Chip time Vs GPS time?
Just had a six week run focus to try and finally crack a sub 1’30 half marathon.
GPS has me at 1’29’42. Chip time was 1’31’13 at 21.44km. Speaking to others at the finish and Strava run grouping everyone else found it over by similar amounts.
Am I allowed to claim I’ve made the sub 90 club, and can go back to some cycling and swimming, or do I need to persevere and enter another event to get a 1’29 something chip time?
Chip time Vs GPS time?
Just had a six week run focus to try and finally crack a sub 1’30 half marathon.
GPS has me at 1’29’42. Chip time was 1’31’13 at 21.44km. Speaking to others at the finish and Strava run grouping everyone else found it over by similar amounts.
Am I allowed to claim I’ve made the sub 90 club, and can go back to some cycling and swimming, or do I need to persevere and enter another event to get a 1’29 something chip time?
Yeah GPS wins. I’ve done so many races where the distances have been way off. First sub 20/5km the course was 5.2+ and I was 20.02, but I claimed the sub 20 based on my watch and everyone else’s watches. So well done!
My running heyday was well before gps, so for me, I would not count it. For me the time is start line to finish line (ie chip). I find my gps devices are not accurate enough to claim a PB, and to use one to “override†the clock wouldn’t give me the satisfaction of a PB.
That said, back then if I hit a short course I would not have known it, so it isn’t really all that “better†to rely on chip only.
All in all I was a track guy, so I ignored most road times anyway.
Well, you’re already claiming it, so why stop?
“All Runners are Liars” - Bart Yasso
Personally, would only claim what’s posted online, because that’s what people would look up, and they’re not gonna know or care what your GPS said
In response to the second part: your DO owe it to yourself to go for a 1:29 or 1:28, the next chance you get, to put those doubts to rest
I’m not claiming it (only Strava is), hence why I was seeking opinions.
I’m leaning towards another event to get the chip time tbh.
However what if that comes up short on the GPS!
The race I’ve just done is measured by GPS, just to add to inaccuracies…
Chip time Vs GPS time?
Just had a six week run focus to try and finally crack a sub 1’30 half marathon.
GPS has me at 1’29’42. Chip time was 1’31’13 at 21.44km. Speaking to others at the finish and Strava run grouping everyone else found it over by similar amounts.
Am I allowed to claim I’ve made the sub 90 club, and can go back to some cycling and swimming, or do I need to persevere and enter another event to get a 1’29 something chip time?
Claim what you want to claim for yourself.
Because, honestly, it doesn’t matter to other people.
If you’ve legitimately run a sub 1:30, you have.
Congrats.
My running heyday was well before gps, so for me, I would not count it. For me the time is start line to finish line (ie chip). I find my gps devices are not accurate enough to claim a PB, and to use one to “override†the clock wouldn’t give me the satisfaction of a PB.
That said, back then if I hit a short course I would not have known it, so it isn’t really all that “better†to rely on chip only.
All in all I was a track guy, so I ignored most road times anyway.
In a way it is like results in a football or basketball game.
What is the official score on the board. Sure the ref may have made a bad call and a touchdown got called back that should count but it didn’t in imperfect real life. We can second guess the ref all we want but the score is the score.
Similarly we can second guess the organizers all we want, but the number beside our name in the official results is where we can claim the PB. That is competitive sport. We can’t claim our own self generated score, an external party has to validate it as imperfect as this may be.
Like The Gaurdian, I started in track and runnning before GPS and also before chip timing…even our own stop watch did not count (ex starting you watch when you crossed the line in a big marathon…that was fraught with people pressing their start point late…chip time solved that, but that is external validation).
.
The thing with races is that the distances (assuming they measure correctly) are the shortest possible route. I ALWAYS try to run the tangents but still have never come in at the exact distance. And that doesn’t even take into account that GPS isn’t always perfectly accurate either. So for races I always adjust the distance to the race distance and not what my watch says.
At the end of the day, I would say that no one else probably gives a rip if you claim that or not.
All the pro records off the track are subject to this same range of error. I pick the better one and use that, and I highly recommend doing it that way because it’s fun, rewarding, and accurate enough to be fully acceptable. I think one of the main reasons to have a time goal is to guide what you do on the journey to it, and meeting one opens up new things to work towards. You’ve got data to show it. So I say it, love it, and go on for the next thing because that’s an awesome time!
Leave the GPS watch at home.
I wonder if the divide of opinion is based on age. Coming back on the train were a couple prob mid 20s who had also raced, and overhearing them they attached more prominence to the Strava logged time, referring to the chip time as “moving time”. Yikes.
Think I’m going to semi claim it for what it is which is a Strava/GPS pb, which is what I would do had it been a solo out of race effort.
However the lack of chip time is still nagging me so will try and put the demon to rest at another race.
Ironically I’ve never felt comfortable claiming PBs on courses that have measured short, but guess that’s why people seek out certain races!
Pro records go off the race organisers time, not what they get on their watches.
Your official race time is the time. You didn’t run a sub 1:30 half marathon. I’m surprised this is even a discussion.
I wonder if the divide of opinion is based on age. Coming back on the train were a couple prob mid 20s who had also raced, and overhearing them they attached more prominence to the Strava logged time, referring to the chip time as “moving time”. Yikes.
STRAVA Wankers
Probably stop their watches at stoplights on training runs
Your official race time is the time. You didn’t run a sub 1:30 half marathon. I’m surprised this is even a discussion.
Noted. Think I’ll have to do some research and find an event around the 20.5k mark. May as well lie both ways, so one lie cancels out the other.
Your official race time is the time. You didn’t run a sub 1:30 half marathon. I’m surprised this is even a discussion.
Noted. Think I’ll have to do some research and find an event around the 20.5k mark. May as well lie both ways, so one lie cancels out the other.
In some ways that’s what people do to get a fast formal time. they search out known fast/short courses to get PB’s on the scoreboard. But at least everyone in the know can understand where the fast time happened. if you run a fast time at NYC marathon vs Rotterdam or Berlin people are more impressed, but these are all legit courses. if someone comes with an iron distance PB at Roth, everyone knows on my most years bike course is a bit short and run is often a touch short. But at least it is a published time at a formal event, not a self generated time (from our own stop watch or GPS). It tends to be hard to convince anyone that a self generated time is truly legit. That falls into the category of self tiimed events, not formal events.
My half ironman PB was done on a bike course that was only 86.8 km. i normally tell people about that if they don’t know about the race actual. Eventually race organizer added 4 km to the race course so current times are legit
Your official race time is the time. You didn’t run a sub 1:30 half marathon. I’m surprised this is even a discussion.
Noted. Think I’ll have to do some research and find an event around the 20.5k mark. May as well lie both ways, so one lie cancels out the other.
No certified half marathon course or full marathon course will come up as less than the correct distance. The courses are measured on the tangents, so they will always come up as long on your GPS unless you run a perfect line for the whole course. I’ve never heard a real runner adjust their time based on their GPS measurement.
Chip time is the only thing that goes on my spreadsheet that I keep. But I do add notes to each race result.