Garmin PacePro Explained: How Your Watch Can Pace Your Race

What PacePro actually does

Say you want to run a 10K in 50 minutes. Easy, right? Five minutes per kilometre, every kilometre.

Nope. That plan has two problems, and PacePro, which most Garmin running watches have, fixes both.

Problem 1: hills

You can't hold the same pace up a hill and down the other side. Try to run 5:00 per kilometre on a climb and you burn through energy you'll miss later; run 5:00 on the descent and you're wasting free speed.

PacePro looks at the elevation of your course and gives every split its own target. It tells you to slow down going up and speed up going down, and the total still adds up to your goal time.

Problem 2: pacing strategy

Running every kilometre at exactly the same pace isn't always the smartest plan. With PacePro you choose how you want to run it:

• Even: the same effort from start to finish
• Negative split: start a bit slower and finish faster, which is how most good races are run
• Positive split: start faster and hang on at the end, if you like suffering

You can also choose how hard you want to push on the climbs: take it easier on the uphills and make up time on the downhills, or attack the hills if that's your strength.

How to set it up

The full version, with hill adjustment and a pacing strategy, is built in the Garmin Connect app:

1. Load your race route as a course. Here's how to create a course in Garmin Connect
2. In the app, go to Training & Planning → PacePro Pacing Strategies and create a new strategy
3. Pick your course, enter your goal time, and set the pacing strategy and uphill effort
4. Save it and send it to your watch

No course? You can also build a strategy for a distance and a goal time, but then there's no elevation to work with, so you only get the pacing strategy, not the hill adjustment.

You can also create a quick plan on the watch itself: start a run, open the menu, go to Navigation → Courses, pick a course and select PacePro → Create New. On the watch you only set a goal time or goal pace, without the strategy options.

On race day

Start your run, open the menu and go to Training → PacePro Plans, pick your plan and select Use Plan. Before you start, you can scroll through the splits to see what's coming.

During the run, the PacePro screen shows:

• The target pace for the split you're in, and your current pace for that split
• How far into the split you are, and how much of it is left
• How far ahead or behind your goal time you are overall

That last number is the one to trust. A slow split on a climb is exactly what the plan wants, as long as the overall time stays on track. Need to drop the plan mid-race? Open the menu and select Stop PacePro; your activity keeps recording.

Which watches have PacePro

Most current Garmin running and outdoor watches: the Forerunner range from the 55 and 165 up to the 970, fēnix 7, 8, 9 and E, epix Pro, Enduro, Instinct 3, Venu 4 and X1, vívoactive 6, and the MARQ, tactix and quatix lines. The Venu 3, vívoactive 5 and Instinct 2 don't have it.

Not sure about yours, or shopping for a watch that has it? The Garmin Finder lists it for every model.

Find a Garmin with PacePro →