Camino Frances - step count

[PengoQuest]

Hey everyone. This thread is for the more quantitatively-minded amongst you!

It was a big day out here on the Camino Frances today where I passed the 1,000,000 'Camino-steps' milestone.

I've just wrapped up Day 29 out of St Jean Pied de Port (now in Sarria) and have mostly been following the standard Camino Frances route with my trusty pedometer clipped to my belt since walking nervously out the front door of my St Jean hotel early in the morning of 7 July.

By my calculations, the millionth step happened somewhere on the outskirts of Sarria as we were coming in just before lunchtime.

The count includes the few hundred or thousand extra steps I take each day as I potter around the wonderful villages and towns that I've stopped in along the way. It also includes the few lazy steps I took on Day 20 when I had a rest day - in beautiful Leon.

And I've loved every one of them, except perhaps for that mis-step in the first week where I slipped into a water crossing .

Excluding the Leon rest day, my average daily step count so far has been just over 35,900 (most - 55,305; least 24,801).

I'd be interested to hear about any other CF step-counts that pilgrims might have recorded.

I'll check back in with my final number in a few days when I arrive at the cathedral in SDC at the end of this truly amazing adventure.

 

[Castilian]

I'm going to apologize in advance because what I'm going to say isn't what you are looking for but I feel I have to say it anyway so, please, bear with me.

IMHO, the most important steps in a camino are the ones you can't measure quantitatively.

 

[PengoQuest]

I'm going to apologize in advance because what I'm going to say isn't what you are looking for but I feel I have to say it anyway so, please, bear with me.

IMHO, the most important steps in a camino are the ones you can't measure quantitatively.

Hi Castilian - no need to apologize, I absolutely agree with you.

I can assure you that documenting my step count has been by far the least profound or important thing I've done or experienced over the past four weeks out here.

But it was interesting to me and I thought it might be interesting for some others. Hence the post.

 

[crackmrmac]

Wow, one million steps! You ARE live on the Camino.
Enjoy the few paces into Santiago.

Buen Camino.

 

[MTtoCamino]

Very interesting post, just good trivia to know too bad your not continuing on to Finnesterre. So we have an average on that as well. Regardless enjoy what days you have left!
Keith

 

[PengoQuest]

Very interesting post, just good trivia to know too bad your not continuing on to Finnesterre. So we have an average on that as well. Regardless enjoy what days you have left!
Keith

Thanks - there's definitely going to be a next time, so watch this space!

 

[alexwalker]

Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted. A. Einstein

However, I may very well try one next month, just for the fun of it.

 

[NinjaRob]

My wife and I walked The France's route to Muxia then Finisterre in May/June this year.
My children gave me a Fit Bit just before we left. I found it very interesting to see the steps, km and total climb each day.
The totals include all walking including exploring the towns and cities in the afternoon and on rest days.
1108.32km
1432005 steps. My wife did 10% more
16434m total climb.

 

[jsalt]

Boys and their toys I don't get it, but am slightly envious, have fun!

 

[Anemone del Camino]

I typically walk between 27 000 and 33 000 steps a day on the Camino, in 8 hour days. I have very short strides. Some people say I walk like a geisha.

 

[Mike Savage]

Hmmm . . . I should be able to see my step count from last year on their web page. I'll check back in a bit.

 

[crackmrmac]

"walk like a geisha".... sounds interesting.

 

[KinkyOne]

Hey everyone. This thread is for the more quantitatively-minded amongst you!

It was a big day out here on the Camino Frances today where I passed the 1,000,000 'Camino-steps' milestone.

I've just wrapped up Day 29 out of St Jean Pied de Port (now in Sarria) and have mostly been following the standard Camino Frances route with my trusty pedometer clipped to my belt since walking nervously out the front door of my St Jean hotel early in the morning of 7 July.

By my calculations, the millionth step happened somewhere on the outskirts of Sarria as we were coming in just before lunchtime.

The count includes the few hundred or thousand extra steps I take each day as I potter around the wonderful villages and towns that I've stopped in along the way. It also includes the few lazy steps I took on Day 20 when I had a rest day - in beautiful Leon.

And I've loved every one of them, except perhaps for that mis-step in the first week where I slipped into a water crossing .

Excluding the Leon rest day, my average daily step count so far has been just over 35,900 (most - 55,305; least 24,801).

I'd be interested to hear about any other CF step-counts that pilgrims might have recorded.

I'll check back in with my final number in a few days when I arrive at the cathedral in SDC at the end of this truly amazing adventure.

Hola, PengoQuest,

I agree it is a trivia but I did my homework in 2011 and equation showed 1.125.000 steps from SJPdP to Cabo Finisterre. That was only my left foot

Ultreia!

 

[Wokabaut_Meri]

SJPdP to Santiago 1,762,382 steps along our 44 day Way and everyone counted!

I injured my foot on Day 1 (not recommended!) so was taking shorter steps plus we love to stop and look at everything as we walk.

These were counted on an unbelievably distance-accurate, ancient but well travelled and calibrated, non-smart pedometer which served the main purpose of answering everybody's question of are we there yet? It proved a really useful tool for gauging how we were travelling as some days walked long and others shorter than expected.

 

[jmcarp]

My wife and I walked The France's route to Muxia then Finisterre in May/June this year.
My children gave me a Fit Bit just before we left. I found it very interesting to see the steps, km and total climb each day.
The totals include all walking including exploring the towns and cities in the afternoon and on rest days.
1108.32km
1432005 steps. My wife did 10% more
16434m total climb.

Users of Fitbits and other pedometer-type devices should be aware that the distances recorded are usually not accurate. This is because they use some type of accelerometer to record the impact of each step. Two factors affect the resulting accuracy: 1) the length of each step, and 2) the calibration of the device for average step length. With regard to #1, since we usually take shorter steps going uphill and longer steps going downhill than when walking on level ground, the calculated distance based on number of steps is almost guaranteed to be inaccurate, even after averaging out the step lengths. With regard to #2, few of the current popular devices offer any kind of realistic calibration; instead, they use average step length, which varies from person to person and type of steps as noted above. The "average" step length for an adult male is approximately 30 inches (76 cm), and the "average" for an adult female is a bit less (as in the 10% difference between you and your wife, for example -- assuming you walked side-by-side the entire way). Taller people tend to take longer steps and shorter people take smaller steps. So the gist of all this is that pedometers are a great way to count steps, but not to determine distances.

As proof of this, I hike weekly with a group of friends. We usually walk around 6 or 8 miles (10 to 13 km) over varying terrain, including some pretty steep inclines on mountain trails. I track our walks with a GPS or a GPS-based smartphone app (iHikeGPS on an iPhone), and some of my friends use Fitbits or similar pedometer-based devices. Our totals usually vary by at least 10 percent. That may not be significant on a short day hike, but it can make a big difference over the course of 500 miles / 800 km.

 

[C clearly]

Our totals usually vary by at least 10 percent.

I like doing this sort of comparison and understanding the errors. I am often puzzled when people complain about the differences between their own measurements (or GPS) and those indicated in a guide book. I would expect at least a 10% variation, for the reasons you mention, as well as others. I don't see that it matters, though for the purpose of planning a walk. My energy levels change much more drastically than 10% every day and that is harder to predict!

 

[bunnymac]

Hey everyone. This thread is for the more quantitatively-minded amongst you!

It was a big day out here on the Camino Frances today where I passed the 1,000,000 'Camino-steps' milestone.

I've just wrapped up Day 29 out of St Jean Pied de Port (now in Sarria) and have mostly been following the standard Camino Frances route with my trusty pedometer clipped to my belt since walking nervously out the front door of my St Jean hotel early in the morning of 7 July.

By my calculations, the millionth step happened somewhere on the outskirts of Sarria as we were coming in just before lunchtime.

The count includes the few hundred or thousand extra steps I take each day as I potter around the wonderful villages and towns that I've stopped in along the way. It also includes the few lazy steps I took on Day 20 when I had a rest day - in beautiful Leon.

And I've loved every one of them, except perhaps for that mis-step in the first week where I slipped into a water crossing .

Excluding the Leon rest day, my average daily step count so far has been just over 35,900 (most - 55,305; least 24,801).

I'd be interested to hear about any other CF step-counts that pilgrims might have recorded.

I'll check back in with my final number in a few days when I arrive at the cathedral in SDC at the end of this truly amazing adventure.

I"m starting on Monday - will keep you updated if possible.

 

[jmcarp]

I like doing this sort of comparison and understanding the errors. I am often puzzled when people complain about the differences between their own measurements (or GPS) and those indicated in a guide book. I would expect at least a 10% variation, for the reasons you mention, as well as others. I don't see that it matters, though for the purpose of planning a walk. My energy levels change much more drastically than 10% every day and that is harder to predict!

I agree that the relatively minor discrepancies in distances along the Camino make little difference in regard to the overall picture when one is walking the distances involved. But just to illustrate an example of what might be a typical variation between sources, the Brierley guidebook notes that the distance from Santo Domingo de la Calzada to Santiago is 574 km. His description of the stage from Santo Domingo starts at the albergue, which is just a short distance east of the Cathedral and the Plaza del Santo, so let's assume that that's the spot he says is 574 km to Santiago. I happen to have taken a photo of the regional government's 566 km marker. One would assume that marker to be 8 km west of the starting point, or somewhere just past Grañon. Being the map geek that I am, and the fact that it is one of my favorite Camino photos, I was having difficulty pin-pointing the photo location based on that assumption.

I have subsequently been able to pin-point the location of my photo with some degree of accuracy as being approximately 4 km east of the Brierley "zero" km (actual 574 km) starting point in Santo Domingo. That represents a net difference of 12 km for the photo location. That may seem significant in the local sense, but it is really insignificant in the overall 800 km of the CF. Perhaps, though, it is enough to give the purists something to "discuss," especially if this example is typical of the entire route.

 

[NinjaRob]

When using a fit bit brand device you can adjust your stride to the nearest centimetre. We adjusted ours for the first few days to get to a point where the distance measured by the fit bit was close to what we expected the distance to be after averaging the guides we had.
Hilly days could see it off but never by an amount that surprised us.
All the information on distances seems to be slightly different anyway so near enough was good enough.
The amount of hills on the France's route was a surprise after reading that it was mostly flat.

 

[La Rubia]

I wound up posting my daily "Fitbit says I did xx,xxx steps today," on Facebook, which was tremendously fun for my friends at home. Just one little part of an amazing experience.

 

[PengoQuest]

Well, as foreshadowed in my lead post, here I am in beautiful, downtown Santiago de Compostela on Day 34 having spent the past few hours sitting in cathedral square reflecting on an extraordinary journey.

I lingered there with my boots and backpack perhaps a little longer than I really needed to, but as they say, there's only a short time between being a pilgrim and being a tourist, and I quite liked being a pilgrim for just that little bit longer.

But down to business.

When first we spoke, I'd just passed 1,000,000 steps on the approach to Sarria.

I can now report my final step count, from St Jean Pied de Port to the cathedral at Santiago (which includes the sensational diversion to Samos and getting lost by about 4 kilometers in the second week) is ....

1,195,649

Let's say, just on 1.2 million steps.

And every step - apart from 100 or so during a light sprinkle in Sarria - taken in dry, sunny weather.

I can't go without thanking everyone out there for the invariably patient and sage advice that fills this forum. It helped me a lot - great stuff

I'll be back!

 

[jmcarp]

Well, as foreshadowed in my lead post, here I am in beautiful, downtown Santiago de Compostela on Day 34 having spent the past few hours sitting in cathedral square reflecting on an extraordinary journey...
...
...I can't go without thanking everyone out there for the invariably patient and sage advice that fills this forum. It helped me a lot - great stuff

I'll be back!

Congratulations on the completion of your journey. Your Camino is not over--it continues from here. Ultreia!