We’ve all been there. Our latest race completed… and your watch or Strava is saying you’ve still got 400 metres to go.

But do you really believe it?

I’ve been hearing more and more complaints from people that official race courses are coming up short - and they’re using their watches as evidence.

But for me at least, while my Garmin is a fantastic tool, I wouldn’t trust it to be accurate at all. I’ve heard stories of runners wearing three watches at once and them all coming up with different distances on the same course.

And race directors use something called a Jones Counter, a device which is a type of bicycle odometer and has been used to measure the accuracy of every major road race (trails are a very different beast by the way!) for more than 40 years.

Plus, it’s not the race organisers who use this instrument to measure their courses. It done by an expert from the Association of UK Course Measurers.

Yet so many people are still beholden to the cult of the watch. Personally, I don’t get it!

Am I wrong… it wouldn’t be the first time? 😂

Love to know what you all think.