Sorry not much help here.

Just want to say that my FR10 also takes forever to catch satellites. Helps if it's less cloudy. The only thing I've found so far is that
it helps a little to leave is stationary on something and it takes longer if you've traveled far (NA to Europe).

Friends have 910XT and the Timex equivalent and they seem to work quite well. But catching satellites on the go is always an issue.

Garmins will indeed acquire faster if they've already been turned on in the actual location where you are - takes much longer if you've moved any significant distance from the last use. So your idea of calibrating before the start is a good one, it will help some. For a sprint I'd just leave it on (but not recording) during the bike. Or let it record the bike and just save or discard that event in T2. Or, leave it in the transition area, on (but not recording) and grab it and start recording in T2.

To answer your question about other Garmin devices - my 305 will struggle quite a bit if I start out before it has a satellite lock. I think eventually it will lock on and start recording, but in a sprint distance run, that's not going to give you the info you want, even if it kicks in after a few minutes.

(One note about the FR10 - if you happen to use Strava, it defaults events from that device to runs no matter what, so if you do happen to use it for a ride, it can mess up your running PRs since it (Strava) may calculate those before you can switch the event type to Bike - at which time you have to open a ticket with Strava to fix them)

My 405 also takes some time. As a compromise, and so I can track cadence, I use a foot pod when racing and on some key training runs. It will initially use the footpod data until it has I think at least 4 satellites or some minimum value for accuracy. So elevation data is still a bit off, but you get some sort of pacing information. Plus, based on cadence, off the bike, I know roughly what my pace is at least in the first few miles. For example, if I'm upwards of 95spm, I'm up around 1/2 mary pace. 98spm and I'm probably close to 5k pace.

I'm not sure of the FR10 works with a foot pod.

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TrainingBible Coaching
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Thanks for the input. I have tried to calabrate and leave it in my shoes in T2 before the race but when the watch shuts down and I start it again, it starts over to calabrate and takes to long.
The watch does not have the foot pod fuction so I might have to upgrade.

kinda of a bummer because all I want to do is turn it on and start running.

Is it actually powering off (you say shutting down) or just going to power save mode (sitting at the time of day)?

I've used the FR10 for several races myself, but never had this issue. As soon as I enter T2, I hit the GPS button and I've got a signal by the time I exit transition. Now, my transition times are nothing to brag about, so maybe that's part of it (extra time to acquire the signal).

You're right, though, the power save mode is annoying...I wish that could be disabled...

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- John
"Have courage, and be kind."

You can always just turn it on before the start of the swim and hit the start button when you finally make it out of T2. My buddy has a Forerunner (don't know which one but it is not a 310/910) and he just turns it on for an entire race to get his overall finish time (and to help pace for the run portion). It's only a sprint and the battery should last much longer than the entire race on a full charge.

I ended up doing the same thing for my Edge 500 for my bike. It takes a bit to lock on sometimes and I found it easier to turn off the auto-shut off/sleep mode setting and leave it on just before they close transition so I don't have to worry about it acquiring a signal at the start of the bike. Helps that I only participate in local races where I am setting up my transition area a hour or two before the first wave goes out.

Yeah i practice the same during my races. It has worked out for me so far without battery depleting all the way