We’ve all experienced this problem at some point. You’re running a race, and you go by the mile marker, and you look at your watch.
But it doesn’t buzz. Because the distance is off.
There can be a lot of reasons for this, and sometimes the error is negligible. But once you’re off by a few tenths of a mile, it makes it difficult to effectively gauge your pace.
When I ran my first marathon, the Atlantic City Marathon, we ran through a tunnel on the highway going out towards the marina. My GPS signal dropped out for a quarter mile, and my pace and distance were off after that. This was especially frustrating because I was using the goal distance screen to see what my expected finish time was.
But now, I know better. There’s a solution. And it’s called Race Screen.
Race Screen is a free data field you can get from the Garmin ConnectIQ store, and it will solve (almost) all of your GPS problems. Here’s how.
How Race Screen Works
Race screen doesn’t actually edit or change the GPS data that is stored in your watch. But it makes a simple adjustment to display more accurate data while you’re racing.
The screen can show both predicted finish time and average pace. This is calculated based off your elapsed time and your current distance. But if your current distance is off, it will cause both of these calculations to be off.
With race screen, you press the manual lap button every time you pass a mile marker. This rounds the distance that is displayed to the nearest mile marker, and it uses the new distance to calculate the average pace and the predicted finish time.
This can be useful in any race, when your GPS might be off by a little bit somewhere. I’ve had it happen in all kinds of races, including shorter events like 5ks and 10ks.
But it’s really common in large city races – like Chicago or New York. The tall buildings downtown mess with the GPS, and you’ll inevitably have pretty big GPS errors throughout those downtown sections. Without an adjustment, your data will be meaningless.
How to Set Race Screen Up
I’ll admit, this confused me at first. I read about Race Screen on Reddit, I installed it from the ConnectIQ store, and then I couldn’t figure out how to actually set it up.
First, go to an activity – most likely Running, but you could also do Trail Running.
Next, go to the menu and select “Run Settings” (or “Trail Run Settings”), and then select “Data Screens.”
This brings up the data screens that are displayed when you are in this activity. Scroll down to the bottom, and when it says “Add New” press the Start button to add a new data screen.
You may see a bunch of built in options, but select “Custom Data.”
This will just show “000” in the middle of the screen. Don’t press the up or down buttons (which will add additional blank fields). Just press the Start button again.
When it says “Choose Field 1,” press the Start button. Then select “ConnectIQ Fields.” And here, you should see “Race Screen.”
Select it.
Now, you’ll have the blank Race Screen data field available any time you’re in a Run activity.
How to Adjust the Settings on Race Screen
To adjust the settings, you need to go to the Garmin Connect app on your phone.
From the menu, select Connect IQ Store. Then select Device in the bottom right. Finally, scroll down and select My Data Fields.
If you’ve installed Race Screen, you’ll see it here. Select it and select Settings.
The one setting you’ll always need to adjust is “Race Distance (metres).” Enter the race distance in meters.
For a 5k (5000) or 10k (10000), this is straightforward. For a full marathon, enter 42195, and for a half marathon enter 21097 (or 21098, it won’t accept a decimal). This is used to calculate the predicted finish time.
You can also play with the first option – “Seconds used to calculate pace (1-60).” This is the length of time over which your pace is averaged before it’s displayed. A higher number is less susceptible to short term inconsistencies in GPS data, but it can also take longer to reflect a true increase in pace.
I use 20 seconds, and I try and make a mental note to maintain my effort for 20-30 seconds before looking down at my watch for pace data. But anywhere from 10-30 seconds is probably appropriate.
You can play with the other settings, but those are the two most important ones.
Do You Need to Disable Autolap?
You should disable to auto-lap feature of your Garmin when you’re using Race Screen. This is the feature whereby Garmin automatically creates a lap in your activity every mile (or km or whatever distance you set).
This is because if the GPS measures long, you don’t want there to be a 1 mile lap followed by a 0.05 mile lap.
Instead, the activity should keep running, and at 1.05 miles when you press the lap button, you’ll know that you hit the next mile marker.
That being said, you can leave autolap on if you want. You’ll just find that you often have a mile lap followed by a really short lap. Race Screen itself will function properly, but your data in Garmin Connect will be more verbose and confusing.
Also, it’s ok if you miss a lap. Inevitably, I’ll miss one or two mile markers while running a marathon. This causes the numbering of the miles to be off in Garmin Connect, but Race Screen still works fine in this situation. As long as you’re not off by more than half a mile – which would be really strange – it’ll still round things appropriately and adjust the average pace and expected finish time.
Does This Edit the GPS Distance Of Laps in Garmin Connect?
No, it doesn’t.
This might be frustrating for you. But that’s just the way it is.
If you manage to manually lap all 26 miles in a marathon, you’ll end up with 27 laps (including the 0.2 mile lap at the end). Each one will have a varying distance. Typically, mine are between 0.98 and 1.05, but it could be a little more or less depending on just how bad the area is that you’re running through.
This will distort the average pace and other data points in Garmin Connect when you look at the data afterwards.
But if you manually lapped each mile, you can be confident that the elapsed time for each mile is correct. So ignore the pace data in Garmin and pay attention to the time and the lap number.
Race Screen Is a Game Changer
I don’t often use Race Screen for shorter races, but it has been a game changer for me at the marathon distance.
When I ran the Erie Marathon, it didn’t make much distance. The race was along a relatively straight course with wide turns and no buildings. The GPS tracked well, and it probably didn’t matter.
But I’ve run Philly, Jersey City (x2) and Chicago. All three of these included segments of the race that went through downtown areas with tall buildings. And as a result, there were times when the GPS data got very distorted.
Now that I’ve started using Race Screen, this doesn’t bother me. I just wait until the next mile marker, hit the lap button, and everything is back to normal. I’ve learned to interpret the split data in Garmin Connect and to ignore the pace data. And I’m very happy with the results.
In an ideal world, I’d like to have that data adjusted in Garmin Connect as well. But at the end of the day, I’m more interested in accurate data while I’m running. And that’s exactly what you get from Race Screen.
So if you’re planning to run a marathon in a downtown area – or anywhere else where you might get some GPS distortion – you should definitely install Race Screen on your Garmin. Set it up before hand and test it out, just to make sure you understand how it works.
Trust me. You’ll thank me later.