Gmaps Pedometer and Measuring Distance

Quick note: Today I signed the paper to stay here a fourth year.
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Last week my friend Vaughn sent me a link to Gmaps Pedometer, which is an awesome way to measure runs or rides on roads. I'm not sure how accurate the service is, but I bet it's closer than my guessing.

There are two roads on the island that I can run. Prior to now I have estimated those route distances at 13k (6.5k out-and-back to the far end of the island) and 8k for the western loop. Gmaps tells me the long route is actually 12.23k and the loop is 7.85k. There's also a new route I added this year, as seen in the map below:


The 3k out-and-back (6k) piece has relatively little comparative elevation gain/loss to the very hilly 8k and 13k routes. This makes it an important training run since the Tokyo Marathon is mostly flat.

I've been running the 6k piece for months, only guessing at the distance based on my end time. But recently I had to do a fast pace run on it and I came in at 25 minutes, which seemed too fast for the pace (6k is 4 miles, if you need to do the math). This cast a lot of doubt on my distance estimation abilities. But then Gmaps came along and told me my route was 5.73k. That's not 6k, but it's not as bad as I suspected my error was.

Five more days to Tokyo. I'll be making running-related posts all week so either stay tuned or stay away...