Measuring our Courses

Our courses are measured as accurately as we can. Our course crew get out on each course every year measuring the distances by driving, running, and/or riding on their bikes. We measure using two separate GPS devices and by vehicle and/or bike odometers where possible.

WHY DOES MY GPS WATCH SHOW A DIFFERENT DISTANCE?

“The course was too short!” “The course was too long!” We’ve all heard it at every finish line. So why is there a difference between the course distance and your GPS watch? Which is correct, the course or your watch?

Unfortunately, GPS and your running watch are not entirely accurate. Let’s not blame the technology, let’s be honest, it’s pretty epic! Your little piece of technology on your wrist is picking up 20-30 satellites 20,000km up in the sky and telling you how fast you are running and where you are running, uploading that information to an app and showing you on a map! In our experience, our participants’ distances recorded on their watches have usually been less than the distance they have just run/walked/biked. The distances recorded by our participants has been around 5-10% less, meaning over a half marathon, their watches have shown around 19.5km.

Your recorded distance depends on a number of variables – speed you are moving, tree/building cover, geographical features (valleys, sides of hills, elevations), corners, and accuracy of your GPS location. Basically, when you are running, walking, or biking on one of our stunning courses, weaving around those single trails in the beautiful native forests, your device can take a more direct route due to loss of signal under tree cover and/or how often it communicates with the satellites.