14.57 km or 11.69 km?

[jrunner]

I primarily use runkeeper to track my running activity. I also have Google fit but use very rare.

These days I am running 11km average par run. Today runkeeper showing my longest run as 11.69 km, somehow I clicked on google fit and it was showing 14.57km of run. Though I don't trust much on google fit but I checked history, since I hit 10 km , fir each activity of 10+km (par runkeeper), google fit is showing 13+km. I am now confused which one is correct. Though runkeeper showing map also so more reliable, google fit don't show map so I can't trust.

My confusion is both use same GPS and Google map than why so much of differences.

[AlMorr Half Marathon]

I was talking about the slight differences in time on the same app just yesterday, it could make all the difference between a sub 60 minutes 10K run. The bold figures might say 60.03, whereas the last split time could show 59.50, would you take the lower time as running a sub 60 minutes 10K. 😊 🏃

[jrunner Marathon in reply to AlMorr]

Earlier (when I was running 9km daily, google fit was showing around 7km with map, but I was sure it was wrong as map had missing routes, but now it is not showing any map to hard to say.

[roseabi Ultramarathon]

Try running a measured distance and see what each app comes up with. I'd pick a distance of several km to allow for general GPS wobbles 😊 Do you have a parkrun where you are? That will give you a reasonably accurate 5k, for example.

I don't know the reasons for the discrepancy, but a quick Google of this subject suggests that you are not the only one to have noticed it.

[jrunner Marathon in reply to roseabi]

Yeah.. I will return to my tried and tested old route which I am pretty sure of distance. I changed route 4 week back for longer distance so not sure. I am confident that it's 11+km for sure.

[UnfitNoMore Metric Marathon]

Is google fit like Apple health and picking up activity automatically? Apple health always shows more as it includes all my daily walking... whereas my Nike run club is just the run and shows 3.11 miles consistently on a parkrun with no tree cover.

[jrunner Marathon in reply to UnfitNoMore]

Yes it automatically detects activity, but above is just after I finished my run today, so chances are very less that it include other walk (I woke up, got ready and went for run)

[UnfitNoMore Metric Marathon in reply to jrunner]

Ok... it’s not that then... I had 12 steps before I got out of bed, but a couple of k would be extreme 😂

[Macmac Marathon]

Did you feel like you were running at 5min/km or 6.20min/km? There is quite a difference there!

[Lordi Marathon in reply to Macmac]

I agree. There`s a universe of difference in covering 1km a whole 80 seconds faster. A 6:20 pace is a nice easy run for me but 14.5 km at 5:00 pace would have me in IC (in Intensive Care, not on the Injury Couch ). A 5:00 pace is running at a fair lick (it`s a 25 min parkrun or a 50 min 10K). Maybe you could run round a 400m track to solve the conundrum?

[jrunner Marathon in reply to Lordi]

😊 correct running even 10k at 5 min/km pace is far far away for me. 6:20 is PB for me (I was all exhausted when I reached back home), definately google fit is not correct.

[jrunner Marathon in reply to Macmac]

Yeah.. you are absolutely correct. I don't think I was running that fast.

[John_W Marathon]

If you can remember the route, use Google Maps to manually measure the distance (right click on starting point and Measure Distance) then see what it says and then see which of your 2 numbers are closest. I'd trust what Google Maps says more than your 2 devices tbh.

[jrunner Marathon in reply to John_W]

Yeah. I did that today and Google fit is completely wrong.

[John_W Marathon in reply to jrunner]

And what did you measure it as using Google Maps?

[jrunner Marathon in reply to John_W]

Tried with various GPS points to average out GPS wobble, it's Approximately 11.8 to 12 km.

So I think Runkeeper is fine.

[John_W Marathon in reply to jrunner]

I don't follow you. When you used Google Maps manually to measure (so by clicking on various points of your route) ... what distance did you get?

[jrunner Marathon in reply to John_W]

Sorry I was not clear in my earlier reply.

So I tried measuring manually by clicking various points on Google map, I got 11.78, 11.88 and 12.3 km. I tried 3 times just to ruled out missing or misplaced point also I ran through 3 subway/underpass (whatever it called), so possible gps issue at those places.

[John_W Marathon in reply to jrunner]

Excellent, scientific method! So 3 goes at it and you get an average of about 12. As you say, Runkeeper looks ok.

[Sqkr Half Marathon]

I get big discrepancies from my Garmin too, which is supposed to be designed for exactly this task - trees and hills in particular seem a bad combo for accuracy. If the data seems wrong I manually download the file from Strava and reupload it—even though the GPS file data is untouched Strava magically finds extra distance by recalculating with whatever algorithm it uses. I doubt that's correct either, but there's definitely something very funny with the Garmin rounding calculations. I do try to just trust it, it doesn't matter too much, but on occasions I know it's out because I know what running 21k vs 16k feels like! I tell myself not to get too hung up on the numbers and run for feel, but it's hard not to feel a bit cheated. It's getting especially annoying as I try to move away from road running, my not-so-trusty Garmin has shortchanged me on my two most recent events, both SA officially measured courses. 😡

[jrunner Marathon in reply to Sqkr]

Yeah. I feel disappointment when numbers are not matching specially when I am training myself for first HM. Though now I have fair bit of idea flof distance where I run, so pretty confident of distance I am running these days.

Numbers just add confidant (mentally)

[Hidden]

There was quite a bit about this in the media over the weekend. A Which report has found a lot of inaccuracies in some products in the tests that they did in the run up to the London Marathon. From the Inquirer:-

'Ahead of the big day, Which tested 118 fitness trackers on a calibrated treadmill to measure their accuracy. The Huawei Watch 2 Sport overestimated distance covered by 28 per cent, meaning you'd be some seven miles short of the finish line when the watch said it was time to stop.

Most of the wearables named and shamed by the company had the opposite problem, however. The Garmin Vivosmart 4, for example hit the arbitrary 26.2 mile mark when it had actually been used for 37 miles.

Also on Which's wall of shame: the Samsung Gear S2 (36.2 miles), the Misfit Ray (34.6 miles), the Xiaomi Amazfit Bip (34 miles), the Fitbit Zip (30.9 miles), the Polar A370 (30.9 miles), and the Apple Watch Series 3 (22.8 miles).

To be entirely fair to Misfit, Fitbit, Polar and Garmin, none of the shamed devices have built-in GPS, leaving them to piggyback off smartphones or, worse, guess based on step count. Bluntly, we doubt anybody is doing serious marathon training using the Tamagotchi-like, discontinued, £50 Fitbit Zip. Likewise, Garmin's Vivosmart 4 would be an odd choice - especially given Which gave the company's GPS-packed Vivoactive 3 a 100% accuracy rating.

"Running a marathon is no mean feat, so runners who are putting in the months of training beforehand will want to know their fitness tracker is trustworthy, and not jeopardising their finish times," said Natalie Hitchins, Which's head of home products and services'

[jrunner Marathon in reply to Hidden]

Yeah I read that report yesterday. Somewhere it was written that activity trackers were of the mark by as much as 11 miles.

Though I don't have any wearable activity tracker/watch. I just keep my smartphone in my pocket while running.