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There's a nervous excitement. Visible is the cold breath coming from my competitors as they execute the "pre-race" jiggle on the beginning point.

A quick twitch of the hips.

I'm participating in my local Saturday morning race and I'm focused. The countdown begins...

Oh, hang on. I need to start my tracker. So does the runner next to me.

The person waiting sighs. I won't start until… done! GPS ready, and I'm running.

During the scramble, it's difficult to find a arm without a smartwatch on it. And this isn't only us participants who use them.

This is a thriving, multi-billion dollar industry. Brands like Garmin are prevalent, all offering an extensive range of different models to suit a spectrum of lifestyles. Based on how high tech the watch you choose, costs can range from a hundred pounds to thousands of pounds.

"It drives me insane, it's impossible to stop checking."

"It reassures me… It acts as a supporter supporting me."

"I wish it wouldn't say I've experienced a bad night's sleep."

A handful of the comments people have shared from other tracker enthusiasts when I ask what they their opinion is on theirs.

The Monitoring Conundrum

My current opinion on my own device? Right now, frustrating. It's reporting my speed is wrong, leading me to doubt whether the foliage I'm running below are disrupting my satellite signal.

Countless individuals of us strap these little gadgets onto our wrists and keep them on constantly, ostensibly at ease with the fact they're continuously recording us.

Gone are the days when we used them only to give us an idea of our daily steps. Currently, they can measure our sleep quality, heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), our body battery.

It's a challenge to find a bodily function they aren't designed to measure.

But are they able to do what they say they do? And are the statistics we obsess over a true reflection of the truth? Do they boost our overall health, or do the multitude of measurements and motivational messages just add to our everyday anxiety?

A Complicated Bond

"I become a a little obsessed with mine," an individual confesses.

While she values how her device records her workouts, she finds some of its other functions "excessive" at times - a feeling first discovered during a significant period.

Prior to discovering she could change its configuration, her smartwatch repeatedly informed her she was not being energetic enough. In a new phase, the watch frequently reports her she's had a poor sleep score.

"I've got a six-month old, there's no point to be informed I've not slept," she says. "I'm acutely aware all too clearly."

Is it not possible to just take it off?

"It's possible, theoretically, but I've got this love-hate relationship with it," she continues. "I love it for its workout tracking, I just wonder whether the myriad other functions it can now do is perhaps too much for me."

Inside the Device

Each model of smartwatch has its own novel way of monitoring your bodily functions and interpreting your data, but the most use detectors on the reverse of the watch.

They typically emit minute LED lights onto your wrist which can monitor pulsation, detecting your BPM. More advanced devices analyse changes in the skin conductance that runs through the skin to get an idea of your recovery state.

Expert Perspectives

One expert says that for most people for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the ever-evolving tech could potentially aid early diagnosis, "spotting abnormalities before we show symptoms", it could also turn us the tracked into the "anxious healthy".

He points out that the most advanced wearables can carry out tests like heart rhythm analysis, which continuously monitor how stable the heart is. They can flag if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is abnormal impulses in the heart causing an uneven pulse.

This does not necessarily indicate someone is on the verge of a cardiac event, but it can give an preliminary indication they might be more vulnerable of a blood clot in the years to come.

But how to make sense of these readings is complex. The expert fears that as additional features are introduced, people may struggle to fully comprehend their data.

"I have some doubts that having the capacity to monitor so many things is such a good idea," he says.

A health researcher specialising in patient behaviour agrees. Research into the influence of wearable tech on a cohort of individuals with health issues suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their cardiac function experienced heightened worry and were "more inclined to use medical services".

She identified a vicious circle with her patients - they saw a worrying figure on their watch. They became worried. Their heart rate rose. They got more worried. They re-examined the data, and their reading went up again.

"When people are presented with numbers about ourselves that we lack context for then, understandably, we are going to become concerned," the psychologist says. "We look, we re-check - it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."