Running apps - accuracy?

[BradC]

Is there somewhere a ranking of phone running apps in terms of accuracy, particularly as regards distance?

I am in my umpteenth consolidation run. As I have explained in previous posts I am happy to run at a slow pace (essentially slow jogging) and see what happens as regards average speeds etc over time. I have, though been gradually extending my runs and thought it would be nice to manage 5K in 40 minutes.

So I plotted a route using the Footpath app which comes to 5.14 km. I ran it this morning in marginally under 40 minutes, accompanied by relaxing music including Georgia Mancio singing Gracias a la Vita, Katie Melua: Perfect Circle, a couple of Ennio Morricone film themes and a song or two from Diana Krall.

My Adidas running app made the distance only 4.83 km. When I looked at the map in detail it showed me cutting corners, running through front gardens and so on. So basically all the statistics I have been accumulating are now suspect. I believe Footpath because it covers the exact roads and paths and is based on a map, not on a phone GPS.

So I’m going to try another couple of apps to see if they’re any better. But meanwhile it seems that I’m probably a faster runner than I thought I was!😀🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

It is possible with some apps and GPS watches to alter the frequency at which they update your position.......if that were increased in your case, the results would be more accurate. It may just be down to your hardware, though.

[BradC Graduate in reply to IannodaTruffe]

Thanks, I’ll check that out with the four apps I have at the moment.

[AlMorr Ambassador Graduate]

Running through people's gardens, it has been known, some apps even have runners running over 💦 water, 🏃🏾😀

I think you are correct in saying that the footpath app is best, in my area it even shows some of the very muddy paths which I only use when the weather has been very dry

[John_W Graduate Ambassador]

You can test this yourself - my gold standard is Google Maps. So compare your phone app distance with what you measure out manually (after the run) with Google Maps (right click, 'measure distance').

[BradC Graduate in reply to John_W]

Thanks - that’s a good idea!

[John_W Graduate Ambassador in reply to BradC]

You're welcome. Try this simple experiment... run around your nearest 400m athletics track a few times and see what your various phone apps say. Google Maps has a lap coming out at 401m - that's very good IMO. I doubt many (any) phone apps will get that close.