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A sense of nervous excitement. Apparent is the chilled vapour emanating from my competitors as they perform the "pre-race" wiggle on the beginning point.

A rapid movement of the hips.

I'm at my local Saturday morning race and I'm serious. It's almost time...

Oh, hang on. I have to sort my device. So does the runner beside me.

The person waiting tuts. I won't start until… yes! Connection established, I'm off.

In the mele, it's challenging to find a arm without a wearable on it. And it's not just us participants who wear them.

This is a explosive, multi-billion pound market. Companies like Samsung Galaxy lead the market, all offering an extensive range of different versions to cater to a variety of lifestyles. Depending on how feature-packed the device you choose, price tags can vary between a hundred pounds to a significant investment.

"I find it infuriating, it's impossible to relax."

"It comforts me… It feels like a companion guiding me."

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

A handful of the responses I've had from fellow tracker enthusiasts when I ask what they their opinion is on theirs.

The Data Dilemma

My thoughts on mine? Currently, annoying. It's indicating my speed is wrong, leading me to doubt whether the foliage I'm running below are blocking my satellite signal.

Countless individuals of us attach these little monitors onto our wrists and wear them 24/7, apparently comfortable with the fact they're perpetually tracking us.

Long past are the days when we used them only to give us an estimation of our daily steps. Now, they can track our sleep quality, blood pressure, heart rate variability (HRV), our body battery.

It's a challenge to find a physical metric they don't track.

But are they able to do what they claim to do? And are the data points we analyse a accurate representation of the truth? Do they enhance our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the plethora of readings and motivational messages just contribute to our sense of overwhelm?

A Love-Hate Relationship

"I become a bit obsessed with mine," one user reveals.

While she appreciates how her device tracks her runs, she finds some of its other functions "daunting" at times - a feeling that became apparent during a pregnancy.

Before she realised she could put it into a specific mode, her smartwatch kept telling her she was being insufficiently productive enough. Now, the watch keeps telling her she's had a poor sleep score.

"I have a young baby, there's no point to be notified my sleep was poor," she says. "That fact is all too clearly."

Is it not possible to just take it off?

"I suppose I could, I suppose, but I'm in this complicated dynamic with it," she explains. "I value it for its fitness insights, I sometimes question whether the additional features it can now do is maybe excessive for me."

The Technology Behind the Tracking

Every device of smartwatch has its own proprietary way of tracking your bodily functions and analysing your data, but the most use sensors on the reverse of the watch.

They usually project small, green LED lights onto your arm which can monitor blood flow, detecting your heartbeat. More advanced devices analyse changes in the electrical current that runs through the skin to gauge your stress levels.

Expert Perspectives

One expert says that overall for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the rapidly advancing tech could realistically prevent illness, "spotting abnormalities before we feel unwell", it could also turn us the tracked into the "concerned but fine".

He points out that some of the latest wearables can perform tests like medical-grade monitoring, which constantly monitor how healthy the heart is. They can notify if someone is experiencing a heart arrhythmia, where there is erratic impulses in the heart causing an uneven pulse.

This does not necessarily indicate someone is on the verge of a heart attack, but it can give an advance notice they might be more susceptible of a blood clot in the years to come.

But how to understand these numbers is not straightforward. The expert worries that as additional features are incorporated, people may find it hard to fully understand their data.

"I'm not entirely convinced that being able to monitor so many things is such a good idea," he says.

A professor studying cardiology agrees. Research into the effect of wearable tech on a cohort of heart condition patients suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their cardiac function experienced increased anxiety and were "far more likely to use doctor's time".

She observed a vicious circle with her patients - they noticed a worrying figure on their watch. They became worried. Their heart rate went up. They got increasingly anxious. They re-examined the data, and their reading increased again.

"When people are presented with numbers about ourselves that we can't properly interpret then, of course, we are going to want to know more," the psychologist says. "We check, we obsess - it becomes a feedback loop."