Beat the Clock - Sparks

How accurate is your Garmin as mine isn't nor is yours I believe, yet we all swear by them... My 105.4 laps of the track yesterday at the Barry 40 proved just how confused it got as on at least three occasions where later it gave me a plotted route on the uploaded Garmin site showing where I had three major excursions out of the stadium into the local housing estate in massive triangular shaped spikes, when all I had done was run around the track.

It also didn't get the distance right either as I am sure that the precisely measured 400 metre track wasn't short, and there would be a lot more world records set there in shorter running distances if it was. Don't get me wrong my Garmin wasn't a lot short, but I would have expected it to be .1 of a mile over if anything.

The thing is and I have already done this once here myself is that we give these devices human characteristics by saying that it got 'confused', and will it ever 'tell me the truth'. Or, is it just a guide as all of these devices are + or - 3% accurate and until a more accurate device is found... Maybe I'll have to stick to my OS Map and piece of string as we did on the old days...

Maybe Jenny's new Suunto will be more accurate and I'll give that a try, although I am NOT going to do another 105.4 laps of Barry's Jenner Park Stadium to find out!!!

More tomorrow...