I ran a 20-mile race wearing four fitness watches (like an idiot); here's what I learned

The Apple Watch Ultra 2, Garmin Fenix 8, COROS PACE Pro, and Google Pixel Watch 3 sitting on a bookshelf together, all showing a post-run summary for a 20-mile race that day.

This weekend, I ran a 20-mile marathon training race wearing four fitness watches — the Garmin Fenix 8, COROS PACE Pro, Apple Watch Ultra 2, and Google Pixel Watch 3. I felt like a weirdo, but it was actually a really useful opportunity to check which metrics are most consistent across brands — and which are most likely to be wrong or random.

I usually wear two smartwatches at any given time during runs, and I once wore six watches for a step-counting test. Usually, I'm on quiet trails where my absurd tech habits don't attract much attention, but I knew that wouldn't apply during the Run the Parkway race, which had nearly 1,000 runners.