Any of the finest operating watches will help you tempo a marathon, so long as the GPS accuracy is on level. Through the use of the lap tempo particularly you may choose your tempo for every mile or kilometer cut up and guarantee it’s consistent with your total objectives, and cease your self from going out too quick initially.
Nonetheless, Garmin’s PacePro software goes past this by providing a pacing information that’s tailor-made to your goal time, the way in which you wish to run the race and the course you’re going to run. That final half particularly makes it good for the Boston Marathon.
That’s as a result of the Boston Marathon route will not be the pancake flat course you get at different main marathons like London, Berlin and Chicago. Boston has hills, with probably the most well-known being Heartbreak Hill in mile 20, and you must choose your effort on the uphill and downhill sections of the course rigorously to hit your goal time.
With Garmin’s PacePro software you set the course you’re going to run and an total goal time, you then select one in all three race methods and the way arduous you wish to run any uphills. The race methods are even pacing, a adverse cut up (the place you run the second half of the marathon sooner than the primary), or a constructive cut up.
If selecting a adverse or constructive cut up, you additionally select how a lot of a distinction you need between the 2 halves of the race. You could possibly begin slowly and set your self as much as dash residence, for instance, or simply goal for a minute or two distinction throughout the 2 halves. You additionally choose how arduous you wish to run uphills, however for those who ease off you’ll need to make the time up on flats and downhills.

That is the magic of PacePro, in that it will provide you with goal occasions for every mile or kilometer cut up of the race based mostly in your preferences, goal time and the elevation of the course throughout that actual cut up. For instance, for those who arrange a goal time 2hrs 50min for Boston, plus a adverse cut up the place you are taking it simple on uphills, you’ll be given your quickest cut up targets for the downhills that come after the well-known Newton Hills, with a slower goal for the mile that features Heartbreak Hill, or another incline.

This lets you ease off within the early phases of the race, and on any uphills, realizing that the race plan could have you hitting your total goal time by attacking the better downhill miles on the course. The Boston Marathon has lots of downhills, so you may choose how a lot time to make up in these sections properly to let you be slower on the uphills.
Throughout the race the PacePro display will present your goal time for the precise mile or kilometer cut up you’re operating, plus your present cut up tempo, how a lot distance is left within the cut up and the full time you’re forward, or behind, your total purpose.
You will have to make use of a Boston Marathon route inside the Garmin Join app to get a PacePro technique, however these are simple to search out within the app or on the web site by looking for Hopkinton, the city the place the race begins. There are a number of Boston Marathon routes to select between and you need to use them to create your PacePro technique after which ship it to your watch.
The routes are all barely longer than the precise marathon distance, as a result of they’re most likely created from the routes folks truly ran—it’s arduous to run the right racing line at an enormous marathon due to the crowds.

Most of Garmin’s present vary is appropriate with PacePro, even when the watch doesn’t have maps or breadcrumb navigation as a characteristic. The Garmin Forerunner 55 is the most cost effective watch to have the characteristic, and you may be assured that any dearer watch launched previously couple of years may also have it. You’ll be able to test in case your watch is appropriate on the Garmin web site by typing it in and deciding on your watch.
Garmin’s PacePro software is beneficial for many races, however is finest for hilly programs and likewise those who don’t spend a lot time within the middle of massive cities with tall buildings, as a result of the GPS accuracy that dictates the pacing information on the watch is affected while you’re within the coronary heart of London or New York, for instance. It’s good for the Boston Marathon because of this, and might be simply the factor for getting you up and over Heartbreak Hill nonetheless heading in the right direction on your PR.
How To Set Up PacePro For The Boston Marathon
- Go to Coaching & Planning>Programs
- Seek for Hopkinton and choose a Boston Marathon course from the record
- Click on ‘create a PacePro technique’
- Choose your goal time or tempo
- Select between mile and kilometer splits
- Select your race technique and uphill effort
- Test the person splits to see in the event that they make sense for you, then hit save
- Ship the path to your gadget
You will discover the PacePro technique within the coaching and exercises part of the operating app in your watch. Be sure you choose it earlier than you begin the race. You may also create a PacePro technique on the look ahead to any route you may have saved on there, but it surely’s simpler to do it within the Garmin Join app or on the web site.
