I lastly did it: I ran my first marathon, and it went a lot better than I anticipated. Nevertheless, within the remaining quarter of the race, it was additionally extra painful than I’d have wished, and I solely have myself in charge for that. I skipped energy coaching classes whereas coaching over the winter, and I paid the value.
This isn’t about that story although, at the very least not completely. 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 by the race. The excellent news is that you just don’t want the most costly wearables from Apple that will help 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 massive downside with utilizing these devices for a marathon, and it includes battery life. The AirPods will in all probability die whilst you’re operating, and the Apple Watch SE won’t final too lengthy after you’re finished together with your race.
My operating setup
I’ve lengthy stated you don’t want Apple’s most costly devices to get an awesome expertise. And I imply it. I’ve been coaching utilizing this actual 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 affords me all the pieces I would like. It tracks the well being parameters I need it to trace, whether or not my coronary heart charge or operating efficiency. Like most Apple Watches, it’s a must to recharge it day by day. However, not like the dearer fashions, it doesn’t include quick charging assist. I’ll add that I’ve a Wi-Fi model, and music streams from my iPhone 14 Professional.
The AirPods are additionally your fundamental AirPods mannequin at this level. I don’t want AirPods Professional 2 once I prepare. Lively noise cancelation is nice, after all. However I wish to take note of my environment. For music or podcasts, the AirPods are nice when operating, even for those who don’t get assist for spatial audio. Put otherwise, I can verify that AirPods are a greater choice than the AirPods Professional for this specific situation.
Apple’s AirPods ought to final 5 hours earlier than it’s a must 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 have 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 power than dearer variations of the Apple Watch and AirPods.
The second draw back, which I hadn’t thought of till operating the race, was the age of those units. Battery well being is a facet it is best to have in mind 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 have been the primary to die whereas I used to be operating.
Across the 21-mile mark (34 km), the fitting earpod gave out. It performed the unhappy chime that Apple customers know all too properly, 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 irritated 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 appearing up. It will train me to stay to the coaching plan, particularly on the subject of energy classes. I wasn’t drained, however the knee ache slowed me down and compromised my focus.
I finished 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 number 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 truly didn’t. However the Apple Watch pinged me round mile 25 (41 km) to say it had 10% battery life left. Did I wish 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 information I wished to have saved. Not solely that, it lasted greater than 6 hours required to complete the marathon. Nevertheless, it might 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 affordable Apple wearables? Completely, however with some caveats.
I must 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 must get a distinct pair. Additionally, I must be certain that I run pain-free in future races. It will forestall me from slowing down and increasing my run. That method, neither gadget will run out of battery life.
