You are here: Home » Garmin Gps » I ran with a garmin 305 forerunner, would a hill make a difference in the distance?

I ran with a garmin 305 forerunner, would a hill make a difference in the distance?

garmin
uziell asked:

I ran a repeat in 6:20, it was either a 5:17 pace or a 4:52 pace, a big difference, according to yahoo and google maps it was 1.3 miles, but according to the garmin, which is unaccurate in elevation, it was 1.2. Any help would be useful?

Related posts:

  1. What is the difference in the garmin forerunner 405 and the new 405cx gps watch? Matt H asked: I’m looking into purchasing a gps...
  2. what is the difference between the Tom Tom and Garmin GPS systems? googirl77 asked: I am thinking about getting one. I...
  3. What is the difference between Garmin Nuvi 1390T and Nuvi 755t? Just Curious asked: Based on Garmin.com it looks like...
  4. How can I do an interval workout with my Garmin Forerunner 405? Caliente Andre asked: I just bought a Garmin Forerunner...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

J M May 3, 2009 at 5:32 am

Supposedly the Garmin doesn’t take elevation change into account with its distance calculations. However, most significant elevation changes (aka hills) would only tend to add a few feet in distance per mile compared to flat ground, and that usually remains within the several feet margin of error the unit has anyway.

I would trust the Garmin over something like Google maps, but I would trust the Garmin more if you downloaded the data into the SportTracks software and used the elevation correction plugin with it.

Also be aware that the measured distance is going to vary slightly depending on the degree of data smoothing you have set on the Garmin or in the software you download into. Indeed, that may account entirely for the varied distance you’re getting regardless of elevation. (And unless you’re zig-zagging around a lot, you probably need some degree of smoothing even though it’s likely to result in a slightly shorter distance measurement, and thus a slower time.)

David A May 5, 2009 at 11:58 pm

I just read somewhere the other day (runners world?) that a 3 mile run that climbs 500 feet will only be off by 8 ft. the way that a garmin measures the distance according to the Pythagorean theorem. That being said, I would tend to trust the garmin over google or yahoo.

Leave a Comment

Spam Protection by WP-SpamFree

Previous post:

Next post: