An amazing thing happened to me on a run a few weeks ago (April 26, 2013 to be exact). I discovered this wonderful new Nike+ feature of the iPhone app. I call it, “GPS Boost.”
The app gave me credit for about 3/4 mile that I actually didn’t run. I noticed it as I started down the top of my hill. Usually, my route is to start from the front door of my house and run up Assabet Hill Drive (to the bottom right corner of the screen). I was about 1/4 mile into the run, just starting on the downward side of Assabet Hill when Siri came on and told me that I had run a mile after 2 minutes 51 seconds.
Now, I do like to think of myself as fast (well, faster than walking or standing still), but there’s no chance in a million years that I could run a mile that fast – even with an angry bear chasing me.
I wonder what the conditions might be to cause the whacky result. Was it low batteries on the satellite? Uncertain reception of the signals on the iPhone? Random interference in the spectrum, like a solar flare?
Anyways, I accepted the result on April 26, but when it happened again, later in May, I recalibrated the route to the 6.22 miles that I typically log when I run that particular route.
