Posted by Jon Bowie on December 28, 2010 at 20:32:31:
In Reply to: GPS watch posted by Michael Harwell on December 28, 2010 at 10:46:38:
I am sure everyone has their own personal preference, but I will tell you what I have been using. I have the Garmin 405. For race mode I use three data fields. The larger one on top is Lap Pace, the other two are Total Time and Average Pace. Like Victor said, total distance is not needed much in a race. I have auto lap set at one mile so it beeps and resets the lap pace each mile.
I found Lap Pace gives me better feedback if I start to slow down and is more stable than just Current Pace. I usually know what I want my average pace to be, so I like being able to reference that as needed. I learned this the hard way too. At Senior Bowl this year I had Average Pace as the main setting, which was fine for the first 3 miles but I slowed down so much the 4th mile but did not know until I saw my lap time. If I was monitoring Lap Pace I could have made adjustments earlier (in theory).
At the Turkey Ten I really ran mile to mile trying to keep each one on pace.
Good luck with your marathon debut. I will be enjoying the relay.