Alright I know that if you don’t do Ironman in sub 13 your not racing blah blah—
Well I will be 14+ hour ironman and need to know if anyone using a garmin 301 has longer battery life than 13 hours. Beacause I would hate to be on the run back into Lake Placid and have the 301 crap out.
Can addtional batteries be installed or purchased or are there any battery saving techniques.
Kevin
You won’t be wearing it for the swim will you?
Great question!
I don’t have an answer, but would like to know what you find out. I’ll be guiding a blind athlete at IMCDA this weekend and was planning to log the entire thing with my Garmin.
tks!
No, I was not planning on it. subtract 80 minutes and i am still pushing the envelope assuming nothing goes horribly wrong.
k
The new Beta 2.63 version adds Multisport mode and supposedly increases battery life. I have not had any problems with it.
Jimmy
what benefit do you get from wearing one during a race?
I don’t know why you’d want to lug a 4runner on an ironman run. Mine can be off a mile on a 4 mile run. It would get on my nerves to see that thing telling me I’ve run less than I have for 26.2 miles.
a mile??? that seems like a lot. Under what conditions are you running? Lots of trees? Buildings?
I wore my Garmin for a 1/2 that was only marked every 5K. I liked knowing where I was on the course and my aproximate pace. People around me who noticed that I had the Garmin on kept asking me how far we had gone ( or had left) on the course. I doubt that it helped my race, but it was fun to have the information.
Now that’s cool.
I’ve found mine to be very accurate. Over many runs on the same route I’ll hit the same crack in the side walk, sign post or tree at the same distance reading every time. Maybe yours is bad or you’re under thick trees.
Anyway, regarding the original question, If you don’t have it on during the swim you’d have to stand around while the thing gets a signal. The directions say to stand still while doing this. I don’t know how much moving while getting the signal would affect the results. I suppose you could get it out of the bag, lay it on the ground, run in the tent, then come back out and grab it, of course you’ll be going the wrong way. I decided it wasn’t worth it and left it home.
I’m in the same boat (finishing time-wise) and I am planning to test it out during a little pre-ride and run on thursday. And, if the reception looks good then I’ll use it on the bike and possibly carry it on the run (until it dies). If it’s flaky it’ll stay packed away. I believe that the biggest battery waster is when it loses connections and has to look for more satelite signals.
Oh, I also have a 201 so I might save that one for the run too (just to get the fresh battery). 
-jeff
suppose you could try putting one of these in your special needs bag on the run.
http://www.gpscity.com/gps/brados/57146.12.2877629198511256660/batusbpower.html
FWIW I have not used this myself. It was mentioned on the motionbased forum by ultra-runners looking to record 100 mile races.
if you’d like you can find a couple posts regarding using the 301 for events pushing the 14 hr mark on the MB forum:
post on external power supply:
http://forums.motionbased.com/smf/index.php?topic=646.0
post on limits of memory storage for the 301:
http://forums.motionbased.com/smf/index.php?topic=871.msg
Good luck in IMLP.
I did the course this weekend with the 301 and it was a gem. Bring all of the gear that you own. I had 56 rain/sleet/fog on sat and 78 sun on sunday. Loved the course. we have just 2 more weeks left them taper baby taper.
Kevin
You won’t be wearing it for the swim will you?
Looks like it can be done.
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=370637;search_string=garmin;#370637
As far as the 14 hours the example above was ~12:43 so he had some time to spare.
I had 56 rain/sleet/fog on sat
You too? I was there Fri and Sat - at least you got the nice weather sunday. I agree - wasn’t the course outstanding? Really looking forward to the race now that I’ve ridden the course.
japple
FWIW - I ran into a problem with my 201 this weekend as my ride length (Trackpoints) exceeded the battery life. Net result, it chopped off the begining of my 124 mile ride (reduced it to 106 miles). The max trackpoints on the 201 is 3000.
The 301 has a max trackpoints of 5,000. I’m not sure, but you might be running into the maxium distance/time that the it allows. Ask the folks at Motionbased…they seem to know more than the Garmin folks.
Good luck…
Puchase spare batteries and leave these in your special needs bags at bike and T2. Make sure you don’t lose your data beforehand though…
Hello,
Good luck in CDL. If you see Aaron Sheides tell him I said Good Luck. I’ve ridden with him on a tandem from time to time.
Shawn Tyrrell
i know him well…i tell aaron you said hi! a 2-hour olympic distance blind triathlete…he is definitely impressive. too bad he has back issues right now…i’d be interested to see what he could do this sunday at CDA if he was pain-free!