diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go b/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go
index 975c984c36c..8b2bdf2cae0 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go
@@ -1522,7 +1522,7 @@ func (kl *Kubelet) syncPod(ctx context.Context, updateType kubetypes.SyncPodType
 	defer klog.V(4).InfoS("syncPod exit", "pod", klog.KObj(pod), "podUID", pod.UID)
 
 	// Latency measurements for the main workflow are relative to the
-	// first time the pod was seen by the API server.
+	// first time the pod was seen by kubelet.
 	var firstSeenTime time.Time
 	if firstSeenTimeStr, ok := pod.Annotations[kubetypes.ConfigFirstSeenAnnotationKey]; ok {
 		firstSeenTime = kubetypes.ConvertToTimestamp(firstSeenTimeStr).Get()
@@ -1581,7 +1581,8 @@ func (kl *Kubelet) syncPod(ctx context.Context, updateType kubetypes.SyncPodType
 		}
 	}
 
-	// Record the time it takes for the pod to become running.
+	// Record the time it takes for the pod to become running
+	// since kubelet first saw the pod if firstSeenTime is set.
 	existingStatus, ok := kl.statusManager.GetPodStatus(pod.UID)
 	if !ok || existingStatus.Phase == v1.PodPending && apiPodStatus.Phase == v1.PodRunning &&
 		!firstSeenTime.IsZero() {
diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/metrics/metrics.go b/pkg/kubelet/metrics/metrics.go
index 162e0285716..302db0de4da 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/metrics/metrics.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/metrics/metrics.go
@@ -136,12 +136,13 @@ var (
 		},
 		[]string{"operation_type"},
 	)
-	// PodStartDuration is a Histogram that tracks the duration (in seconds) it takes for a single pod to go from pending to running.
+	// PodStartDuration is a Histogram that tracks the duration (in seconds) it takes for a single pod to run since it's
+	// first time seen by kubelet.
 	PodStartDuration = metrics.NewHistogram(
 		&metrics.HistogramOpts{
 			Subsystem:      KubeletSubsystem,
 			Name:           PodStartDurationKey,
-			Help:           "Duration in seconds for a single pod to go from pending to running.",
+			Help:           "Duration in seconds from kubelet seeing a pod for the first time to the pod starting to run",
 			Buckets:        metrics.DefBuckets,
 			StabilityLevel: metrics.ALPHA,
 		},
@@ -158,12 +159,12 @@ var (
 		},
 		[]string{"operation_type"},
 	)
-	// PodWorkerStartDuration is a Histogram that tracks the duration (in seconds) it takes from seeing a pod to starting a worker.
+	// PodWorkerStartDuration is a Histogram that tracks the duration (in seconds) it takes from kubelet seeing a pod to starting a worker.
 	PodWorkerStartDuration = metrics.NewHistogram(
 		&metrics.HistogramOpts{
 			Subsystem:      KubeletSubsystem,
 			Name:           PodWorkerStartDurationKey,
-			Help:           "Duration in seconds from seeing a pod to starting a worker.",
+			Help:           "Duration in seconds from kubelet seeing a pod to starting a worker.",
 			Buckets:        metrics.DefBuckets,
 			StabilityLevel: metrics.ALPHA,
 		},