On I went, out of the wood, passing the man leading without knowing I was going to do so. Flip-flap, flip-flap, jog-trot, jog-trot, curnchslap-crunchslap, across the middle of a broad field again, rhythmically running in my greyhound effortless fashion, knowing I had won the race though it wasn't half over, won it if I wanted it, could go on for ten or fifteen or twenty miles if I had to and drop dead at the finish of it, which would be the same, in the end, as living an honest life like the governor wanted me to. -Alan Sillitoe, "Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner"

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

You can't trust your Garmin

My friend Renee ran a half marathon last weekend on a track. Yes, you read that right - 68 laps total on a track. Here is her Garmin map from the race:


Let me remind you - she ran this race around a track. The track never changed size. She never veered off the track. She ran decidedly more than 3.09m (10 more miles than that, in fact) and while her time here is correct, her pace isn't.

Can we please drop the whole "but my Garmin said the distance was - " argument now? Finally?

6 comments:

  1. Looks like my 5 yo niece has been working her magic on that thing... Wonder what Garmin has to say on this matter, huh? ;)

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  2. Oh, and my Garmin is only right when it tells me I ran more miles than claimed by the RD of a race. Duh. ;)

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  3. My Garmin sometimes tells me I'm running at 4:50 a mile. As much as I wished that were true, it's undoubtedly some kind of glitch.

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  4. Well, the track was indoors right? You can never trust a Garmin indoors. Surprised she got signal!

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  5. Agreed, but I meant to look it up - I'm pretty sure it was in a field house (so with a roof, but barely).

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