I created a route in the Garmin course creator which is 6.6 km long. Today I ran this route and it finished at 6.0 km (almost 10 % error), although the map (on Garmin Connect after the run) looks like the route I ran.
I am using the Fenix 5 and tried several different settings (i.e. not intelligent but every second tracking, 3d distance, GPS + Gloonas) and also tried changing the position of the watch by turning it to the inner side of my wrist, so that the other end looks up. But there were no significant improvements.
Is there a difference in route length and actual length (I also created the course with Strava and it was slightly above 7 km)? Or are my settings not correct or could they be better.
I recently ran in another city (currently I live in Munich and usually run along the Isar) and the distance there was fine (or almost no error). Also the activities where I row on regatta course in Munich there isn't any noticeable error. Do maybe trees and such reduce the GPS accuracy by so a big margin?
I really want to start running again and want to have a somewhat proper distance so I can compare myself when running in different locations.
Any advice is appreciated.