The best headphones, watches, and apps for half-marathon runners

The RBC Brooklyn Half Marathon, which takes place in May every year, is a fun 13.1-mile course. You spend the first half battling hills in the shade and beauty of Prospect Park, only to swap that for a new challenge during the second half of the race — the ease of a relatively low-grade downhill trek on the shadeless, hot Ocean Parkway. The race's relaxed hill promises a PR for many runners, while the daunting heat dusts other runners into a PW. Last year, I hit the former; this year, the latter.

For many runners, myself included, tech is particularly important for a race like this. You depend on your headphones to keep music alive and you motivated during the last few miles; you depend on your watch to tell you exactly how many miles you have left; you depend on your massage gun to save your muscles once you finally get home.

Mashable caught up with a few folks running the race — or in charge of the race's success — to see what tech they use to train and run the RBC Brooklyn Half Marathon. Personally, I used my Apple Watch (which died on me as soon as the race ended), Strava, Spotify, and a pair of Plantronics wireless running headphones I purchased in 2019 that are still, somehow, my go-to running headphones.

Alan Bersten

Bersten, the professional dancer you might recognize from Dancing with the Stars, used this race to raise money for the New York Road Runners (NYRR)Team for Kids, a charity that supports NYRR's free youth and community programs. It was his first-ever race, but he came prepared with a Garmin "mainly because I saw a bunch of videos on TikTok saying that Apple Watch wasn't accurate."

For what it's worth, when Mashable compared the Garmin Fenix 8 and the Apple Watch Ultra 2, the Fenix came out on top with battery life, an important quality for long races.

He also uses the Runna app, which was just acquired by Strava, to track his runs. He listens to tunes while running using Apple Music and SHOKZ, although he admits you can "barely hear the music," a common complaint from SHOKZ users because it uses bone conduction instead of typical in-ear speakers.

To recover, he uses a Theragun and Normatec boots, compression boots intended to enhance blood circulation, reduce muscle soreness, and speed up recovery time, "which are amazing."

Matt James

James, the titular bachelor from Season 25 of The Bachelor, has finished the TCS New York City Marathon four times, but this was his first-ever RBC Brooklyn Half Marathon.

He uses the Coros global watch "at all times," but especially while running. On his phone, you'll find the Strava app, Endorphins app, the Coros Global app for his watch, and Spotify "for the vibes." He rolls out with a lacrosse ball (pretty low-tech) and loves a "good session in the sauna and cold plunge," but he also uses the Hyperice Normatec recovery boots. His latest obsession? JLab headphones.

Meris Pena

Meris Pena works with NYRR Striders, a free walking and fitness program for older adults. For this race, though, she wasn't walking — although she doesn't need much tech, even when she's running.

Pena doesn't use headphones when she runs because she's "having fun on [her] own." She wants to "feel the love of the [running] community." She has a Garmin but doesn't use it much. What she absolutely does love — and needs — is a low-tech app called Stepz, which she likes as a pedometer.

NYRR CEO Rob Simmelkjaer

Simmelkjaer, the CEO of NYRR, didn't run the RBC Brooklyn Half Marathon this year, but he did ensure everyone else could, and he spends a lot of time running. His daughter gifted him a Garmin for his birthday last year, and he "absolutely loves it." Before that, he was using an Apple Watch, and while he says they "both have benefits for sure," he appreciates Garmin's superior battery life.

He uses Bose headphones to listen to Pandora while he runs because he "likes to be surprised sometimes" by the music Pandora puts on. He syncs his Garmin to his Strava account and always uses it to track his runs. He also uses the Runna app, which he says helped get him through training for a successful Berlin Marathon last fall.

Rob Dalto

Dalto, a running content creator @pursuitofperformance__, successfully (!) attempted a personal record when he ran the RBC Brooklyn Half Marathon. To get there, he used his Garmin watch and tracked his runs on Strava.

If he listens to music or podcasts on runs, he uses SHOKZ, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts, but you can often find him running without anything plugged into his ears. He also uses Lingo for continuous glucose monitoring. The two pieces of tech he absolutely had to have to run the half marathon? His Garmin watch and iPhone.

Patina Miller

Miller, a Tony-award winning actor and singer who runs with Define New York Run Club, is "obsessed" with her Coros products: the Global Watch, Coros Pod 2, Coros heart rate monitor, and the Coros App, V.O2, which her coach uses to track her data for better performance. Of course, she also uses Strava. To recover, she uses a low-tech roller, along with the Normatec compression gear and a Theragun massage gun.

She says she predominantly uses Beats for running but occasionally switches to SHOKZ OpenRun headphones.