Anyone have any cheap suggestions? I dont plan on making a habit of outrunning the battery life of my Garmin..Or if someone has an old, functional unit I can borrow or buy relatively cheap?
I don't think such a thing exists, much less "cheap". Best I've seen is the garmin 310xt, which will go 17-20 hours depending (on what, I'm not sure).
i will likely just get a hold of a 2nd garmin, and rotate them out. Or get a 100 lap watch. But I dont trust myself to hit the button on lap 85 at 4 am.
Keeping an accurate lap count is pretty easy with a cheap Timex.
I run half-mile laps by my home sometimes. If I fog out and miss hitting the lap button, I can tell by the double-long-time the next time around.
Whenever this happens, I whisper an appropriate expletive, hit the lap button twice, and get back to running.
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I read somewhere about a guy who rigged one of those USB battery extenders to his Garmin for a 100 miler, and it worked for him. I think he kept the watch in a pack though.
"Able to function despite imminent catastrophe"
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My Polar will go 25+ hours w/o a battery change (and then you just swap out the AA battery in the GPS receiver and keep on keepin' on). It puts the Garmins to shame....
It ain't cheap though.
The quickest and dirtiest is to have two watches or at least have two watches. My buddy and I ran together and we had his on for 50 miles and then mine for the remainder. A Garmin 305 with all the bells and whistles switched off can last about 12 hours.
If you are going longer then you can try a SolarMonkey to charge one which is great but again you need two GPS watches and sunlight
Jerry A runners blog-updated daily
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Is this for NC24?
With our timing system you will know your lap count and mileage every time you come through the timing tower.
In addition I will have a full spreadsheet of every runner and every lap post race. I can give you your entire file by Sunday night for your own analysis.
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Cool - then I will leave it to the pros. I like to over-analyze my data..So if that level of detail is available, I wont sweat the GPS.
A couple months ago, my Timex died a happy death while I was bodysurfing.
So now for moonlit training laps I use the kids' abacus. It can count to a billion.
You'll ruin your knees!
A couple months ago, my Timex died a happy death while I was bodysurfing. So now for moonlit training laps I use the kids' abacus. It can count to a billion.
... so you have a normal arm swing? I would think this would mess up the beads on a wrist-abacus. But then again, it would last for 24 hours!
""...the truth that someday, you will go for your last run. But not today—today you got to run." - Matt Crownover (after Western States)
Given how GPS works, perhaps it would be more accurate if you did not swing your arms.
I will be running my 2nd 50k on technical trails and I am predicting a very slow time (the cut off is 10 hours). My Garmin starts dying at 5+ hours. Not sure how I will manage to keep track of the time since it is a very small race.
Sara
MM #2929
You could just use a non-GPS watch or get one with a footpod. Or other Garmins last a bit longer I think.
~Sara It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great. ~ Jimmy Dugan