Everyone knows that “if it's not on Strava, it didn't happen,” except for Garmin.
There are quite a few reasons to be disappointed about the Berlin Marathon 2026:
- Being a Harry Styles fan, you didn’t recognize him when he passed you along the course as he ran incognito using Sted Sarandos's alias
- You didn’t get in the Berlin Marathon, as it’s one of the Abbott World Marathon Majors
- Your Garmin watch died
One Reddit user who participated in a recent Berlin Marathon shared how Garmin “failed them when they needed it the most.”
The runner who has a Garmin Instinct 2 shared that during the 41 kilometers, the watch suddenly rebooted and only showed the Garmin logo.
The user, who has used the watch for the last three years, shared that this had happened a few times before, usually during cold weather.
“I also noticed that my HRM Pro strap didn’t start tracking heart rate until about 3 hours into the run,” continued the Redditor.
They wanted to know whether it was worth contacting Garmin Support and asking others if they had experienced something similar during an important race.
Multiple smartwatch users report random glitches during workouts
A number of users revealed that they’d experienced a similar bug, agreeing that the situation requires an email to Garmin.
However, other netizens soon reminded them that Garmin support often takes its sweet time replying and solving problems.
Some users also expressed that such an experience would make them switch to another watch brand.
“That alone would piss me off enough to order a competitor’s watch at the finish line,”
wrote one Redditor, to which the original poster replied, stating that they’ve been thinking about it already.
“I know a guy who had a similar experience with his Fenix 8 during a 50k. He uses a Coros now,” shared another user.
“I can’t even imagine how I’d feel if something like this happened on a brand-new $1k watch,” noted another netizen.
One user revealed that while they had their watch crash upon ending a marathon, they still managed to see the data after the watch rebooted.
Garmin failed me when I needed it the most
byu/andrewserd inGarmin
My Garmin didn’t survive a 100-kilometer walk: GPS mode to blame?
After almost four years of suffering miserable battery life, I exchanged my four-year-old Apple Watch SE for a Garmin Forerunner 265s.
I couldn’t be happier that I no longer have to carry a watch charger everywhere I go, or worry that my watch will die during a longer run or hike.
While Garmin has a track record of suffering from the odd outage or catching a bug, a long battery life (up to 15 days) sealed the deal for me.
However, for some reason, it did disappoint me during my 102-kilometer hike. The battery died, leaving me with a sad 83-kilometer record on Strava.
While I recovered from my misfortune, blaming myself for perhaps keeping the watch in GPS mode, which shortens the battery life to up to 20 hours, I learned that there are other ways in which Garmin can surprise you while trying to unlock a new sports achievement.
What do you do if your smartwatch reboots during a workout?
Users who found themselves in similar situations and those who believe that “any smartwatch or sports watch running any sort of OS is going to glitch, crash, or freeze sometimes,” also shared a few tips on what to do next.
Some users shared that they reached out to Garmin to find out that their watch had a hardware fault. The company then proceeded to provide them with a “warranty replacement at a discounted price.”
“Maybe it's a good practice to reboot them before an important race? Just to clear up all the little memory leaks etc,” suggested one Redditor.
Curious what others think about this story? Contribute your thoughts to the debate below.
Some netizens also took the opportunity to make a joke out of situations in which people get annoyed by unrecorded workouts.
“I am sorry for your loss, wrote one user. “Yeah, as if all the running of the Berlin marathon never happened,” joked the other.
“That’s why I always wear two backup watches,” shared another Redditor with a netizen going with: “Risky dude. I normally wear three backup watches. Just to be sure.”
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