"Garmin Forever" uh, I mean Forerunner

In the running world, I'm really behind the times. After a couple years of ignoring all the Garmin talk (mainly because I didn't know what the heck it was, let alone what it could do for me), I finally decided to see what all the chatter was about...and proceeded to buy one. OK, it would probably surprise most of you who know me that I really like electronic toys. I just don't like figuring them out when they 1st arrive. I just want them to magically do all their little tricks.

Why do I "need" one? When I first started walking I actually used something as primitive as a pedometer! Can you imagine?!!! :-) They were fine, but they're a pain to calibrate, very inaccurate, and if you want to jog a little, forget it, they won't work. Then sometimes I would hop in the car and drive the route. Of course this required me to remember the route I had driven. Then I found www.mapmyrun.com -A very handy little tool that lets you map out your run right on a city street map, and it calculates the distance. The downside is if I've already mapped out my route, I can't deviate from it if I see a neat looking street, or decide I want to go by way of the corner market (more water!) or "Hey, there's an ice cream truck!" Just kidding.

Enter the Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS trainer. Ah bliss. Slap that baby on my wrist, turn it on, and go! Since it is GPS, it calculates my mileage. Heck, if I wanna run in circles (see picture below) I can do that too! It's also a stopwatch (of course) and calculates pace, calories, heart rate, and lots of other cool, geeky stuff. If I'm feeling competitive I can even set up my "virtual partner" to run with me, then watch who is ahead. It's been so nice to just walk up and down whatever street I wanted to without planning ahead. Lately the criteria has been, whichever street has the most shade!

About my "running in circles" comment, yesterday I grabbed my shoes and plopped myself down to put them on, then saw this:
I own more than one pair.