Quote Originally Posted by DrPatrickBarry View Post
Is it any more wrong than following somebody you know will have good route knowledge?

In fact it is probably less wrong, because unless you go out and reccied the route, your gpx plot will not contain an optimal route. While following a knowledgeable runner will lead you on an optimal route.
Is someone with good route knowledge 100% going to be able to find that optimal line even when the visibility is down to a few meters as it was on Saturday? Probably not. Is the GPS watch going to be able to? As long as it has satellites, yes.

Finding .gpx files of optimal routes is easy enough. e.g. It's not hard to trawl Strava looking for the winning route from previous years or other people's recces, which I know people do!