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Garmin died just before race started...and what happened then. (Read 372 times)

    There's a moral here somewhere...

     

    Yesterday, I ran a 5K race, part of the training series for the Indy Mini. I'm a slower runner, and last year set a PR here of 35:16, about 11:22 pace. Based on my recent runs, I was thinking that beating that would be hard but doable, and figured I'd try to run the first two miles at 11:15 pace and then go for it the third mile if I had anything left. With luck, I could even break 35:00.

     

    So, I get to the start, with my Garmin showing 100% charge, turn it on to find the satellites...and it beeps at me. I look down, and it now says 0% charge. I had this problem a few weeks ago, but a soft reset fixed it. I frantically try another soft reset, but it still tells me I have no charge and it's damned if it's going to record this run for me. Nyah nyah.

     

    The gun went off while I was still trying to convince it to do its freaking job. I gave up and shuffled toward the start line (1264 people make for a slow start), racking my brain for a new race strategy. Go out easy and kill it toward the end? Go out hard and try to maintain? Whatever. After the usual dodging around walkers, I picked someone in front of me who seemed to be going faster but not that much faster, and stuck with her as long as I could. When she got too far ahead, I found a new victim to dog.

     

    First mile marker clock said 12:20, but that didn't help much because I didn't know the gap between gun time and chip time. Okay, it was maybe a minute or more before I crossed the line? So perhaps I was between 11 and 11:20? But I wasn't sure. The gap could have been 30 seconds, for all I knew. At least when I got to mile 2, I could subtract the 12:20 and have a more or less firm time for that mile.

     

    I continued to follow people who made me run fastish, or so I thought. Passed the ones who slowed down, waved bye-bye to the ones who were too fast for me to catch up with. 2nd mile clock: 23:20. Okay, that was a solid 11:00 mile. Kick it up, or at least don't slow down, and I should have the PR.

     

    3rd mile was hard. I got a miserable side stitch, and people I'd passed started to pass me. Oh, no. This will not do. It's just pain. It's not going to kill you. I sped up when I could, hoping to hold on and PR despite the pain. 3rd mile clock appeared, finally, although it's probably not true that the "mile" was much longer than that (no matter what my legs were insisting). I stared at it, and could not do the math to figure out how fast I'd run. It was 33:42 as I was approaching, but that meant I'd run an 11:22, or maybe a 12:22, or something like that, and I still had a ways to go before I even reached the clock, so I'd probably failed, and only thought I was running fast because of this damned side stitch, and hey, at least I'd passed the 3 mile marker now and there was only .1 to go, and as I got close enough to read the clock hey! hey! It wasn't quite to 35:00, so if I sped up a little my gun time would beat last year's chip time, and that had to mean a PR, because there was certainly SOME gap between gun and chip, and--

     

    I sped up some more, and made it over the line with a gun time of 35:09. I was hurting, almost crying. Threw my arms around my husband, who had finished hours--well, at least 10 minutes--before. This HAD to be a PR, but what was the chip time? There was a results table inside. They looked at my bib number, and handed me a sticker that said...

     

    That said

     

    33:17.

     

    1:59 faster than last year? WTF? 10:43 pace? Me? I've run a few sub-11 minutes in my life. A few. Never averaged that for 3 in a freaking row, plus the little killer of a kicker at the end.

     

    I was amazed, proud, a tad bewildered, and...well, heck. If my Garmin had worked, if I'd stuck to my strategy of two 11:15 miles followed by an all-out finish, I wouldn't have gotten anywhere near this result. I probably would have set a PR, but by seconds, not almost two minutes.

     

    That is something I'm still trying to process.

    muppy


      Awesome race, you smashed it, congrats!

      I noticed at races I'm faster too without my garmin, and run by feel.

        Thanks! It's just so counter-intuitive. I've always thought my Garmin helped me in races, because I could use it to help me stick to a plan. Hey, live and learn!


        A Saucy Wench

          and now you know you are faster than you thought you were.....

          I have become Death, the destroyer of electronic gadgets

           

          "When I got too tired to run anymore I just pretended I wasnt tired and kept running anyway" - dd, age 7

          GinnyinPA


            Congratulations!  I used the same kind of strategy - my first race I spent chasing somebody who was just that little bit faster than I.  I never did catch up, but she lured me to a 30:14.  Second race I tried that but the group ahead was much faster than I, and my lungs just wouldn't let me catch up, so I spent the race trying to stay ahead of somebody right behind me.  I got a 28:08.

            DoppleBock


              If your gamin had worked - Maybe high 34's or low 35s

               

              Ditch it for racing 5ks for awhile - learn to just race how you feel.  It will always be there waiting to make you a slave to it again!

               

              There's a moral here somewhere...

               

              Yesterday, I ran a 5K race, part of the training series for the Indy Mini. I'm a slower runner, and last year set a PR here of 35:16, about 11:22 pace. Based on my recent runs, I was thinking that beating that would be hard but doable, and figured I'd try to run the first two miles at 11:15 pace and then go for it the third mile if I had anything left. With luck, I could even break 35:00.

               

              So, I get to the start, with my Garmin showing 100% charge, turn it on to find the satellites...and it beeps at me. I look down, and it now says 0% charge. I had this problem a few weeks ago, but a soft reset fixed it. I frantically try another soft reset, but it still tells me I have no charge and it's damned if it's going to record this run for me. Nyah nyah.

               

              The gun went off while I was still trying to convince it to do its freaking job. I gave up and shuffled toward the start line (1264 people make for a slow start), racking my brain for a new race strategy. Go out easy and kill it toward the end? Go out hard and try to maintain? Whatever. After the usual dodging around walkers, I picked someone in front of me who seemed to be going faster but not that much faster, and stuck with her as long as I could. When she got too far ahead, I found a new victim to dog.

               

              First mile marker clock said 12:20, but that didn't help much because I didn't know the gap between gun time and chip time. Okay, it was maybe a minute or more before I crossed the line? So perhaps I was between 11 and 11:20? But I wasn't sure. The gap could have been 30 seconds, for all I knew. At least when I got to mile 2, I could subtract the 12:20 and have a more or less firm time for that mile.

               

              I continued to follow people who made me run fastish, or so I thought. Passed the ones who slowed down, waved bye-bye to the ones who were too fast for me to catch up with. 2nd mile clock: 23:20. Okay, that was a solid 11:00 mile. Kick it up, or at least don't slow down, and I should have the PR.

               

              3rd mile was hard. I got a miserable side stitch, and people I'd passed started to pass me. Oh, no. This will not do. It's just pain. It's not going to kill you. I sped up when I could, hoping to hold on and PR despite the pain. 3rd mile clock appeared, finally, although it's probably not true that the "mile" was much longer than that (no matter what my legs were insisting). I stared at it, and could not do the math to figure out how fast I'd run. It was 33:42 as I was approaching, but that meant I'd run an 11:22, or maybe a 12:22, or something like that, and I still had a ways to go before I even reached the clock, so I'd probably failed, and only thought I was running fast because of this damned side stitch, and hey, at least I'd passed the 3 mile marker now and there was only .1 to go, and as I got close enough to read the clock hey! hey! It wasn't quite to 35:00, so if I sped up a little my gun time would beat last year's chip time, and that had to mean a PR, because there was certainly SOME gap between gun and chip, and--

               

              I sped up some more, and made it over the line with a gun time of 35:09. I was hurting, almost crying. Threw my arms around my husband, who had finished hours--well, at least 10 minutes--before. This HAD to be a PR, but what was the chip time? There was a results table inside. They looked at my bib number, and handed me a sticker that said...

               

              That said

               

              33:17.

               

              1:59 faster than last year? WTF? 10:43 pace? Me? I've run a few sub-11 minutes in my life. A few. Never averaged that for 3 in a freaking row, plus the little killer of a kicker at the end.

               

              I was amazed, proud, a tad bewildered, and...well, heck. If my Garmin had worked, if I'd stuck to my strategy of two 11:15 miles followed by an all-out finish, I wouldn't have gotten anywhere near this result. I probably would have set a PR, but by seconds, not almost two minutes.

               

              That is something I'm still trying to process.

              Long dead ... But my stench lingers !

               

               

              stadjak


              Interval Junkie --Nobby

                Well done.  That's quite an accomplishment.

                 

                Never trust a Garmin when there's a PR on the line -- they tend to lie . . . a lot.

                2021 Goals: 50mpw 'cause there's nothing else to do

                Wing


                Joggaholic

                  Well done.  That's quite an accomplishment.

                   

                  Never trust a Garmin when there's a PR on the line -- they tend to lie . . . a lot.

                   

                  I only trust the time or clock field on my garmin. The other stuff are fun for training but I won't depend on them in a race.

                   

                  Congratulations on the PR!

                  bhearn


                    I ran my 10k PR in a race where my Garmin died just before the start. But I didn't learn my lesson; I still rely on it.

                      This just illustrates that it helps to know what you're capable of. If you believe that you're slower than you actually are and use a Garmin (or anything else) to run at that slower pace then you have a problem.

                       

                      Constant pace is good - and a Garmin can help with that. But you want the best constant pace that you're capable of on the day. If you run by feel you might end up going faster than you believe you can do.

                       

                      But it can go the other way - many people have run races by feel and gone out way too fast only to blow up - this happens especially to inexperienced runners over long runs. In these circumstances running to a prescribed pace may well have been better.

                        Awesome!!! Isn't it great to know that you're faster than you ever believed. Very empowering. Enjoy it Smile

                         

                        re's a moral here somewhere...

                         

                        Yesterday, I ran a 5K race, part of the training series for the Indy Mini. I'm a slower runner, and last year set a PR here of 35:16, about 11:22 pace. Based on my recent runs, I was thinking that beating that would be hard but doable, and figured I'd try to run the first two miles at 11:15 pace and then go for it the third mile if I had anything left. With luck, I could even break 35:00.

                         

                        So, I get to the start, with my Garmin showing 100% charge, turn it on to find the satellites...and it beeps at me. I look down, and it now says 0% charge. I had this problem a few weeks ago, but a soft reset fixed it. I frantically try another soft reset, but it still tells me I have no charge and it's damned if it's going to record this run for me. Nyah nyah.

                         

                        The gun went off while I was still trying to convince it to do its freaking job. I gave up and shuffled toward the start line (1264 people make for a slow start), racking my brain for a new race strategy. Go out easy and kill it toward the end? Go out hard and try to maintain? Whatever. After the usual dodging around walkers, I picked someone in front of me who seemed to be going faster but not that much faster, and stuck with her as long as I could. When she got too far ahead, I found a new victim to dog.

                         

                        First mile marker clock said 12:20, but that didn't help much because I didn't know the gap between gun time and chip time. Okay, it was maybe a minute or more before I crossed the line? So perhaps I was between 11 and 11:20? But I wasn't sure. The gap could have been 30 seconds, for all I knew. At least when I got to mile 2, I could subtract the 12:20 and have a more or less firm time for that mile.

                         

                        I continued to follow people who made me run fastish, or so I thought. Passed the ones who slowed down, waved bye-bye to the ones who were too fast for me to catch up with. 2nd mile clock: 23:20. Okay, that was a solid 11:00 mile. Kick it up, or at least don't slow down, and I should have the PR.

                         

                        3rd mile was hard. I got a miserable side stitch, and people I'd passed started to pass me. Oh, no. This will not do. It's just pain. It's not going to kill you. I sped up when I could, hoping to hold on and PR despite the pain. 3rd mile clock appeared, finally, although it's probably not true that the "mile" was much longer than that (no matter what my legs were insisting). I stared at it, and could not do the math to figure out how fast I'd run. It was 33:42 as I was approaching, but that meant I'd run an 11:22, or maybe a 12:22, or something like that, and I still had a ways to go before I even reached the clock, so I'd probably failed, and only thought I was running fast because of this damned side stitch, and hey, at least I'd passed the 3 mile marker now and there was only .1 to go, and as I got close enough to read the clock hey! hey! It wasn't quite to 35:00, so if I sped up a little my gun time would beat last year's chip time, and that had to mean a PR, because there was certainly SOME gap between gun and chip, and--

                         

                        I sped up some more, and made it over the line with a gun time of 35:09. I was hurting, almost crying. Threw my arms around my husband, who had finished hours--well, at least 10 minutes--before. This HAD to be a PR, but what was the chip time? There was a results table inside. They looked at my bib number, and handed me a sticker that said...

                         

                        That said

                         

                        33:17.

                         

                        1:59 faster than last year? WTF? 10:43 pace? Me? I've run a few sub-11 minutes in my life. A few. Never averaged that for 3 in a freaking row, plus the little killer of a kicker at the end.

                         

                        I was amazed, proud, a tad bewildered, and...well, heck. If my Garmin had worked, if I'd stuck to my strategy of two 11:15 miles followed by an all-out finish, I wouldn't have gotten anywhere near this result. I probably would have set a PR, but by seconds, not almost two minutes.

                         

                        That is something I'm still trying to process.

                        robinde


                          Great job!


                          Maggie & Molly

                            congrats to you.  It is an amazing feeling to realize you are faster than you gave yourself credit for, isn't it.  Awesome!!!!!

                             "It does not matter how slow you go so long as you do not stop."
                            Wisdom of Confucius

                            HF 4363

                              Thanks, everybody! It is a great feeling to find out I'm faster than I thought I was. I think I'm going to have to experiment for the next few races. Perhaps even find out exactly what it feels like to go out too fast and blow up, so I get a better idea of what I can and can't do--and stop being afraid of it.

                              Kerry1976


                              Master of the Side Eye

                                Congratulations! You took a difficult situation and absolutely crushed it - along with your time.

                                TRUST THE PROCESS

                                 

                                 

                                 

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