I have 3 kenyan guy friends with 10km PB’s of 27:58, 28:08 and 28:38.
Kenyan female friend has run 32:18 and Kenyan gf has run 31:14.
All train with average priced Garmins but none of them ever race with a watch. I asked and was told simply “Because we are racing. Not need the watch.”
They are not triathletes, Strava users, nor chasing the elusive Men's 45-49 third place medal at this year's Turkey Trot.
here is your answer wrote:
I have 3 kenyan guy friends with 10km PB’s of 27:58, 28:08 and 28:38.
Kenyan female friend has run 32:18 and Kenyan gf has run 31:14.
All train with average priced Garmins but none of them ever race with a watch. I asked and was told simply “Because we are racing. Not need the watch.”
Pretty common to not race with a watch. Both my high school and college coaches recommended to not race with a watch.
Because when you are out front winning you are running Fast and you don't need a watch to tell you that!!!!!
Yes.
I get annoyed at mediocre runners who buy the latest watches and the most expensive gear.
These are the type of people who will buy the latest thing just because.
Joshua Cheptegei has just done an amazing 12'35 5000m World Record and he even had the sportwatch in the race at Monaco he was looking at the split on the watch during the race,and he stopped it at the end of the race.!!!
I know many young runners that refuse to use the watch and thats a disaster!!! They go off the pace every time. I tell them do do a moderate 12k at 4'10/km they come back with a pace of 3'40"/km just because it was feeling EASY!!! Hey Man is easy yes but today I wanted for you a moderate pace not a Marathon pace!!!Of course you must be able to know the pace by feeling, but this only after you learn using the watch in the right way.
I ve seen also Kipchoge in all of his training had a better sportwatch.
Is good to not be obsessed by so many data coming out from last generation gps sport watch. But anyway is just an useful tool for every runner.
bigpoppapump wrote:
Yes.
I get annoyed at mediocre runners who buy the latest watches and the most expensive gear.
These are the type of people who will buy the latest thing just because.
Why does what someone else buys bother you? Mind your own business.
whatloll wrote:
Dibaba Garmin FR10
Bekele and Cheptegei FR35
Why don't they wear something good like a 945 it's not like they can't afford them, do they just not give a f. I bet they would wear cheap ass running gear if they weren't sponsored even though they can afford good gear.
Because it just doesn't matter.
Dumb dumb! Craig Engels wears a $65 watch....and he lives in a motor home. Money/fancy gadgets don’t defy his or their success.
Why spend more money on a watch with worse battery life just because it plays music or has some hobby jogger bs like that.
Your watch needs to:
1. Tell time
2. Tell distance
3. Save splits (manual/set length)
4. Record heart rate (optional)
Playing music and paying with your watch is not needed. Keep it simple.
Portland Hobby Jogger wrote:
They are not triathletes, Strava users, nor chasing the elusive Men's 45-49 third place medal at this year's Turkey Trot.
To be fair, the best way to ensure your place on the podium is to pick another Turkey Trot.
Portland Hobby Jogger wrote:
They are not triathletes, Strava users, nor chasing the elusive Men's 45-49 third place medal at this year's Turkey Trot.
No need to insult me.
And for the record, I would’ve been second if they had a separate category M45-49, which they didn’t.
On-topic, the FR35 is a basic watch but has everything you need.
I have a Garmin Vivoactive 3 music, but I never use the music feature, never us the recovery/sleep/... features.
Why do poor Americans have iPhones & wear Jordans?
Culture is strong. Also, suggest pop culture/traditonal thinking is also strong.
Original post assumes Elite Kenyans (who work on appearance fees and performance classification, only a handful have salaries of mention...most just shoes/basic training camp living necessities) should wear high priced gadgets. Cultural bias IMO
Small wrists wrote:
Ever seen how small their arms are? The 945 is bulky even on a normal sized wrist. Plus they probably have their coaches taking their splits during workouts, so all the information they really need is pace and distance.
This is a valid point...I'm a woman and even the women sized Garmin 230s have a watch face that takes up basically my entire wrist and I broke a few Timex Ironmans because wearing them on the smallest hole ended up popping the watch face out of the band.
You also stopped your watch at the finish. Are you planning to post that on Strava?
Cheptegei: Normally, distance runners are used to running with a watch. We like to run with the watches. Specifically in Monaco, I was actually just excited. I really wanted to save this run because I wanted to download it and upload it in my phone. Maybe perhaps do a study of my heart rate with the coach and do a lot of things like that.
I haven’t yet uploaded it anywhere, but perhaps could put it on Strava. If my coach is saying and Global Sports Communication is saying we can upload it then, yeah, it totally could happen.
Maybe they don't define themselves by the things they own. Maybe they define themselves through some other means than shopping.
Simply cause all they might want in a gps watch is avg pace, distance, and time. No bells and whistles. They have smart (and successful) coaches to know their VO2 max and when they are peaking. They don’t need a $750-900 watch. Seems to be working out well for them.
Kipchoge wears a $10 casio stopwatch and his shorts are so old the crotch has disintegrated. These things don't matter when you are elite.
whatloll wrote:
Dibaba Garmin FR10
Bekele and Cheptegei FR35
Why don't they wear something good like a 945 it's not like they can't afford them, do they just not give a f. I bet they would wear cheap ass running gear if they weren't sponsored even though they can afford good gear.
How good and how expensive does a running watch need to be? For most distance racing and training a no frills GPS is fine. Personally, I like expensive watches but unless a runner really likes watches they will do just fine buying a FR10 or FR35. Perhaps when not running some of them wear a flashier non-running watch.
I can't count the number of times a tech product with new features turned out to be worse than the previous version. Someone please kick the marketers out of the product design meetings!