Race etiquette

PleasantRidge1969
PleasantRidge1969 Posts: 30
in Fitness and Exercise
I'm new to running, and am accustomed to using mapmyrun with my droid, and letting the lady tell me every few minutes my pace/distance.
I signed up for a HM in October, and am curious if it is considered rude or poor form to let your device talk. I really need the help with pacing, so I need to know what is cool. Thanks for any replies.

Replies

  • n_unocero
    n_unocero Posts: 445 Member
    you don't have headphones for your phone?
  • meerkat70
    meerkat70 Posts: 4,605 Member
    Have you considered a watch? More accurate and great for pacing.
  • creature275
    creature275 Posts: 348 Member
    mmm well I think pacing is best learned over time after a while you will be able to just feel what your pace is, just keep at it
  • wolfchild59
    wolfchild59 Posts: 2,608 Member
    I would hate to be running near someone that had a phone with full audio on, not just during a race, but if even if just out on a trail, so I'd personally advise against it. There are a few different options to avoid it:

    The easiest is to just wear headphones. I personally don't use earbuds since most of them hurt my ears after about an hour or so, so they wouldn't get me through a half at all. So I just use a cheap pair of over the ear headphones that work just fine. But they also sell some pretty amazing earbuds that are designed to be used while running. They have sweat proof buds and cords, are designed to stay in while running and even reduce the amount of noise created from your body impact the pavement into your ear canals.

    Most races have start corrals so you are grouped in with other people that run your same pace. If you start yourself in the right corral, you'll be able to get comfortable and pace yourself off of the people around you.

    Use a HRM. I can usually judge how my pacing is by checking my heart rate, Slowed pace for me and my heart rate is around 145-150, my normal pace has my heart rate around 160-165, and a faster pace than I can maintain over distance I'll be around 170+.

    And then there's the general rule of listening to your body, if you're breathing too hard and it's hurting, slow yourself down, if it feels like you're not giving it enough and it's easy, speed yourself up.

    Many races don't allow headphones or earbuds, but most of them do. So if you absolutely have to have your pace (I had mine during my half, but not during my shorter races) just wear headphones or earbuds. But I would highly, HIGHLY recommend against having the distance setting turned on. Races will have every mile marked as per the official course measurements, so just go by those. Even if not using the distance or pacing, I'll usually have the app on on my phone for my races and not once has the distance recorded by my phone GPS matched the distance of the race.
  • PleasantRidge1969
    PleasantRidge1969 Posts: 30
    you don't have headphones for your phone?

    I have headphones, but have found I prefer to run tuneless. The whole zen-thing of just my breathing and the sound of my feet hitting the ground puts me in a zone. I stopped wearing headphones when I started to feel it.

    Thanks for the replies. I guess I will get comfortable enough with pacing in the next two months, then the question will be moot.
  • wolfchild59
    wolfchild59 Posts: 2,608 Member
    You don't have to listen to music just because you have headphones on. You can have it just be your pacing feeding through from your app. You're already hearing that from your phone, so it shouldn't disturb your zen state too much to be coming through headphones instead of from your pocket (or arm, depending on where you have your phone when you run).

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