Frequently Asked Questions

Getting the first GPS fix could take some time, depending on what device you have this could be somewhere between a few seconds to a minute. If you’re having a hard time getting a fix you can try to stand in a place where you have a clear sight of the sky. Large objects such as buildings make it harder to get a good GPS signal. You should always make sure you have installed the latest ROM and any available hot fixes for your device. You will usually find those on the vendor’s home page. A lot of devices have applications such as QuickGPS which downloads information about satellites to speed up the initial fix. You should make sure these have fresh data downloaded. You can also try to restart your device in case the “GPS intermediate driver” is stuck for some reason. A lot of devices support A-GPS which could speed up the initial fix as well, you should read more about its impacts and how you activate it on your device vendor’s website.

The following error message is displayed when starting Marathon:

An unexpected error has occurred in Marathon.exe. Select Quit and then restart this program, or select Details for more information. This application requires a newer version of the Microsoft® .NET Compact Framework than the version installed on this device.

Marathon requires .NET Compact Framework 3.5 to work, which can be downloaded for free from Microsoft right here.

Connect the Bluetooth GPS receiver as stated in its manual. Usually this means that you'll have to go into "Start -> Settings -> Connections -> Bluetooth", add the device and set up a new serial and COM port. The next step is to configure Windows to use your Bluetooth GPS-device as its default, this can be done with "Start -> Settings ->System -> External GPS (GPS on WM5)".

Some vendors hide this configuration utility so if your unlucky you'll have to go into "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ControlPanel\GPS Settings" using a registry editor and delete any "Redirect" or "Hide" keys. If you don't have a Registry Editor I'm recommending Total Commander for Pocket PC (its free, available at http://www.ghisler.com/pocketpc.htm).

Once you've managed to start the GPS settings application you'll have to make sure the hardware port is set to the COM-port you configured your Bluetooth device to use. The software port can be any available port and the option "Manage GPS Automatically" should be checked.

When the GPS Info form (Menu->View->GPS Info) displays the message "No GPS Device found" your device isn't configured yet. Marathon uses Microsofts Intermediate GPS driver, which means that you have to configure your GPS device in Windows Mobile. You can do this using the configuration utility available at "Start -> Settings -> System -> External GPS (GPS on WM5)".

Some vendors hide this configuration utility so if your unlucky you'll have to go into "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ControlPanel\GPS Settings" using a registry editor and delete any "Redirect" or "Hide" keys. If you don't have a Registry Editor I'm recommending Total Commander for Pocket PC (its free, available at http://www.ghisler.com/pocketpc.htm).

Once you've managed to start the GPS configuration utility you'll have to make sure the hardware port is set to the port your device uses. The software port can be any available port and the option "Manage GPS Automatically" should be checked.

The accuracy depends on a lot of factors, such as the quality of the device being used, the signal quality and the track. A curvy track in dense forest could give an error of 5%, while a straight track on a field gives a very accurate result. Luckily the curvy track in the forest will give about the same accuracy miss every time. This is where the calibration feature in Marathon comes in handy. You can configure a calibration percentage on three different levels; these are the current result, all results on the same track or all results recorded by the application. This feature can be found under “Menu -> Settings -> Calibration”. Once you’ve set a calibration value for a track you’ll have to select the track with “Menu->File->Track->Select” before starting a new recording.

You can set up your targeted time and distance in the "Goal time comparison"-form, you will find it under “Menu -> File -> Set Goal Time”. You can either use a generic time and distance or a previously recorded one. When you are using a previously recorded result you may change your time goal to somewhere between 50 and 200 percent. This will let you set up a different time goal while taking the tracks difficulty variations into account.

First you should make sure that you have an active internet connection. Marathon will not connect for you due to security reasons. Once you have an active internet connection you can go to “Menu -> File -> Upload Result”.

Your device should be supported if you’re running Windows Mobile 5.0 Professional or later with a screen resolution of at least 240x240 pixels. A GPS receiver with support for the "GPS intermediate driver" is also required.

You can upload it to this webpage. This will give you various statistics as well as rankings against yourself and others. See “How do I upload a saved result?” for more information.

Once the result has been uploaded to the website you can go to the dashboard and select the track from your latest sprints. Marathon uses a unique identification algorithm to identify similar tracks.

I’m not charging anything for using the online service, but your carrier might charge you for the data traffic, unless you have a free data plan or use Wi-Fi/ActiveSync to gain free internet access.

That’s a subjective question which isn’t easy to answer since there are so many factors involved. It depends on your type of device and battery. Without any real scientific research behind it id guess that Marathon drains a little bit more than the music player on my device. So you should be able to pull off a real marathon without being an elite runner. Unless you want to see the screen you should turn it off, this will save a lot of power since the application isn’t drawing anything.

No, you can configure announcements using "Menu -> Settings -> Announcements". This will make the device announce information to your speaker or headset.