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10K PR....or not!!!

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leadoff
leadoff Posts: 136 Member
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I ran a 10K in the pouring rain this weekend, and was pumped as I was on a PR pace at mile three with plenty of juice left in my tank. I usually run races using my Virtual Partner on my Garmin 405 to help gauge my pace better, so I never really checked the distance until the four mile marker....my watch read 3.79 miles. I finished strong, but my total distance on my watch read 5.64 miles. That, along with the fact that I beat my best 10K time by 5 minutes, seemed a little suspect to me.

I checked with some other runners on their mileage, and they confirmed the distance on their GPS units. Arrghhh!!! Very frustrated to say the least!!!

On a positive note, though, I placed first in my age group! :)

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  • emzley
    emzley Posts: 11
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    well done! thats great to place first in your age group!

    I find it so fustrating when races aren't the length they are supposed to be (whether its too short or too long)
    I ran a half marathon in Feb and it measured 13.52 on my garmin! was really fustrating as I was on target for a sub 1:30!
    I always look at the average pace per mile on my garmin and then work out what my time would have been for the correct distance, I find this helps me to see how my training is going as I do find course measurements can be out quite often!
    I ran a 5 mile race on saturday and it worked out as 5.3 miles on everyones watches! Damn course measurement people!

    Big pat on the back for you though!
  • scottb81
    scottb81 Posts: 2,538 Member
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    If you placed first then it is a success, even if the PR is suspect.
  • JoyousRen
    JoyousRen Posts: 3,823 Member
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    I did a 10 miler on Sunday that read 10.25 mi on my GPS. I'm pretty sure they are all off a little because they try to begin/end in the same place. It's nearly impossible wind through street to do that and have exact distance.
  • arc918
    arc918 Posts: 2,037 Member
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    GPS on an accurate course should almost always measure long.

    If your GPS is short, then the course is short.

    Here is an awesome article on GPS technology. I post whenever people think Chicago or Boston or London is "long" because their GPS reads 26.5

    http://hamptonhalf.com/hamptonhalf-GPS.html

    ETA: enjoy the hardware but don't count the PR!
  • leadoff
    leadoff Posts: 136 Member
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    GPS on an accurate course should almost always measure long.

    If your GPS is short, then the course is short.

    Here is an awesome article on GPS technology. I post whenever people think Chicago or Boston or London is "long" because their GPS reads 26.5

    http://hamptonhalf.com/hamptonhalf-GPS.html

    ETA: enjoy the hardware but don't count the PR!

    Very cool article! Thanks for posting!

    Definitely not going to count my time as a PR. I enjoy participating in races more for the competition against myself. :) While I am disappointed that I was on pace for a PR and wasn't able to "log" my time as a PR, I enjoyed the race (despite running the last two miles in a downpour) and, more importantly, enjoyed contributing my time and race fee for a good cause. :)

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