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

wcrunner2


Are we there, yet?

    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!

    Yes, a Garmin will help you stick with a plan, but that doesn't mean the plan is a good one or even reasonable. In your case your plan was too conservative and in not following the plan you ran closer to your potential. If your plan had been too ambitious, following it by pushing too hard to keep with the Garmin pace would have led to a late race blow up. I see that a lot in longer races.

     2024 Races:

          03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles

          05/11 - D3 50K
          05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour

          06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.

     

     

         

    kristin10185


    Skirt Runner

      Congrats on the PR!!!!

       

      I am highly inexperienced, have only run 3 races before, but at the advice of very experienced people I always race by effort, not pace. I only check my time every mile just to see how I'm progressing, but never check my pace as I'm going. This has also done wonders for me. If you want the Garmin to record the race, if it is working of course, have the screen show only distance not pace. That was the best advice I have ever received. I also would have thought I was going out too fast during my last race had I known I was running below an 11 min/mile pace (you and I have similar speeds) but I PRed huge because I held on to the pace that I would have thought was too fast. My first 5K wad 37:07. I PRed at 33:33 only 5 weeks later. Congrats again!!

      PRs:   5K- 28:16 (5/5/13)      10K- 1:00:13 (10/27/13)    4M- 41:43 (9/7/13)   15K- 1:34:25  (8/17/13)    10M- 1:56:30 (4/6/14)     HM- 2:20:16 (4/13/14)     Full- 5:55:33 (11/1/15)

       

      I started a blog about running :) Check it out if you care to

        Congrats on the PR! Big grin

        5k - 25:15 (11/18/12)

        10k - 1:01:51 (2/14/15)

        10mi - 1:33:18 (3/2/14)

        HM - 2:06:12 (3/24/13)

         

        Upcoming Races:

        Benched until further notice. :/

         

        Everything you need is already inside. [[Bill Bowerman]]

        bounce76


          Congratulations on the PR! I am still learning how to pace myself during races as well, that's awesome that you beat your expectations by so much!

          Upcoming Races:

          AC Marathon: 10/13

           

          Honeybadgerruns.com

            Great race and PR, nice report!  I think its advantageous to get more in tuned with racing as you feel.  The garmin is a double edged sword.


            A Saucy Wench

              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.

               

              yup.

               

              Garmins can be useful and they can be a handicap.  It's all in how you use them

               

              I used them a lot to make myself try and blow up.  If you have a hard time making yourself run too hard you CAN use the garmin to force an initial pace that you DONT think you can hold for the whole race and try and hold it.  The number of times I surprised myself was astounding.

              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

              jEfFgObLuE


              I've got a fever...

                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.

                This made me laugh because describes almost every 5k race I ran in high school.  But it is something you need to do -- it pays off to learn your real limits, and then figure out how to run right at the edge of them.

                On your deathbed, you won't wish that you'd spent more time at the office.  But you will wish that you'd spent more time running.  Because if you had, you wouldn't be on your deathbed.

                  Yup. Congratulations! You're free...if you want to be.

                   

                  We get a few of these "my Garmin died before the race and I ran a big PR" threads every racing season and yet a lot of those same people go back to racing with their Garmin's. I can't imagine racing with one...kind of defies my definition of racing.

                  Runners run

                    I used them a lot to make myself try and blow up.  If you have a hard time making yourself run too hard you CAN use the garmin to force an initial pace that you DONT think you can hold for the whole race and try and hold it.  The number of times I surprised myself was astounding.

                    Garmin or not, I've had a really hard time deliberately going out at an effort that I knew/thought was over my "fitness head".  Whether it's seeing the numbers on the Garmin display or just feeling the high effort, something in the primitive part of my tiny brain knows it's too hard/fast and convinces some other part of my tiny brain to slow things down.

                     

                    I think a large part of that was my high school racing experience -- much like JeffTheGlobule's, I almost always went out too fast for my fitness and crashed before the finish (started running Labor Day of my senior year, with absolutely no aerobic base).  I HATED everything about that, and the fear of doing it again still lurks somewhere inside and haunts me thirty years later.

                    "I want you to pray as if everything depends on it, but I want you to prepare yourself as if everything depends on you."

                    -- Dick LeBeau

                    RabbitChaser


                      Great job! Congratulations on smashing your old PR! Cool The Garmin can be a useful tool, but as you learned, can also hold you back. I only use it to ensure I don't go out way too fast during the start of a race. The races I've run without my Garmin, I crashed and burned because of going out too fast at the start.

                        CONGRATS on a PR but without the Garmin, I'm not surprised to be honest.

                         

                        I had similar experience a few years ago when I ran a Half Marathon and it was pouring ran so I decided not to wear mine and set an unexpected PR by a few minutes.     About a month later I ran a 5K and decided not to wear it and again I ran faster in the race......SO, I now I generally wear it on training runs but NEVER in races.......and races are way more fun because I'm not constantly looking at my watch and just focusing on running.....

                        Champions are made when no one is watching


                        Ball of Fury

                          Great race!  Congrats on the PR.  DH and I will be running the 10K in the training series, as well as the Mini...are you running those?

                          Great job! Congratulations on smashing your old PR! Cool The Garmin can be a useful tool, but as you learned, can also hold you back. I only use it to ensure I don't go out way too fast during the start of a race. The races I've run without my Garmin, I crashed and burned because of going out too fast at the start.

                          This is me exactly....I am the queen of the blow up!

                          PRs:  5K 22:59, 10K 46:54,HM: 1:51:15

                            Great race!  Congrats on the PR.  DH and I will be running the 10K in the training series, as well as the Mini...are you running those?

                            This is me exactly....I am the queen of the blow up!

                             

                            Yup! Whole training series, plus whatever they're calling Bricks to Bricks these days (Hoosier 10-Miler?), and the Mini. Will probably throw in a few trail races, too--Holliday Park is a favorite, also the DINO at Eagle Creek. One thing I like about Indy is that there are so many choices available--a race every weekend most of the time, if you want it.


                            Ball of Fury

                              Yes there are a TON of races...we try to limit to one a month but even that gets pricey!  I will have to look at the bricks to bricks!

                              PRs:  5K 22:59, 10K 46:54,HM: 1:51:15

                              RunnerGalBeth


                                Wow.  Just wow.  Congrats!

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