[London (UK) = E-Daily Reporter Shin Yeong-bin ] “It’s 3 km. Just run at your own pace.”

When I heard the instructions before the start, I thought to myself, “It’s only about 3 km.” That was a momentary lapse of judgment—I’d briefly forgotten that the person I was running with was the YouTuber “BullyJuice.” His light warm-up was already a full-fledged run, while my warm-up felt more like the main workout right from the start.

Wearing the Galaxy Watch 9 on my wrist, I entered St. James’s Park in London. In the park, which borders Buckingham Palace, runners had been coming and going nonstop since early morning. I had imagined a romantic scene of running while gazing at the green lawns, the lake, and the swans and pelicans, but just a few minutes after starting, my gaze was fixed on the small screen on my wrist.

The watch displayed my distance, current speed, workout time, and heart rate in real time. At first, I picked up the pace to keep up with the runners beside me. Shortly after, the numbers clearly showed my heart rate rising rapidly. Although my body insisted it was fine, the data on my wrist told me I was already pushing too hard.

The voice guidance was particularly useful. As my pace picked up, the coach on my wrist quickly reined in my overambition. If I’d been running alone as usual, I would have thought, “I must be in good shape today,” and kept pushing the pace. But the Galaxy Watch 9 wouldn’t let me get carried away in the early stages.

As I slowed down slightly, my breathing stabilized and my heart rate began to fluctuate within a consistent range. Simply glancing at my wrist to check the numbers while running allowed me to gauge my current exercise intensity. It was impressive that it didn’t just record how many kilometers I’d run in a few minutes, but also showed how much effort my body was expending at that pace.

I must have run about 2 km. The consequences of having neglected my usual exercise routine were slowly becoming apparent. My heart rate began to climb again, and my breathing grew heavier. Each time this happened, I checked the watch screen to find a pace I could sustain until the end, rather than just blindly pushing forward. If someone had been standing next to me, constantly offering advice on how to run, I would have found it stressful, but the numbers on my wrist and the brief prompts weren’t as distracting as I’d expected.

Once I finished my run, the data accumulated on the watch began to catch my eye, one by one. My average pace, heart rate fluctuations, and route were all neatly summarized at a glance. The sections that had simply felt difficult while running actually coincided with the moments when my heart rate spiked sharply. Conversely, I could see that after adjusting my pace, my exercise intensity remained stable.

Buli Juice cited the ability to view workout data at a glance as the most useful feature. “It helps me track my workouts because I can check my distance, heart rate, and even an estimate of calories burned,” he said. “It was helpful to be able to objectively review how much I exercised that day.”

The Galaxy Watch9’s Running Coach analyzes a user’s athletic ability and endurance based on a 12-minute running test and assigns a running level from 1 to 10. It then suggests training programs suited to the user’s level from a range of options, spanning everything from basic fitness improvement to high-intensity training. This helps users adjust their training intensity according to their current fitness level rather than just running randomly based on their mood that day.

The “Nutrition Reminder,” which alerts users when to hydrate during exercise, also caught my attention. It provides guidance on when and how much to drink based on factors such as sweat loss relative to body weight. While I wasn’t exhausted enough to need water during a 3-kilometer run, I felt this would be a useful feature for long-distance runs or when running in hot weather.

After finishing a workout, you can identify your strengths and areas for improvement through the “Physical Fitness Index,” which combines various metrics such as body composition and cardiorespiratory endurance. “Daily Aerobic Load” suggests an appropriate daily exercise volume based on your recent activity levels and physical condition. This feature helps you focus not just on how much you exercise, but also on how well you’ve recovered.

A lot was happening on my wrist during that 3-kilometer run through London’s Royal Parks. It was the Galaxy Watch9 on my wrist that reined in my initial overzealousness, alerted me to my surging heart rate, and helped me find the right pace to keep running until the very end. Thanks to this little coach on my wrist, I might actually be able to say that 3 kilometers was a “breeze” on my next run.