Inspired by Grannyhugs beautiful GPS reindeer, I took a closer look at my city's map and thought I could see a reindeer body shape with room to freestyle some antlers in an area I've only run a couple of times. So I plotted a run course on Garmin Connect, watched a short video on the navigation feature of my watch and then uploaded the route to my watch. The antlers could be nicer but I can see a reindeer shape overall to it so I'm happy with it and I found the navigation feature on my watch relatively easy to use for this technophobe. Yay! I was wearing my Christmas hat while I ran and I got a selfie with a festive Christmas tree in the background so ✔️✔️✔️for my bingo card today. Yay!
TheGPS art run was only 2.68 km so after saving it I set off to run the remainder of my easy run today, running the city pathways from the opposite direction that I am used to. With all the fog we have had lately, the hoarfrost was quite thick and so pretty. I stopped a lot to take pictures on the way and even saw a Momma deer with her young'un but they were too far away for a picture. I met another runner but missed my opportunity for a bonus check today, saying "Good morning" instead of "Merry Christmas" - doh! Next time perhaps. I was running behind him on Wednesday so I am guessing if I keep running on this pathway in the mornings, I'll likely see him again and get another opportunity. I had thought about popping into a local coffee shop after my run for a quick festive treat but I was overdressed on my run today with my Christmas hat so all my clothes were soaked in sweat. It was more important that I came home and showered before being seen in public as much as I was looking forward to a festive coffee and sweet. That one will be saved for another day.
I hope everyone has a great run-day and are able to get a few more check marks on your Christmas Bingo cards 🎄. I'm looking forward to seeing what others are able to come up with for their Strava or GPS art. It really was a lot of fun to do.
Written by
SaskAlliecat
Graduate10
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Wow that's an amazing effort! It even looks like Rudolph with his red nose! 🦌 Well done on all those ticks, making great progress on your Xmas bingo card, I'd better get a move on! I'm always so jealous when you post pics. Please keep them coming 😃🎄☃️
Brilliant reindeer, love it, and all your lovely snowy pictures too. I like the sound of plotting your run. Hubby and I have been doing loads of hill walking and we are constantly using map and compass, a little tech backup of preplotted map may be handy but I guess you’re relying on a signal in the hills🤔 well done resisting stopping for coffee and choosing a shower. Happy running 🤗
Thanks Granny 😊. The FR 245 has some interesting navigation features. You can choose back to start to breadcrumb you back to your starting point. I'm hoping to explore the navigation a bit more this summer when I get back on my trails. I'm not very map savvy so we'll see how well it works for me, but it can't be much worse than me trying to use an actual map and compass 😬.
Your first attempt at GPS art is excellent Sask, well done, I thought when I looked at the photos you had had the snow you wanted but you say that it was what we call in the UK freezing fog that left all those trees looking like something out of a Christmas Card.
Occasionally where I live we get about 3 days of freezing fog, when it clears I can see from my window a wood with pine and other trees which the fog has left hoar frost on the trees looking like the trees in that photograph.
Unfortunately the snow never came but this is a pretty second choice. At least it is very festive. The first day there was a distanct line where the frost was only on one side of the trees. After 2 days, it is a little more all encompassing now.
So many bingo ticks in one run out Allie!🏃♀️✔🦌🎄⭐Is it just me, or does he work upside down too🤗 Fab work on the drawing front, he really is a gorgeous reindeer!
You still have that treat to look forward too next run.😋
I like it🦌, I m going to see how far I can stretch my imagination today I think. I might be able to come up with something that resembles a cave drawing 🙃
Brilliant reindeer just lovely ☃️🎄🎅 I bet you had a giggle when running him. Great Festive Bingo results as well. I really like a cold frosty day when the world sparkles ✨ ☃️
🤣 . I am a huge nerd and over planner of everything. I pretty much read the manual from start to finish the first night with my watch. My trail running partner is a carefree spirit and doesn’t like to plan anything, just do things on the fly so we compliment each other nicely when we actually get to hit the trails together - she’s taught me to relax a bit and go with the flow and I’ve instilled in her a little bit of pre- planning is a good thing 😆.
When you hit the up button when you are in your run activity and go to options, scroll down to the bottom and it is below training. Click on it and you can choose a course you made, back to start, previous activities or saved locations if you have saved locations(I haven’t tried this yet - maybe this summer if I get to explore some new trails). I hope that helps 🤓. There is still so much I’m learning about the watch but slowly but surely, I’m getting there 😁. Of course the second or third time I try to remember how I found something, I usually can’t remember and have to pull the manual out or google it or go through every screen multiple times, get frustrated, go to the app, still can’t figure it out then resort to the manual or google search😆
Hmm, I tried that, I thought you could only view previously run routes, not those you've plotted on GC and sent to the watch...I tried and nothing happened... I have another watch that I can send routes to, so sometimes I end of with a watch on each wrist if I'm doing a new route and don't want to get lost....I'll have another look....thank you xx
When you start the run, you have to choose navigation at the beginning, I think. It should work though if you choose Course and then the route you plotted. Let me know how it goes.
It's the plotting bit that I don't get - well, I know how to plot a course, but I've never managed to get it onto the watch...the other one yes, but FR 245? Nah...
I plotted the course on the web browser but when I saved it, it ended up in the app. From there, I went to Training - Courses- clicked on the course I made - clicked the 3 vertical buttons on the top right hand corner - send to device. I believe if you aren't using the app, you should be able to do it on Garmin Express ( at least that is where it was sending me to, before I realized I could go to the app - my Garmin express is from my old FR 10 and very out of date.).
The navigation was quite nice. It showed on my watch where my turns were and how much further until the turns. It was fairly easy to follow except you have to look down a lot. Audio prompts would be better and I can’t recall if it beeped or vibrated to notify me. My memory is good, just really short 😆 and getting shorter the older I get
An excellent run, an excellent reindeer, a lovely, festive selfie and a great Christmassy hat, absolutely brilliant. Well done on all those ticks and a great run SaskAlliecat ✅✅✅🎅🤶🦌🎄⛄😊
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week3run1 ✅. 3 x 17 mins with 1 min walks. 
How did your parkrun or (not)parkrun go?
