Enable Custom Track Distance Settings for Non-Standard Athletics Tracks

Track Run mode currently only works with standard 400m tracks. Many training facilities worldwide use non-standard distances (e.g., 350m, 300m tracks), making the feature inaccurate for these users. I train regularly on a 350m track. Track Run mode shows 400m per lap instead of the actual 350m, making distance/pace data completely wrong.

Proposed Solution: Add a "Track Distance" setting in Track Run configuration menu, similar to the existing pool length setting for swimming activities.

This would expand the Forerunner 965's usability to non-standard tracks worldwide while maintaining all existing functionality.

0 bluefish 3 months ago

cescato said:
Add a "Track Distance" setting in Track Run configuration menu, similar to the existing pool length setting for swimming activities.

Pool length and track run are two different functions. While pool length is based on a simple straight track and the pools are not recorded in a database, track run is based on a database. The corresponding track is retrieved from a database using the recorded GPS position. The main advantage of this is the correction of the GPS signal in curves. Incorrect GPS data is corrected and the data is superimposed directly on top of each other.

Ultimately, track run works completely differently from pool length.

So it's not just the length of the track you're running on that matters, but also the coordinates of the stadium.

To fulfill your request, Garmin would have to create and maintain an additional database of non-standard tracks. This would cost additional money.

0 flowstate 3 months ago in reply to bluefish

bluefish said:
While pool length is based on a simple straight track and the pools are not recorded in a database, track run is based on a database. The corresponding track is retrieved from a database using the recorded GPS position. The main advantage of this is the correction of the GPS signal in curves. Incorrect GPS data is corrected and the data is superimposed directly on top of each other.

Ultimately, track run works completely differently from pool length.

So it's not just the length of the track you're running on that matters, but also the coordinates of the stadium.

To fulfill your request, Garmin would have to create and maintain an additional database of non-standard tracks. This would cost additional money.

Yes, track run uses a database of known 400m tracks.

But track run also has the ability to work with unknown tracks (with the same length and geometry as a standard 400m track). You run around an unknown track a few times, and Garmin calibrates the watch for this unknown track (and saves the related GPS/calibration data to the watch's local track database).

So in fact, Garmin would *not* necessarily have to create and maintain an additional database of non-standard tracks.

At a minimum, they would have to update their track detection/calibration algorithm so it works with other lengths (like 350m or 300m). This would ofc cost additional money and development time, but it's not as much of an ask as asking Garmin to add all the 350m / 300m tracks in the world to their database.