Ever did a race without your Garmin or GPS watch?

No, but I had my nails did once without my extensions in. LOCO, I know!!!!

Ive never raced with my Garmin. I wear my watch while warming up and then take it off when I put my spikes on.

Garmin 220.

I used to use a Soleus of some sort, but it took forever to get a satellite signal and always measured everything about 1% shorter than everyone else's Garmin.

This is exactly right. Road courses introduce a little uncertainty with elevations and turns, but your "internal GPS" should still put you within ten seconds of expected pace. You should be able to tell when mile markers are off by even a little. (This comes from doing race pace work, because you dial in such a precise feel. You will never be that accurate at guessing your easy pace.)

This skill is pretty universal among experienced runners. In fact, you can confirm it during races by looking at the reactions of other runners (at least towards the front of the pack). When I hit the lap button at a mile marker and I see something surprising, I usually look around at the guys running near me, and they usually do the same thing. We make eye contact and shake our heads, confirming to each other that the mile marker had to have been off.

No problem, I didn't take it as insulting.

Another comment: watches can be motivating in the middle of the race for you to keep the pace going. They can screw you up at the start, though, if you've overestimated your fitness. If you go out at what feels like race pace but your watch indicates 10 seconds per mile slower than you wanted, you may unwisely try to increase pace to get up to speed, with disastrous consequences down the road. It's definitely good to ignore the watch early on and go by feel.

Still though, the main reason, for me at least, is just to log the data.

Curious guy wrote:

Thinking about taking the leap of faith. Sure i can just wear it and not look at it, love to know how many people could resist doing that. I'd like to know if I'm a slave to my watch in a race. (Guessing I am if im asking)

You'll run slower without a watch. In 2012, I ran marathons in 3:13, 3:07, and 3:04. I also ran one that year without a GPS watch and my time was 3:28, which was 20 minutes slower than average. It was difficult to know how hard I was running without a watch to give me some feedback.

The GPS system was developed to support USAF aircraft. Any use beyond that has variable error. If you are a pilot in a United States armed forces aircraft then you may rely on GPS data. Otherwise, your mileage may vary.

If you are terrestrial based and not using differential GPS then you are wrong.

Smoove wrote:

I guarantee you won't see perfect ovals around lane 1.

Seven and a half laps in lane 1. Granted, I know this is the exception, and the GPS is on a pod clipped to the runner's cap rather than wrist:

I use my GPS watch every day since I got one in 2012, but I just start it and stop it for my log and strava and sometimes to check how far or long I've gone. I don't look at it during most of my races because most of my races are trail race/xc type races, where I'm racing people, and don't have a reference to do meaningful splits. Plus, I have had a hard time reading my watch with the rather rapid onset of presbyopia in my eyes in my 40s. I use

[quote]Smoove wrote:

Again, I use my watch all the time, so I'm not against it. I just wish I could let it go and not use it; but the compulsive part of me can't go without having the data to look at after the fact. The compulsiveness is also what makes me a decent runner, so it's kind of a "dance with who brung ya" thing. /

Is that really a thing? The moronic phrases people come up with on here that nobody uses in real life is unbelievable.

Compulsion is a weakness not a strength. An experienced runner should know what pace they are running at without looking at their watch every 10 seconds. It's also very off-putting in you are not on on pace - which is most races.

If you see really decent runner you'd concentrate on sicking with the leader

That's pretty impressive, I admit. Can we agree that you will almost never see that with a standard Garmin?

As to the poster who commented on my compulsion argument, you miss my point. My compulsive nature doesn't drive me to constantly check my watch during runs, it drives me to wear it for complete data. It also drives me to get out and run every day in accordance with my training plan, even on rainy days, hot days, days when I'm hungover, etc.

Dance with who brought you is a euphemism that is commonly used to illustrate the concept that while you may prefer to do something different, you got to where you are as a result of doing things a certain way and have a duty to stick with it. So while I may want to bemoan my compulsive nature, it is what has driven much of my running success.

I raced without mine once, pr ed ny 40 secs in the 5k

Doclove wrote:

Is that really a thing? The moronic phrases people come up with on here that nobody uses in real life is unbelievable.

r

Really? Nobody you know ever uses hackneyed phrases ironically in conversation on occasion? Congrats on being the coolest ever, bro.

Doclove wrote:

If you see really decent runner you'd concentrate on sicking with the leader

Or trying to figure out if one is racing near the right group and not about to try and compete with a pack that should be putting 50m per mile on them. Once one is in big enough races, there's actually good athletes and one may not want to "concentrate on sticking with the leader" lest one get blown out 1/4 of the way into the race. Of course, one has to get out of whatever backwater hell hole you live in and run a proper race to figure that out.l

Well I've never run a race while wearing a GPS watch - though most of my races occurred before they existed.

But even now I would't race with one.

Though, I have run races in the past with with no mile markers or bad mile markers where a GPS watch would have come in handy.

One 10K had kilometer marker and I had to do the match in my head on the fly. Only the 5K split was comfortable to me.

You need to do more training runs without even looking at your pace.

I've never done a race with one. Am I a luddite?

Seems like a race is when you don't need one because they have mile or km markers.

I never have but I am tomorrow because the races here dont have mile markers, and i want to keep my foot on the gas this time. Hopefully it helps me concentrate on the task at hand.. last race I could not focus.

I've never run a race WITH a Garmin or GPS watch. Never carried a phone on any run, either.

PRs of 15:30 5k, 9:30 3k steeple, 4:14 mile

Just as a FYI, Bekele still runs marathons without a watch

Guess he's not on Strava