This discussion has been locked.

You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

GPS accuracy for city running

Former Member over 14 years ago

This is my first forum post so please excuse my ignorance.

I recently purchased a Forerunner 310xt & I used it today in the Sydney Half Marathon. When I up loaded my data to Garmin Connect the map is not accurate. It shows me running alongside the roads that I actually ran on (.i.e running through buildings). I suspect this is due to the highrise buildings in the city but would appreciate if someone could confirm.

2 follow-up questions:
Does this mean other data such as my pace and distance might also be inaccurate?
Would a garmin footpod eliminate this problem?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I'm pretty new to this.

I've attached a screenshot of the Garmin Connect map of my run.

0 DW152 over 14 years ago

You should probably be getting better agreement than you got, but you are correct that tall building will interfere with the GPS signal so that might have been what caused the problems in your case. Did the tracks look good at other parts of the marathon, when you were away from the tall buildings?

As far as it messing up your pace -- yes, your pace will be affected if the tracks are inaccurate and the overall distance is not recorded properly. So the question is -- what was the overall distance you recorded? How far was it from 26.2 miles?

The 310 will switch to a footpod when the accuracy becomes very poor. It's hard to say just by looking at the picture you provided, but I don't think the accuracy had degraded that much to invoke using the footpod. However, the footpod is useful for instantaneous pace in all conditions, regardless of GPS quality.