I lastly did it: I ran my first marathon, and it went significantly better than I anticipated. Nonetheless, within the closing quarter of the race, it was additionally extra painful than I might have needed, and I solely have myself responsible for that. I skipped power coaching periods whereas coaching over the winter, and I paid the value.
This isn’t about that story although, at the very least not fully. What I’ll let you know, nevertheless, is that I used an Apple Watch SE and AirPods as a part of my tech setup to get me via the race. The excellent news is that you simply don’t want the most costly wearables from Apple that can assist you with a marathon race whereas monitoring your well being and listening to your favourite music or podcasts.
The unhealthy information is that there’s a fairly huge drawback with utilizing these devices for a marathon, and it entails battery life. The AirPods will in all probability die when you’re operating, and the Apple Watch SE may not final too lengthy after you’re carried out along with your race.
My operating setup
I’ve lengthy mentioned you don’t want Apple’s most costly devices to get an ideal expertise. And I imply it. I’ve been coaching utilizing this precise setup for months. It’s how I ran my half-marathons in preparation for my first race operating a full marathon.
The Apple Watch SE is small and light-weight, and it gives me the whole lot I want. It tracks the well being parameters I would like it to trace, whether or not my coronary heart charge or operating efficiency. Like most Apple Watches, you need to recharge it every single day. However, not like the dearer fashions, it doesn’t include quick charging help. I’ll add that I’ve a Wi-Fi model, and music streams from my iPhone 14 Professional.
The AirPods are additionally your primary AirPods mannequin at this level. I don’t want AirPods Professional 2 after I practice. Energetic noise cancelation is nice, after all. However I need to take note of my environment. For music or podcasts, the AirPods are nice when operating, even in the event you don’t get help for spatial audio. Put otherwise, I can affirm that AirPods are a greater choice than the AirPods Professional for this explicit state of affairs.
Apple’s AirPods ought to final 5 hours earlier than you need to put them again within the charging case. A 15-minute recharge session ought to provide you with one other 3 hours of battery life for music playback.
I’ll level out that almost all marathon races will take as much as 6 hours to complete the race.
The AirPods had been first to go
Earlier than the marathon, I charged all my units. However they clearly began consuming battery life as quickly as I unplugged them. That is the place I’ll provide you with one of many downsides of selecting Apple’s cheaper units: they don’t have parts which are as environment friendly because the newer, higher-end fashions. Meaning they use extra vitality than dearer variations of the Apple Watch and AirPods.
The second draw back, which I hadn’t thought-about till operating the race, was the age of those units. Battery well being is a facet it’s best to remember if you wish to run marathons and guarantee your devices don’t run out of juice.
My Apple Watch SE is about 18 months previous, and battery well being is 83%. The Airpods are barely youthful, at about 13 months previous, however they had been the primary to die whereas I used to be operating.
Across the 21-mile mark (34 km), the appropriate earpod gave out. It performed the unhappy chime that Apple customers know all too nicely, warning me that battery life was depleted. So now, I used to be listening to Taylor Swift’s 1989 on my left bud solely. I used to be aggravated at this level that the music was going to expire earlier than I’d end the race.
The rationale I used to be upset was my left knee, which was instantly performing up. This can train me to stay to the coaching plan, particularly in relation to power periods. I wasn’t drained, however the knee ache slowed me down and compromised my focus.
I ended the music playback proper there and put the AirPods again of their Lightning case. After a couple of minutes of charging, they might be good for a couple of extra hours of music, however I used to be coping with ache and determined to run the remainder of the race with none music.
Would I do it once more?
Shifting on to the Apple Watch SE, I used to be checking it routinely to see my tempo and the elapsed time. I by no means thought the battery would run out, and it really didn’t. However the Apple Watch pinged me round mile 25 (41 km) to say it had 10% battery life left. Did I need to go into low-power mode? In fact not.
Not like the AirPods, the Apple Watch didn’t run out of juice. It recorded all the info I needed to have saved. Not solely that, it lasted greater than 6 hours required to complete the marathon. Nonetheless, it will have died if it had taken for much longer to run the race.
Would I do it once more? Would I run a marathon utilizing the most cost effective Apple wearables? Completely, however with some caveats.
I should take note of the age of the wearables I’m utilizing when operating lengthy races. I may need to interchange the Apple Watch battery because it has misplaced a lot capability. For the AirPods, I’d need to get a unique pair. Additionally, I should be certain that I run pain-free in future races. This can stop me from slowing down and increasing my run. That approach, neither gadget will run out of battery life.
