I recently wrote a brief review about this GPS watch. I mentioned that I’d had a few niggles with it, but was generally happy with it. After running my first marathon at the weekend, I have now changed my thoughts.
It’s a Piece of Crap.
Imagine buying a bit of kit like this specifically to help train for a difficult event. Like, say, your first marathon! Imagine it being fairly well-behaved, with a few quirks that you’re mainly prepared to overlook – losing satellite, beeping uncontrollably, etc. Then imagine the watch malfunctioning on mile 10 of the marathon.
I almost threw it into the hedge. Almost. Beep-beep-beep … lap reader error … pressing buttons, trying to reset, trying to restart … beep-beep-beep … I was looking for a passing dog to insert the Piece of Crap into, but in the end I kept it on, and managed to get it reading my pace, at least. Upon finishing the marathon it told me I’d run 89.31 miles (it felt like it ) at an average 3 minute mile (it didn’t feel like it).
To be fair it didn’t throw me that much. I knew my time to the nearest few minutes because the ‘time’ function of the watch was still working. And the course was very well marked, so I knew the distance I’d covered.
But…
It’s going back. It’s not a cheap bit of kit, and I unreasonably expected it to work for, well, what it was designed for. Not Fit For Purpose.
5 Responses to “Garmin Forerunner 110 – an addendum”
I had a gps gadget that I stopped using. I live in a rural area, and the satellite-enabled features were pretty useless.
I’m still living in India, but picked up a Garmin 610 from the UK. Didn’t get too play with it too many times before I broke a metatarsal in my foot (still building up strength in what are no wasted muscles, so a couple of weeks from running again), but was amazed that it functioned perfectly here. Very accurate, so far. Of course, it could end up lasting another week before fizzing out, but no complaints yet.
I’m sure Garmin are good generally. But still waiting to hear back from them about their guarantee! Maybe I just chose the wrong model because it was going cheap.
I started with that one – still have it in a drawer. It didn’t crap out on me totally, but I ended up upgrading because it was taking forever to find a satellite signal. I felt like my warm up had cooled down before I got anywhere.
Lot of money for an upgrade, I confess. I’m naturally drawn to toys and shiny things!
I like this post, enjoyed this one thanks for posting .