explain it, but it could be also that my watch was incorrect about my pace.. oh and another thing
at the end of the race my watch said i had done 6.5 miles...maybe my watch is just wrong...but i truly felt like i was going fast, thats why its bothering me now....

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  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,121 Member
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    How far "outside" the track were you? It would take a lot to make much of a diff. Use the calcualtions and call it good. Don't over-think this.
  • michis05
    michis05 Posts: 99 Member
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    Some one said something about the "outside" and i didnt know what they meant..i ran on the right side of the track, to let people pass me if they need to. I mean its a regular track....it just bothers me!! And my watch makes it worse by saying i ran 6.5 miles lol
  • soccerella
    soccerella Posts: 623 Member
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    according to my calculations you pace was more in the 9mins30 second range.

    a 10k is 6.2 miles, and it you finished in 58mins 12 sec then when I calculated it, your pace came out to 9:38/mile

    running on the outside of the track will add on a slight bit more (which is why you see staggered starts in track races and why eveyrone tries to go to the inside), but i dont know how much more it adds on, sorry :(
  • michis05
    michis05 Posts: 99 Member
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    i seriously thought i was booking it!! haha i guess i wasnt it...But on the bright side i won 1st place for my age group..lol im happy but at the same time this whole time thing bothers me, maybe my watch didnt track it right :/ Thanks!!
  • soccerella
    soccerella Posts: 623 Member
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    hey i think thats a great pace for over 6 miles and congrats on winning! any way to calibrate your watch? it may be that the outside lane adds on that much, but I have no idea
  • amber10101
    amber10101 Posts: 100 Member
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    Tracks are measured at the inside line.

    In the winter, I sometimes run at the indoor track. The inside lane is 8 laps to the mile. The outside lane is something like 6.85 laps to the mile.

    And what kind of watch do you have? GPS or a foot pod? A GPS is less than ideal on a track because of all the turns. And of you have something with a foot pod, itll need to be calibrated.
  • michis05
    michis05 Posts: 99 Member
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    I will try to do something about it, and apparently running outside makes a huge difference :/ and thanks!!
  • jhardenbergh
    jhardenbergh Posts: 1,035 Member
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    running around the outside of the track will add distance, it's a bigger oval, which is why during track meets and they are starting people in say the 400m it's staggered. I don't know how much it adds, but it seems possible, well over the course of 6 miles I could definately see you running an extra .3 miles.
  • aweightymatter
    aweightymatter Posts: 222
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    I will try to do something about it, and apparently running outside makes a huge difference :/ and thanks!!

    If you don't start and stop in the same lane at the same line, it'll make a difference :) Also, it depends on your fitness watch/HRM setup. I have a HRM bundle that uses a foot pod rather than GPS. (I usually track my runs via GPS on my phone, so this made the most sense to me, value-wise.) My foot pod is always about a half-mile off around the 10k distance, and gets even more thrown off on longer distances. At the end of a half-marathon, it told me I ran 15.3 miles -- yeah right.

    You may just need to re-calibrate if that's the kind of setup you have. Either way, don't stress it too much -- an hour finish is an awesome pace!!
  • EricNCSU
    EricNCSU Posts: 699 Member
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    Actually, you shouldn't be confused. Your pace is dead on. 58:12 (which is 58.2 minutes) divided by 6.5 miles is 8.95 minutes per mile, which would be right on 8:57. You nailed it dead on. The only confusion is that your race was long (6.5 instead of 6.2) so it was slightly longer than a 10K.... if you were dividing by 6.2 your pace would seem "off" but I say trust the watch at 6.5 since your pace by that metric is exactly right.

    the inside/outside may not be a huge difference, but neither is 3 tenths of a mile, so if you did the entire race as laps around a track, then you would be doing 12 laps around a half mile track. That's not outside the realm of possibilities.
  • kyrstensmom
    kyrstensmom Posts: 297 Member
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    i seriously thought i was booking it!! haha i guess i wasnt it...But on the bright side i won 1st place for my age group..lol im happy but at the same time this whole time thing bothers me, maybe my watch didnt track it right :/ Thanks!!

    GPS watches sometimes have trouble with quarter miles tracks...so it could be that your watch was off just a little. Awesome job either way!
  • Giantess
    Giantess Posts: 213 Member
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    I came here to type exactly what Eric there said. Then I just typed this so Eric could have props for already saying what needed to be said.

    Er.

    /useless post is useless?
  • soccerella
    soccerella Posts: 623 Member
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    agree with above poster and eric - like I said, dont know how much running on the outside changes things, but yea 6.5 miles instead of 6.2 would give the pace that your watch said ....my calculation was for an actual 10k,but you likely ran farther than that
  • michis05
    michis05 Posts: 99 Member
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    must specify it wasnt an actual track..it was a paved road downtown on the river walk that we have....and idk why i kept putting watch i am so sorry i meant my phone. I use runkeer..wow i am delirious!!
  • amber10101
    amber10101 Posts: 100 Member
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    Runkeeper is not terribly accurate. And a measured 10k must be at LEAST 10k to be certified.

    If its a race, just use your race results. Thats what you paid your entry fee for, right?
  • IronmanPanda
    IronmanPanda Posts: 2,083 Member
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    Runkeeper is not terribly accurate. And a measured 10k must be at LEAST 10k to be certified.

    If its a race, just use your race results. Thats what you paid your entry fee for, right?

    Agree. Phone GPS systems are not very accurate at all. And all certified courses state that the lengths are at least the distance but they cannot be short.

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