quote:Originally posted by Michael Bowen:
Great as far as brevity is concerned! I think I would mention about the GPS accuracy: "10-to-30 feet AT A SINGLE POINT..."
Naturally, when you get more than one point (Which GPS' take on the average of every one to two seconds, right?) the accuracy issue is further confounded.
But, for the benefit of the 'garmin geeks' (God, I love that...I need to borrow that for a blog post!) the 10-to-30 should work fine.
A tip of the running cap and the beer mug in your general direction, Pete.
(I was in a conversation with a non-running friend the other night, who understood the GPS/shortest possible distance limitations right off the bat. If a non-runner can understand it...?)
Nice, Guido, Michael. Thanks I will use this in a slightly different form. Give me your thoughts on this version:
USATF has considered using GPS for course certification and decided that it is less accurate than the approved (calibrated bicycle) method which is accurate to plus or minus approximately 3 inches of the reading on the counter mounted to the bike. Civilian-grade GPS units are accurate to about 10-30 feet of a single identified point of the reading on the face of the instrument. The “increased length” sometimes noted by GPS device-wearing race participants is due to two factors: (1). the accuracy limitation noted above; and (2) to these participants not running the shortest possible distance, as the course was measured. In addition, interference caused by buildings, trees and clouds increases GPS error while having no effect on the calibrated bicycle measurement. The USATF course certification program has been around about 35 years in its current form. It has been tested hundreds of times by the Road Running Technical Committee of USATF. It has reliably been found to be the best method (other than steel-taping) to state with reasonable certainty that a particular course is at least the advertised distance. The credentials of _______________, your USATF course measurer; 25-years measuring, _______courses certified. Etc…