Garmin, but or not to buy?!!

[Mini13]

Hi, Now a question...I do not have a Garmin, I calculate my distance with post codes from one place to the other with the Road Map using Bing Maps. (I use the same route all the time up until now, since I think about W3 or so.) Therefore the distance may not be 100% accurate. Then I saw Garmins on sale at Tesco, then after more research, on e-bay, and then everywhere else. Can anyone/everyone let me know the suggestions regarding this please? I can afford to buy it, just wonder whether I can justify it. As some of you may know I signed for this year’s Race for Life and just started this fantastic running thing. So, due to the fact that I am a new Runner (since Laura said that I am now an official Runner!) I had to buy almost everything that I need to do my running which means I spent a fortune on myself. I always feel a bit bad when I spend a lot of money on me; maybe it is a bit of a ‘Mummy’ thing. Anyway now I really would like to know the distance of my runs as my aim is to complete my 5K under 30 minutes if I can help it, when I do Race for Life. I would love to buy a Garmin for me. So any suggestion, pros and cons are very much appreciated!! Many thanks!

[Oldgirl Graduate]

Hi Mini I could have written your blog last August. I had bought a new iPod with GPS instead as it would do the same and also give me my music. I wasted my money, the GPS was pathetic. Hubby said he would buy me a Garmin for my birthday so I jumped at the chance and have loved it ever since. I very seldom lose the signal, sometimes its a bit slow to connect if I haven't used it for a while. It tracks my runs, you can see the info you get my looking at some of them I've posted on here. I have a heart rate monitor with mine although tend not to use it for an ordinary run. I will use it for HIIT this summer. Its much more acurate than mapmyrun or GoodRunGuide was. I love my Garmin and I'm sure I will not be alone on this topic. Good luck with your running.

[Mini13 Graduate in reply to Oldgirl]

Thanks very much Oldgirl. I was thinking of my B'day but it is in september, long way to go! If only I thought of this in February, it would have been my Valentine's Day present!! I am looking at one at Amazon at the minute....

[morningglory Graduate]

I started C25k last May and was tracking my runs using Endomondo on my smartphone. However I got so frustrated with it not working or stopping half way through my run that in July last year I bought a Garmin 110 forerunner (with heartrate monitor). Like Oldgirl I love it, always works and easy to upload your runs to either Garmins own site or Endomondo (which is what I use). I would treat yourself - us mum's need spoiling once in a while.

[Mini13 Graduate in reply to morningglory]

Thank you morningglory, if it is anything else I would have spent the money on it by now..don't understand why I think so much about this! I might just go ahead and buy one...

[Landesman Graduate]

Oddly enough I took the plunge about an hour ago and bought a Garmin Forerunner 10 on Amazon. I have been using RunKeeper on an iPhone which gives me data after the run is finished but is too fiddly to look at while running.

I bought the wrist device so I will be able see at a glance, while running, distance and pace, as well as being able to upload to Garmin Connect afterwards.

I decided on that model as I don't think I need any other features like HRM. If you're interested there's a good review here at DC Rainmaker's excellent site (dcrainmaker.com/2012/08/gar....

[Mini13 Graduate in reply to Landesman]

Hey Landesman, thank you, I might join you by buying one from Amazon..I like the wrist watch like thingie, I am looking at this Black and Red one which looks nice. Thank you for the link you gave me, I am going to have a look at it now..

[gdeann Graduate]

Hubby and I gifted ourselves with the Garmin 110 for our Graduation from C25K. We love them!!! Gayle

[Mini13 Graduate in reply to gdeann]

Thank you Gayle..everyone seems to like it, so I think I should have one heh?..

[gdeann Graduate in reply to Mini13]

Its a NEED instead of a WANT!!! Actually, we started with smartphones but wanted to get away from carrying them or damaging them. The watches are nice! We have the heart date monitor also but never use them. (Too lazy)

[Mini13 Graduate in reply to gdeann]

Ohhh..I will buy it then, shall I? many thanks!

[alcopop Graduate]

If you can resist temptation and have a 'smartphone' you could install 'runkeeper' which tracks your route, give you running stats and displays a map of your run.

Anyhow - good luck with whatever you choose.

[Mini13 Graduate in reply to alcopop]

Thank you very much alcopop, the thing with smartphone is, it is something that you got to carry, not wear, I rather like to wear it like a wrist watch. Many thanks anyway for your kind suggestion...

[CaveBear Graduate in reply to Mini13]

So you'd rather buy an c£60 Garmin rather than a £6 smartphone case? OK.

Personally, I've only ever had one problem with my smartphone GPS - I forgot to turn it on. It automatically uploads my run to Endomondo when I finish.

Then there's the MP3 player. If you don't want to carry a phone, surely the same applies to the MP3 player? I admit, I've got a tiny one and I tend to use it instead of the smartphone, but that's simply convenience and I'm not entirely sure whether the phone's memory will cope with the load - processing an MP3 player, the mobile phone, Endomondo, and GPS all at once. I keep intending to try it when I'm on a non-time-critical walk.

I couldn't imagine running without my phone - what do I do if I hurt myself, or come across someone else who needs help, etc etc?

In the winter and spring I always wear a fleece with a pocket and the phone goes in there. Last autumn, I ran with a round the neck ski-pass wallet that I got 20yrs ago - the phone went in there (along with my car keys).

Oh well, each to their own, eh?!

Good luck whatever.

All the best

Graham

[Mini13 Graduate in reply to CaveBear]

Hi Graham, Thank you very much for the kind suggestions. I do agree with you to a certain extent but there are few things that I do not like when carrying a phone. I rather have a wrist watch to look at than a phone, hence the reason for thinking of the Garmin.My MP3 is tiny, so it is easier, do not want to carry too many things anyway. I am still thinking of the Garmin.., will decide tonight! Thank you very much again and good luck for your runs!

[greenlegs Graduate]

I got a garmin 110 with heart rate monitor a couple of weeks ago, and it is the best toy I've ever had! Heart rate monitor not essential at all (I don't think it has really told me anything I couldn't have guessed from how I feel) - but I love looking at the graphs and being able to see how long it takes for my heart rate to recover, and am very glad I got it.

The route tracking is great. Though to be honest, I could get accurate distance measurements by plotting my route on googleearth that I'd downloaded, but it is very handy to save it with the times, as I go along - and I can save the warmup/ cooldown walks separately as I like being able to look at those too. For the amount of fun I've had from it, it's really good value, even though it is expensive.

[Mini13 Graduate]

Thanks very much greenlegs, from where did you buy it? How much did it cost? Please tell me. I am at the minute looking at one on Amazon for £87, wonder whether there are any better ones than this...many thanks.

[hacw]

Take a look at thegoodrunguide.co.uk they have loads of info on all sorts of gagets for running and every other aspect of running. TBH i use there route planer to work out my distances and theres also loads of other specs that you can record and view in graphs to seeyou improvments if you go get a garmin you can upload direct to thegoodrunguide.co.uk to your running log.

Good look with the running and i hope this is of some use.

[Mini13 Graduate in reply to hacw]

Thank you very much hacw, shall have a look...I might have to wait until the end of the month to buy the Garmin anyway if I am buying..

[rockchick69 Graduate]

This is a great post....I was wondering what to get for a graduation pressie I was thinking about running shoes but the ones I have will do until Christmas. This is a much better idea...I'm going to take a look and see what's good. Let us know what you decide

[Mini13 Graduate in reply to rockchick69]

Hi rockchick69, I am still thinking but I think this IS a great pressie for graduation. Maybe I should do that too! It will be end of the month anyway by the time I graduate so it is great timing as well...thank you for the great idea!

[Stefliser Graduate]

I've got the Garmin Forerunner 10, which is the basic level one, but it's FAB!! It does everything the more expensive models do, except for the heart rate thing, which I don't really need (although I'm sure it'd be interesting to have).

It's definitley the best toy I've had in a VERY long time. It motivates me to keep going when the time is up at the end of a run ("I'm NOT stopping at 5.3K when 200 more metres would take me to a nice round 5.5!") and it really helps with pacing yourself. The graphs you get when you upload the data to the site are fascinating too. My current obvective is to improve the 'flatness' of my pace - it's very 'spiky' at the moment, showing that I'm speeding up and slowing down a lot, which must be wasting energy!

In short, I LOVE it! And my partner has seen what I can do with mine and has now ordered one too