Did the Apple Watch Ultra 2 survive a 100 mile ultra marathon?!?

[@danielbludeau4116]

How does the elevation gain/loss compare? My AWU does terrible at that. Runs that my Garmin says have 1800’ of gain, the AWU will say 6000’+. Out and backs will be wildly off on gain vs loss. Can’t find much online, but I live in Denver and most of the complaints are from people that live at some elevation.

[@UltraTrailSteven]

Interestingly, the AWU2 seemed to be very accurate during the race. Before it died, I recall it showing about 2000' of elevation gain HIGHER than my COROS APEX 2 Pro, and distance wise it was spot on with the official distance. When I came in to an aid station, the distance on the AWU2 was almost exactly what the aid station placards said. My COROS was behind by a mile or more. When I ran this race in 2020 with my COROS APEX 46mm, it showed 13,553' feet of gain. Now this was the opposite direction, but almost the exact same course. This year the APEX 2 Pro showed 12,402' of gain. This race is generally considered to have about 14k gain. My AWU2 was on showing about 12k when it died, so it would have been about 14k had the battery lasted the whole race. So for me and my testing, I feel my AWU2 is very accurate when it comes to the distance and elevation gain (even in my testing in Colorado Springs where I live)

[@danielbludeau4116]

Thanks! I'm wondering if I got a bad unit. Oh well, probably will always use the Garmin for serious trail stuff because of that and the routes anyway. Good job in the race!

[@UltraTrailSteven]

Thank you

[@agileteka]

Daniel, probably you got a faulty unit . Such a difference is inexplicable. My AWU is always spot on

[@SugarLandFishingBros]

Do you think it would be better to have Bluetooth ON and use a chest strap monitor as then the Apple Watch monitor would turn off thus saving battery life? Or do think it wouldn’t save enough to offset the fact there is Bluetooth?

[@NealMcQuaid]

My own thinking is at a mid-point aid station, I'm going to have a portable battery pack and drop it in for the 10-15 minute stop. Apple says 0-80% in 45 minutes fast charging speeds (there's a few cheap fast charging capable battery banks now) - 15 minutes implies a 25% top-up which is another six hours. A longer rest stop and you'll get a big battery boost. To take off the watch without cancelling the recording, go into the Watch app on the phone, the 'passcode' section and 'wrist detect'. Obviously only turn it off for races - it's good for the watch to lock when you take it off your wrist usually!

[@UltraTrailSteven]

Good idea. There are quite a few small portable fast chargers out there now.

[@mr.johnnyaloha]

I was curious about using a small battery brick to boost my AWU and if it would keep activity tracking once i removed it to charge as well. Thanks for shedding light how to make it work!

[@Kelly_Ben]

For a second i forgot you were wearing both watches, and thought... "but... if you didn't record the whole thing, it doesn't count!!!" 😂😂 Can't wait for your video!

[@UltraTrailSteven]

lol working on the video now!

[@thelisa11]

Congratulations on the strong finish!

[@UltraTrailSteven]

Thanks!

[@gadier69]

Apple, please look at this video, take notes, and fix the issues mentioned here.

[@UltraTrailSteven]

Yes please!

[@SugarLandFishingBros]

Do you think it would be better to have Bluetooth ON and use a chest strap monitor as then the Apple Watch monitor would turn off thus saving battery life? Or do think it wouldn’t save enough to offset the fact there is Bluetooth?

[@UltraTrailSteven]

I am not sure. Would need to test it out.

[@PregoGB135]

Thank you for this!

[@UltraTrailSteven]

My pleasure!

[@CelineFerocious]

Wow that’s an incredible time!! Congrats :) 😊 can’t wait for the video :)

[@UltraTrailSteven]

Thank you!! 😊

[@UltraKoryy]

Thanks Steven for the video! Im going for a sub 24 - 100 mile race tomorrow. I'm going to do the following. Turn off background updates, turn off cellular, im keeping bluetooth on since it will connect with my iphone which im assuming is where the GPS tracking info will come from. I will also dim the brightness and use in low power mode. Im also bringing a battery pack that I will use when I get to 10% battery life. Hopefully the watch continues to track the run. I might go ahead and track the run on my phone as well as a back up! Ill be sure to report back my findings :)

[@UltraTrailSteven]

Goodluck tomorrow! The AWU2 will track GPS without being connected to your phone.

[@UltraKoryy]

well i only made it 100k before a foot injury became a concern but the battery was at 57% at 14 hours@@UltraTrailSteven

[@brandonjpeters7906]

I wonder if you had Bluetooth on and used Chest HRM to keep the watch’s wrist HR off if that could help? Wonder what draws more power. HR light being on or Bluetooth being on. Great job!!

[@UltraTrailSteven]

Hm interesting thought. Not sure which draws more power. Thanks!

[@brandonjpeters7906]

@@UltraTrailSteven also, what about cellular? Do you have your watch on a cellular plan? I have heard to turn off cellular if you do to save more power.

[@UltraTrailSteven]

@@brandonjpeters7906 no I do not have mine on cellular. It was off.

[@NealMcQuaid]

it seems to partially depend on heart rate monitors - the concenus was a strap was more efficient however I've seen two recent tests and it was worse!

[@jacosteyn4095]

I recently did a 50 mile ultra marathon with my Apple Watch Ultra Series 1. I turned off, mobile, WIFI and Bluetooth and set the colour grey scale (always on display also off). But not in lower mode. I ran the race in 10h 36min and my watch barely made it.... it had 3% left when crossing the finish and with about 10km to go I had to put in the lower mode (full GPS).

[@UltraTrailSteven]

Yikes! Cutting it close!

[@RDSHNTR]

How did the Coros battery compare at the end of the race?

[@UltraTrailSteven]

The COROS APEX 2 Pro had 24% left I believe.

[@dalejayne2461]

How did your apex 2 pro do? Curious how much battery that used

[@UltraTrailSteven]

The COROS APEX 2 Pro had 24% left I believe. I was also using the GPX file on this watch.

[@jonathancaughran7250]

Did you use the Apple fitness app or WorkOutdoors to record?

[@UltraTrailSteven]

The native Apple Fitness app

[@agileteka]

Hi, did you turn off the always on display? Because you don’t mention anything about it on the video. So I guess that you have left it on during the race?

[@UltraTrailSteven]

Yes I turned that off when I first got the watch. I should have mentioned that. If you go into the Watch app on your iPhone, then Display & Brightness, you can turn off off the Always On.

[@kidndn]

Thank you

[@UltraTrailSteven]

🙏

[@DeeKay1911]

I think the low power mode does a lot of the stuff you initially did manually?

[@UltraTrailSteven]

I don’t think so. When I turn on low power mode my Bluetooth, wifi, and background app refresh were still on.

[@torceridaho]

Steven, I may have missed it, but what shoes did you run in? Thanks

[@UltraTrailSteven]

Didn’t miss it as I didn’t talk about it since this was about the watch. I was wearing the Speedland GS:PGH

[@crowehar]

Congratulations on your race! Questions: Did you turn off cellular? Also did you maybe turn off “Wake on Wrist Raise”? This would reduce the times that the screen comes on to when you move the crown or tap the screen.

[@UltraTrailSteven]

Thank you! No, but that's because I do not have cellular activated on mine, so yes lol. I left the wake on wrist raise so I could see my distance and such, but that could reduce the batter consumption some.

[@PLANETWATERMELON]

Not sure if you can turn off just the heart rate and how the battery life would have been doing that.

[@UltraTrailSteven]

No I don’t think you can. You can turn it on low power mode like I did which reduces the times it checks the heart rate. You could connect an external HR monitor; not sure how that would affect battery life.

[@neilfusco5664]

Brilliant! Did you have your phone with you?

[@UltraTrailSteven]

I did, but it wasn’t connected to the watch.

[@deanoboxing83]

I ran 103 miles 2 weeks ago and mine lasted all the way through had around 20% left

[@UltraTrailSteven]

Dang! How long did it take you though? Must have been sub 20

[@deanoboxing83]

@@UltraTrailSteven yeah just over 19 hours, it was a 100 miler and I was on for 18 hours but got last and did extra 3 miles

[@UltraTrailSteven]

@@deanoboxing83 wow that’s awesome! Congratulations

[@brandonjpeters7906]

Would you mind sharing your settings that made it last 103 miles?

[@deanoboxing83]

@@brandonjpeters7906 I just put it on low power mode

[@JuanAcevedoSuta]

Turning off Bluetooth drains the watches battery, especially if the watch has a cellular connection it will kill the watch, im surprised yours made it that far

[@UltraTrailSteven]

No cellular activated on mine.

[@markcameron3]

Way too much hassle with config to extend battery, should just be able to use it and not worry like your coros or my f7x. What if you have a chest strap heart rate monitor which connects via Bluetooth, it's not gonna work.

[@UltraTrailSteven]

More battery life would be nice

[@georgevadnais3516]

That's wy i’m gonna stay with my forerunner 965

[@UltraTrailSteven]

That will definitely last longer for battery life!

[@den7k356]

I'm a 5k runner: No way I'm buying an apple watch, I need a garmin!

[@UltraTrailSteven]

😆

[@ted363636]

Let's face it - if Apple let other smartwatch producers fully integrate with iOS, no one would buy a rectangular watch that you have to charge every day :)

[@UltraTrailSteven]

I charge mine every 2-3 days. Apple just needs to increase the battery life

[@ted363636]

@@UltraTrailSteven yeah and instead of doing that, they bump up screen brightness, even though no one asked them to. AW commercial success is truly one of the world's greatest mysteries.

[@UltraTrailSteven]

@@ted363636 yep. Increasing battery life is so simple too. They are simply choosing not to