Asif Ahmed: A marathon without Garmin

A marathon without Garmin

It was just a few weeks ago, I had deactivated my social media accounts (Facebook/Instagram) to use the time more productively elsewhere. The goal was to remain gadget-free as much as possible, I know it's easier said than done, and I slowly started achieving the same, Fiddling with mobile phone reduced drastically. God granted my wish to go gadget-free to an extra level, I ended up running a Marathon without Garmin (Initially not planned), and I thank God for this blessing in disguise. So here is the story and learnings of this experience of running a marathon without Garmin.

I had signed up for the Auroville marathon at the last moment, post canceling my plans to run the IDBI Delhi marathon, reason, as I had no intention to run a race for timing for now. I just want to enjoy my running and with no race or timing target pressures.

So at the start line of the Auroville Marathon around 4 Am, when I tried to switch on my Garmin watch, it gave a weird display that to save a workout of 90km, I remain puzzled for some time as that how did this happen! As the start timing was approaching fast, I didn't think much and tried to discard the workout of 90km, to my shock Garmin battery drained out, I tried everything to revive the watch without any success. It was not a situation that a runner wants to be in before a race. I had charged it to 100% before embarking on my journey from Bangalore, I without thinking too much went to the baggage counter and kept the watch inside my bag, as it's no point to wear a drained watch.

And I made a decision to run a marathon without a watch for the first time ever.

Just before the start, I saw Anuradha and the gang arrived for their Half marathon, which was supposed to start 1 hour after us at 6 AM. When I told her that my Garmin went bonkers, she offered me her new Garmin watch, which she was herself yet to wear in a race. I declined her offer gracefully, however, I was touched by her gesture. And I thought about her during the run.

I realized quickly there is no need to cry about something which is not in my hand and rather use this opportunity to get a whole new experience, and there is one race where I can actually try this was the Auroville, where you run for the joy for running, literally. So the race started at 5 am, I had decided to run this race by feel and take it easy. With no watch in my wrist, to be honest, it was like I was missing something in my body and it took my mind some time to understand, I brought my wrist in front of the face to check pace only to see an empty wrist, you see, how much a slave we become to it. My subconscious mind was not ready to accept it.

After 15-20 minutes into the race, I started listening to my breathing; I felt the rhythm in my legs, the motion of the arms. Overall, It leads to a refined sense of pace and effort. Racing is a skill that might take years to acquire with or without the watch, however, the more experienced you are, the less you rely on the watch. I started enjoying the race more than ever, this was my 4th Auroville Marathon. The first 1 hour we run in complete darkness, Auroville narrow trail with so many markings for turnings, one need to be extra careful in the narrow trail, many sections where only one person can run at a time., you can easily get lost or go in the wrong trail if you miss the markings. With all these things that need to take care you anyway don't have much attention left to check miles marker along the route.

With no watch strapped, I had no idea which Mile of the race I was into and what time was it. I started enjoying the trail. I met few debut marathoners in the trail, I met a young Doctor (25 years) who was running his first marathon there, obviously with no experience, he was running too fast, he ran with me for the first 1 hour or so, we had some good conversation, I warned him that he was going too fast, and he has another 30-32km probably left behind to run, he looked at his watch and said the pace is 5:30 mins/km, and this is what he has planned. Well obviously he was running much faster than what his Garmin was showing him, I could gauge with my effort that we were running probably just under sub 5 mins/km at that point of time. After he agreed to slow down and I went ahead.

We all know that Garmin constantly adjusts your pace to match the GPS’ “current” pace. A GPS watch can be a wonderful tool, it’s not perfect. If you think about it, this little tiny thing on your wrist is acquiring signals from outer space and using that to geolocate you. with a lot of tree cover in the Auroville trail, satellites aren’t always going to be able to pick you up, which means the measurement won’t be as accurate. Hence that Doctor runner was seeing a pace much slower than what he was exactly running.

The above is a classic example of too much dependency on GPS watches can throw you off the pace and literally can screw your race by showing your wrong data. Relying exclusively on a GPS during training runs, a runner never develops the learned sense of pace that is critical to race day success. Even wearing a GPS device during a race doesn’t guarantee pacing success – what if the signal is lost, it happens in a city with a lot of tall buildings, Chicago Marathon is infamous for that, in trial running like Auroville with a lot of tree covers, to makeover the pace which we think is correct by GPS, we surge or runway faster, and when its actual time to push at the end we bonk, so it's very critical to know how to race and gauge the pace without GPS dependency.

We all have been in a situation during the run when you looked down in your Garmin and saw your pace, you get freaked out, as it is way slower than you were “supposed to be”, so we quickly start to push, and then when you see the next mile, you are now way too fast. Not only that, but you are now breathing much harder than you should be. so we slow down the pace, and then we spend the next entire mile pondering that what just went wrong.

So I reached the finish line, saw the big clock reading 3:32:xx!, to be very honest, I wasn't planning this run a sub 3:40. If I was running with Garmin. I would have purposefully done 3:50:xx

And after running the Auroville, to my surprise. I had no soreness or fatigue. Everyone at the finish line was telling me that I looked fresh and energetic post the run. I realized that the mental pressure of maintaining the pace throughout the run creates soreness and fatigue more than effort.

My two cents to all the runners don't be a slave to your Garmin. I am not telling you literally to give up wearing it. What I am telling is to IGNORE it until you finish the run. I know it's easier said than done, this is the one thing we struggle with the most.

Don't let your watch dictate your run, because by doing so you are not listening to your body. I again repeat I am not saying do not wear Garmin/GPS watch, I love mine and rarely go out running without it. But I rarely depend on them, instead, I listen to my body and rhythm, maybe due to this reason, I could pull a decent timing without much fuss in this Auroville.

So in this Auroville Marathon, I had no ideas of my splits, heart rate, cadence, pace, etc, rather I was overtaken by the joy of running, and this is what Auroville is known for to organize something purely for the joy of running. It considers all the finishers as winners and therefore does not award any prize money for the early finishers. Hence why it is not a timed run. And this is one of the biggest reasons why I look forward participating in this run each year.