On race day
What your watch shows on race day
By Simon Busch · · 4 min read
Short answer
On supported Garmin watches, Kliva's Race Plan data field shows your next aid station, the section you are on, how you stand against your plan or the cutoff, and when to eat and drink, with alerts as you go. On recent Garmin models, Kliva also installs the race course for navigation, with turn prompts. On COROS and Suunto, Kliva gives you a GPX file with the route and aid stations, and no live plan.
Which watches does this work on?
The live plan works on supported Garmin watches only, listed on its Connect IQ Store page. It runs as Kliva Race Plan, a Connect IQ data field. A data field sits inside your normal activity, so your watch's GPS, map and recording keep running underneath. It is not an app, so you won't find it in your apps list.
COROS, Suunto and other watches get a file: the GPX export. There is more on that below.
What is on the screen during the race?
The Kliva screen shows only what your plan carries, and the rest expands to fill the space. With a full plan, you see:
- The next aid station: its name and the distance to go.
- One clock beside it, and you choose which on My race plans. With My target, the default, you see whether you are ahead or behind, such as AHD 5m, LATE 12m or ON PLAN, and during a planned stop a countdown of that stop. With The cutoff, you see your margin on the cutoff, and only this choice sends cutoff alerts to the watch.
- The section you are on: its length and its climbing and descent. These are the same segments as in your plan.
- Food and drink: a countdown to the next one, by product.
You choose how much goes to the watch: the full plan, nutrition only, or your own mix of segments, nutrition, aid stations and markers. Tap the tile on My race plans to change it.
When does the watch alert me?
It beeps and buzzes for these, with a card on screen:
- Aid stations: by default at 2 km and 500 m before, and when you arrive. You can set the first alert from 750 m to 2.5 km out.
- Food and drink: what to take, by product, when it is time.
- Cutoffs: only if you select The cutoff. My target, the default, sends no cutoff alerts, so your watch stays silent as a cutoff approaches.
- Your own markers: 500 m before by default.
In your activity settings, add Kliva Race Plan under Alerts. Without it the watch still buzzes, but the card only shows on the Kliva screen. The Watch setup guide walks you through this.
How do I navigate the course?
Activate a plan and Kliva sends its course to your Garmin by itself, with every aid station on it. On the watch, open Navigation, then Courses, and pick your race. It is named from the distance and your plan name, cut short to fit, and My race plans shows you the exact name. This needs a recent Garmin: it doesn't work on the fenix 6 series.
We recommend this course over another GPX, because your arrival times and aid alerts are built on its distances. Change the plan and the watch updates the course on its next sync.
With Turn-by-turn on, which is the default, the course also carries turn prompts, so Garmin's Next Waypoint and Distance to Next fields show the next turn rather than the next aid station. If you navigate by the map, turn it off. The prompts are worked out from the trace and from OpenStreetMap data, gentle bends get none, and a watch holds a limited number of points, so keep following the course markings.
Does the weather reach my watch?
Yes, if you leave the Weather tile on. From 3 days before the race, your plan adjusts to the heat in the forecast along the course, in pace and drinks, and the update reaches your watch without you doing anything. The day before the race, the plan locks.
Do I need my phone during the race?
No. Keep your phone near the watch for the sync. The first one takes a few minutes. After that, everything works offline, alerts included.
My race plans tells you the state of things: when the watch last synced, whether it still has another plan, and whether the course went through. Check it the day before. A very long plan may be too big for the memory of some watches. Kliva tells you when that happens, and Nutrition only gets your fuel reminders through.
After the race, your plan stays on the watch until you deactivate it.
What about COROS and Suunto?
Open the Download menu in your plan and take the GPX. It carries the whole course, with every aid station and marker on it as a waypoint, named with its cutoff, so a watch that reads waypoints can show them along the route.
On COROS, the menu has short steps: import the route, turn on waypoint alerts at each aid station, and set the watch's nutrition alert to the interval from your plan. For Suunto, you get the same file, without steps from us.
This route is a file, so there is no live plan. There is no Kliva data field on these watches, no named food and drink alerts, no ahead-or-behind readout from Kliva, and no automatic updates when your plan changes. Whatever the file can do depends on what your watch does with it.