To race with a watch, or not to race with a watch...Is it better to know, or not to know?

I'm a minute slower than you over 5k, but in my view a watch would not have made a PB any safer a bet as it may well have caused you to back off slightly if you had seen a higher than expected pace during an earlier part of the race. I would say you probably got close to your PB because of your good pace / effort judgement that day.

I ditched the watch a few years ago for races as an experiment and believe I race faster without it. Would probably still wear it if I did another marathon though to stop me doing anything stupid!

What a great question. I have wondered about this, too. I am not sure how to answer. For a marathon, a watch is an excellent tool, as one has to be careful about keeping an even effort. For shorter distances, it seems a case could be made for either side of the issue. I have been wanting to do a watchless 5k or 10k, but have yet to actually do it. Hmm...

I, too, welcome comments on this.

Typically track 5k times are faster that road race or XC times. So your effort based race was only 2 seconds off your PR, not bad. A watch ain't gonna help being out kicked by a dad hobbie jogger though....:).

I think it's personal preference. For me, I find looking at my watch during a race distracting. I will look at split clocks if I happen to notice them and only out of curiosity to see if I am on pace to run a good time or set a new PR. In fact, in a 5K the 2 mile split is where I determine if I am on pace to set a new PR. If my 2 mile split is good I will push harder the last mile to try and break it. If the split isn't great I just race the field to the finish and try not to let any stroller pushers out kick me.....)

The shorter the race the less necessary it is.

On a track it is almost completely unnecessary.

I stand by my original comments re no watch (for me at least), but a point that hasn't been mentioned yet is the knowledge that running with a (gps) watch might give you for future races, i.e. the watch might not help you to a PB this race, but reviewing mile splits, etc. afterwards may help tweak your race strategy for next time which could result in a PB. Quite few of the top guys at my local road races who are much quicker than me wear watches so I'm assuming there is some benefit to be had.

Yeah, I think a case can be made for either way. Personally, I like to just know my mile marker times, which I won't know unless it is a nice race which has clocks at each mile or chip timing at each mile. I don't necessarily adjust my pace based on the time I see, unless it is way faster than I'm expecting or way slower. I'm a fan of a mixture of both - on one hand, I think it's good to go by feel and to become experienced at knowing the correct pace at which to race; on the other hand, I think it's good to have times not like a GPS where you can know every single quarter mile or something, but just every mile, especially for races longer than 5k. I think you can learn more concrete things both about your capabilities and your racing strategies if you have splits to work with. And that goes both ways - for if you started way too slow or if you started way too fast. And even pretty much everything in between.

Good comments. I wear a GPS during races, but I look at the mile splits only. Signaled by the beep for the mile split, I glance at the split. This has been a good method for me. I cannot imagine looking down at the watch repeatedly. This would be a waste of time and effort.

Just run, baby.

I used to wear a watch but only check it occasionally

That way when you know when you are approaching the finish you can push if close to a pb

Mind you I once did a 5 mile race and thought must be about half way - looked down 5 mins. Didn't set a pb that day!

When I first got a GPS watch, I did not like racing with it because it always got out of sync with the mile markers and I would spend too much time trying to make adjustments to stay on pace. I ran a marathon with a sore calf and minimal expectations for time with my non-GPS watch and used the mile markers for pace. The first mile came up at 5:35. I have a 2:47 PR. The next mile seemed to be ok. The third mile was missing. After that, there were about four or five more missing mile markers and none of the other miles seemed at all reliable. Miles 14-20 were into a 15 mph headwind that day and were pretty draining. Turns out I came about 40 seconds slower than my PR. I had pretty much no clue what my splits were or my pace. I just focused on catching runners and was fortunate to have someone to run with the last 2 miles. I have been too chicken to try to race without a watch since then. However, I am pretty out of shape this fall and might give it a try as I have no chance at decent times.

I wrote about this in another thread. My road PR as a master came on a day when my Garmin crapped out five minutes before the race and, after cursing my luck, I ran with nothing on my wrist. I won the race! Ran like a bat out of hell.

So the answer is: it is quite possible that knowing our pace & time may actually lead us to hold ourselves back--to say "I need to moderate my effort"--rather than paying deep attention to the race itself and how our bodies are actually feeling.

I'd urge every runner who reads this thread to try ditching the watch/GPS for at least one short race and seeing what happens. You've got nothing to lose.

To your point about the 2 mile split, I feel the same way with about 800-600 meters to go. Like sometimes it's until then that I really start to think about how well the race can and will end up

Juice Springsteen wrote:

To your point about the 2 mile split, I feel the same way with about 800-600 meters to go. Like sometimes it's until then that I really start to think about how well the race can and will end up

Given this, at the track the watch would come in handy to see your spilts at the last 800 to 600 so you know how fast you have go to break your PR. But not so much at a non track event unless you know the race course well or are using a Garmin. So, a watch would be useful in track events and longer road races for pacing, if you are looking to set a PR. Essentially, a watch is good for running a time trial effort in a race but won't be much help for a top three finish. For that it's all guts for glory and a watch is a potential distraction to hanging on to the leaders and pushing for the win. Although experienced competitors can multi task and do both.

Seems to me that as most track races have a timer calling the cumulative time as you pass the finish line, or a clock displaying the time (which is nearly impossible to ignore), you should wear the watch all the time.

Whether you look at it or not, you should always run to feel anyway surely, unless you are in a tactical battle or looking for a "do or die" approach to achieving a PB?

Great question! I wondered this myself and decided to race my last 5k with a tiny strip of black electrical tape covering the pace & time displays on my Garmin. I left the distance display uncovered. Like yourself, I raced entirely on feel and focused on positioning throughout the run; settling in, holding on and passing guys in the final mile.

The result was a 20 second PR. I was totally blown away. It's now my belief that a GPS "pace" feature is a useful training tool but a limiting factor when honestly testing yourself or trying to PR.

Might want to make sure the race is certified. If GPS watch is way under-then likely that was a short race- better to run with the watch but don't look until it's over. Also I once ran a race where they started the clock 15 sec late- likely lots of people without a watch that day are still chasing the "PR" they set at that race

I ditched the watch years ago and I have run distances anywhere from 1600 to 100 mile races without one. The watch stressed me out too much. I just run by feel and tend to run faster that way because I always feel like I am running slower than I actually am. I don't back off the pace now if it feels good. I never wear a watch on the day to day runs either. I just try to push the effort uncomfortably a couple times a week.

I find running with a watch holds me back in a race. No matter the distance. Granted I only race up to half marathons. In my fastest 10k I also missed the time marking at 5k, which turned out to be 26 sec. faster than my 5k pb. Had I known this I would have slowed down already. Now I just kept pushing.

A race is for racing: so find runners who hopefully run a tiny bit faster than you feel you can and hang on for dear life. Then outkick them in the end. Or not. Either way, this is the strategy that brought me down from mid 38 min. tot 35 min. on my 10k.

You run against the competition, not the watch.

Ditch the watch and put mental crosshairs on the guys in front of you and take them down...one by one.

Just run baby.