I ice-skated an ultramarathon with my Garmin watch, and here’s how that went

I’m a type-two fun kind of guy — my friends know this, and most of my colleagues do at this point, too. That means I’m always looking for an activity that feels like a challenge. Whether that means riding a single-speed bike 100 miles to Washington, DC, or trying to cram another side quest into a trip to go trail running, I’m almost always in for the adventure.

So, when two of my friends decided they wanted to ice skate for an entire day to see how far they could go, I jumped at the chance — and I wanted to see what my Garmin Fenix 8 AMOLED thought of the idea. With rental skates in tow and free snacks to keep me going, here’s how my long day of making (almost exclusively) left turns went.

Before I get into the specifics of ice skating with the Garmin Fenix 8 AMOLED, I should probably explain the challenge better. Last year, one of my friends decided she wanted to ice skate a marathon, attempting to cover 26.2 miles around a tiny rink on the Johns Hopkins University campus throughout eight 90-minute sessions. She not only succeeded but crushed her goal and decided to push into ultramarathon territory, ultimately logging 31.8 miles for the day. I joined up for a few sessions, mostly planning to offer moral support but never figuring I’d take on a similar challenge myself.

Fast forward to this year, and I almost immediately had to eat my words. Not only did she want to run it back for a second marathon, but another one of my closest friends wanted to join. So, I did what any fitness-obsessed journalist would do and got competitive. I decided that not only did I want to join the challenge, but I wanted to tackle the marathon faster than she had last year, which meant a bit more determined skating and a bit less social time on the ice.

So, I strapped on my Fenix 8 AMOLED and toggled down to its ice-skating mode because, of course, it has one of those. Honestly, I don’t think I’m surprised that Garmin supports ice skating as one of its many activities — it has dozens upon dozens, after all. I am, however, surprised at how good its skate tracking is, supporting both indoor and outdoor modes and offering the same level of customization as if you were going for a run. I’m not entirely sure what the difference between indoor and outdoor tracking is (I’ve only skated outdoors), but the customization was a lifesaver.

When you jump into a skate, Garmin doesn’t offer your overall distance by default. I get it — most people aren’t out there to log miles so much as spend time with friends or go for a very cold first date. I, however, needed both my total time and distance if I was to have any hope of finishing a marathon at a reasonable speed. So, I jumped into Garmin’s massive web of menus, trading the heart rate graph for my total time and swapping calories burned for my overall distance. Then, it was time to hit the ice.

Fortunately, I have almost nothing to share about my actual skating time — it simply went too smoothly. Sure, I fell once or twice (it was twice), but my body didn’t fail me, and neither did my Fenix 8 AMOLED. It continued to impress me during our mandatory 30-minute breaks while the rink manager took his Zamboni for laps to clean up the skating surface. Each time we hopped off the ice, I could give my watch a break with Garmin’s Resume Later function, halting the GPS tracking and saving precious battery life. Also, with the activity on hold, I could tap into other features like Garmin Pay to buy much-needed snacks and breakfast sandwiches to keep me going.

Before I knew it — alright, after about six and a half hours on the ice — I had notched a 50k. I’d skated to the marathon distance and then shattered it, checking off nearly 630 laps on a tiny little ice rink on my way to 31 miles and change. Best of all, I did it before the start of the final session of the day, which started at 10 pm and would have kept me on the ice until 11:30 pm, which meant that I got to go home early. But first, I had to upload my activity to Strava because if it’s not on Strava, it didn’t happen.

Perhaps the most surprising thing that happened during the entire day of skating lap after lap around the world’s smallest, most temporary ice rink was when I finished my activity: The Fenix 8 AMOLED stumbled — my first time ever seeing a Garmin have a problem of any kind. It didn’t fail me or lose my activity, but it took longer to process the amount of data than I’d ever seen before. I sat and watched as Garmin’s blue rings looped around the “Saving…” message, practically holding my breath at the possibility that it wouldn’t be able to process the entire effort.

But then, after about 30 seconds of thinking about it, my watch kicked into gear, saving my activity and sending it to the great Garmin Connect database in the sky. I was finally able to check my overall heart rate, which stayed around 110-120 beats per minute, and my speed, which was a nice, comfortable 5-6 miles per hour. Unsurprisingly, Garmin reported back to me that this was my longest skate — I mean, of course, it was; nobody in their right mind spends this much time on the ice more than once — but that wasn’t my favorite part of the recap.

No, the best part was, without question, looking at the map of my activity. My Fenix 8 AMOLED kept me perfectly on opposite sides of the ice with each lap that I finished, which meant that when uploaded to Strava, I had the thickest orange band of a map I’d ever seen. And then, I tapped on the video replay of my effort. It’s not only three minutes long when played at 1x speed, but it gives the same impression as a tiny atom flying around CERN’s famed particle accelerator. Then, I bumped it to 3x speed and watched my GPS beacon fly around the map at a speed that would make my post-Super Bowl hangover feel even worse.

The only surprise remaining was how I’d feel the next day.

If you’ve ever logged an activity on a Garmin watch — or any fitness watch, for that matter — you know that recovery time is as important as the workout itself. Sometimes, your watch will tell you that you need quite a while before you’re ready for another hard workout, while other times, you’ll feel like you’re ready to get back out there after just a few hours. This time, though, I was prepared to call Garmin a liar.

When I finished my skating ultramarathon and saved my activity, Garmin told me that I needed approximately nine hours of rest. For me, nine hours is the same recommendation that I get after an easy-to-moderate run — about the activity level I check off every day. So, for that to be my recommendation following nearly seven hours on my feet when my lower back and right leg felt ready to fall off, I thought my Fenix 8 AMOLED must have forgotten what we’d just done together.

Then, I woke up the next day and was immediately proven wrong. As much as I thought everything would hurt, I felt pretty good. Sure, my right leg was tired from pushing into turns almost all day, but I didn’t feel nearly as crippled as I had after any of my road marathons or even a hard speed workout. Surprisingly, Garmin’s recommended nine hours turned out to be spot-on. Was I about to put my skates back on and head back to the rink? Absolutely not; that’s what they call Stockholm Syndrome — well, kind of — but I felt like I was in good enough shape to go for a run or a climb later in the day. I didn’t do that, but I could have.

And that idea, the “but I could have,” keeps me loving the Garmin Fenix 8 AMOLED. It’s a watch that listens to my weirdest ideas and worst-thought-out plans and is perfectly willing to track them as accurately as possible. I’ve called it the best ultra-grade watch I’ve ever used in the past, and it continues to surprise me by proving its worth again and again.