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A sense of nervous excitement. Apparent is the cold breath exhaled by my competitors as they perform the "starting line" wiggle on the starting line.

A quick movement of the hips.

I'm participating in my local weekly parkrun event and I'm focused. It's almost time...

Wait a second. I must sort my tracker. So does the runner beside me.

The person waiting sighs. I'm not moving until… there! Connection established, I'm off.

During the scramble, it's difficult to find a person without a wearable on it. And this extends beyond us runners who use them.

It's a thriving, multi-billion dollar sector. Brands like Samsung Galaxy are prevalent, each with an wide range of different devices to suit a spectrum of budgets. Depending on how high tech the watch you go for, price tags can range from an affordable sum to thousands of pounds.

"I find it infuriating, it's impossible to stop checking."

"It comforts me… It acts as a friend encouraging me."

"Please don't notify me I've had a poor sleep."

A handful of the responses I've had from other device users when I question what they their opinion is on theirs.

A Sea of Statistics

My feelings on my own device? At this moment, irritating. It's telling me I'm not hitting my target, causing me to question whether the overhead branches I'm passing under are blocking my GPS connection.

Millions of us strap these compact devices onto our arms and wear them constantly, ostensibly comfortable with the fact they're perpetually monitoring us.

A distant memory are the days when we used them solely to give us an idea of our pedometer reading. Now, they can analyse our sleep patterns, stress levels, heart rate variability (HRV), our VO2 max.

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

But can they do what they advertise? And are the statistics we analyse a faithful picture of reality? Do they enhance our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the multitude of measurements and cheerleading alerts just add to our sense of overwhelm?

A Complicated Bond

"I become a quite fixated with mine," a wearer reveals.

While she appreciates how her device monitors her workouts, she finds some of its other capabilities "overwhelming" at times - a feeling initially realised during a major life event.

Until she found out she could put it into a specific mode, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was being insufficiently energetic enough. In a new phase, the watch insists her she's had a bad night's sleep.

"I have a infant, I don't need to be notified my sleep was poor," she says. "That fact is perfectly well."

Is it not possible to just stop wearing it?

"I suppose I could, theoretically, but I have this complicated dynamic with it," she continues. "I appreciate it for its workout tracking, I sometimes question whether all the other things it can now do is perhaps too much for me."

The Technology Behind the Tracking

Different brands of smartwatch has its own proprietary way of tracking your vitals and interpreting your data, but the vast bulk use optical sensors on the back of the watch.

They commonly emit tiny, coloured LED lights onto your wrist which can detect capillary action, identifying your BPM. More advanced devices detect changes in the bioimpedance that passes over the skin to assess your stress levels.

Expert Perspectives

One expert says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the ever-evolving tech could realistically save lives, "identifying issues before we show symptoms", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "concerned but fine".

He points out that newer wearables can conduct tests like medical-grade monitoring, which regularly monitor how stable the heart is. They can notify if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is abnormal impulses in the heart causing an uneven pulse.

This does not mean someone is about to have a cardiac event, but it can give an preliminary indication they might be more at risk of a stroke in the years to come.

But how to interpret these readings is complicated. The expert fears that as more functions are added, people may struggle to fully comprehend their data.

"I remain sceptical that the ability to monitor so many metrics is such a positive development," he says.

A clinical psychologist focusing on cardiology agrees. Research into the impact of wearable tech on a set of heart condition patients suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their heart health experienced increased anxiety and were "more inclined to use healthcare resources".

She observed a pattern with her patients - they noticed a alarming metric on their watch. They grew concerned. Their heart rate went up. They got more worried. They looked a second time, and their anxiety went up again.

"When people are presented with data about ourselves that we lack context for then, naturally, we are going to want to know more," the psychologist says. "We look, we check again - it becomes a vicious cycle."