Did runners in the 70's/early 80's have digital watches?

I began running in the 1960's and that is exactly how I did it.

LOL

It wasn't perfect but it was the best I had until I bought a hand held stop watch.

Did the "checking the clock at the door" thing a lot (and if I stopped to tie my shoe or whatever tried to estimate the time to deduct). Also carried a stopwatch, especially for track sessions, as well as starting on the sweep of the seconds hand with an analog watch. I often measured courses off a map with string, or with a car odometer.

Got the Casio in about '75/76, the thing cost around $60 (gas was $0.29 and college was $440/quarter) and it seemed to weigh a pound or two, but it allowed your hands to be free. Red LED display that you had to push the button for and only went to 59:59, so had to keep an eye on it on long runs.

What is a digital watch?

I use a Timex Quartz watch to tell time.

curious cat wrote:

I was looking at marathon photos from the 70's of Bill Rodgers and Co. and realized they weren't wearing watches. Were digital watches around at that time? Was someone giving splits in races? How did runners keep track of their training? When did runners start wearing digital watches, and did performances start to improve with that advent?

I got my first, a Casio in 1979 courtesey of the Bay to Breakers RR. Casio was the sponsor .

To answer the OP's final question, performances actually started to get worse upon the use of digital watches reaching a critical mass. Though I doubt there was any cause-and-effect relationship between performance and digital watch usage, I'm sure some of the more creative posters will come up with a theory to explain the correlation...

Random thoughts...

Before the Internet......In HS I used to take the map from the phone book and plot courses, mile markers, etc. Was it 100% accurate? Probably not, but it provided a frame of reference. IE: it doesn't matter that this is an exact mile it matters that today I did it in this time and yesterday I did it in this time.

Our coach tracked a number of runs using his truck. Again was it 100% accurate? No. Didn't need to be. He did have a Jones Counter for interval courses around the school grounds....had some interesting turns to make and busy streets to cross when the school underwent contruction and took out half of our interval course!

Technology has runners too consumed with numbers instead of PROGRESSION and IMPROVEMENT.

Alan

Thanks guys for the insight. When I was in high school, we didn't need watches cause our coach would drive the courses to determine the mileage or handtime us on the track with handheld stopwatches. And yes, I remember running on my own and looking at the kitchen clock before going out the door. Didn't keep a training log until college. Seems like we're so dependent on watches/splits/times/paces and we lose the focus on the effort and how we're feeling.

Runners first began using digital watches in the late 70's. Before that, only digital sundials were available.

I think mine was a Casio F200 - two big buttons on the face for the stopwatch.

Yep, I remember digital watches coming in the late 70's and early 80's - from high school to college for me. They were still comparatively expensive if you were in school. Yes, I ran with an analog waterproof Timex with a sweep second hand and you just waited until it hit 15-30-45-60 for intervals (we could add and subtract in our heads back then); yes, I used the kitchen clock for long runs; yes, I would sometimes run carrying an analog stopwatch on the track for intervals. Amazingly, we survived - even on the 10 mile run to school in the snow, uphill - both ways.

I had a digital watch with a calculator and a musical alarm (Mozart) in about 1983-4. (It's a wonder I ever reproduced.) Before that, I don't ever remember wearing a sweep-second watch during runs. My dad used to time my track races with an analog stopwatch that looked just like the one on the intro to "60 Minutes."

Runningart2004 wrote:

Random thoughts...

Before the Internet......In HS I used to take the map from the phone book and plot courses, mile markers, etc. Was it 100% accurate? Probably not, but it provided a frame of reference. IE: it doesn't matter that this is an exact mile it matters that today I did it in this time and yesterday I did it in this time.

Our coach tracked a number of runs using his truck. Again was it 100% accurate? No. Didn't need to be. He did have a Jones Counter for interval courses around the school grounds....had some interesting turns to make and busy streets to cross when the school underwent contruction and took out half of our interval course!

Technology has runners too consumed with numbers instead of PROGRESSION and IMPROVEMENT.

Alan

Alan, you're way too young to have become Back-in-My-Day Grumpus.

Mr. Obvious wrote:

I timed my runs by hourglass back in the 80s. That was for the intervals. For long runs I used the sundial.

:)

curious cat wrote:

I was looking at marathon photos from the 70's of Bill Rodgers and Co. and realized they weren't wearing watches. Were digital watches around at that time? Was someone giving splits in races? How did runners keep track of their training? When did runners start wearing digital watches, and did performances start to improve with that advent?

In high school cross country races in the '60s we didn't wear a watch. Coaches would call out splits from an analog stop watch. Officials used analog stop watches to record official race times. You didn't get your finish time until you turned in the popsicle stick you with your place on it that you received when you crossed the finish line.

Wisenheimer wrote:

[quote]curious cat wrote:

I was looking at marathon photos from the 70's of Bill Rodgers and Co. and realized they weren't wearing watches. Were digital watches around at that time? Was someone giving splits in races? How did runners keep track of their training? When did runners start wearing digital watches, and did performances start to improve with that advent?

Oops. This might make more sense.

...You didn't get your finish time until you turned in the popsicle stick with your place on it that you received when you crossed the finish line.

Last Lap wrote:

Got the Casio in about '75/76, the thing cost around $60 (gas was $0.29 and college was $440/quarter) and it seemed to weigh a pound or two, but it allowed your hands to be free. Red LED display that you had to push the button for and only went to 59:59, so had to keep an eye on it on long runs.

By 75/76 they were already down to 10 bucks, Before that most of us had analog chronograph watches with separate timing dials. On the track someone usually carried a stopwatch.

Timing (splits) on tempo runs? For what? Tempo runs were the same in the 70s as now -- you run them by feel.

A few days ago I ran across an old Casio W30 I used back in the mid 80's. I may replace the battey and begin using it again as it records time faster than the Timex I use now!

I got a Texas Instruments watch with a red LED readout as a gift in the late 70's. I don't remember using it for running. I probably wouldn't have wanted to get it sweaty.

As best as I can remember, I just used a regular windup Timex and had a good idea of how far I had run by driving my usual running routes and looking at the odometer.

On a track, coaches used windup stopwatches and if you were running on your own you just used the second hand on your watch.

See thread elsewhere on running without a watch.

In Olden Tymes some wore regular analog watches and just reset the time to 12:00 to time their runs.

Often coaches were around with stopwatches to call out times.

I have a recollection, too, of Joe Henderson establishing

three levels of mileage for runners:

1. 50 miles per week: entry level, barely adequate for racing.

2. 100 miles per week; pretty standard for competitors.

3. 150 miles per week; "the stuff of champions".

I don't recall him referring to pace per mile as such in that writing, nor the NEED for a watch. He did claim, in "Long Slow Distance" that running by time was mentally easier & the watch was his guide.

Flip flopping? You be the judge.

Running without a watch is actually easier than running WITH one. One less piece of equipment to concern onesself with, one less thing which can go wrong.

If you just want to run your training mileage (with a different mindset), set your schedule for the week or month, then just go out the door and run as you feel.

Try this for SIX solid weeks. See if your running perspective doesn't change.