My Garmin died! AND IT'S RACE WEEK!
So many puns in the title...
I've had my 305 since 2011, and only this year did it start giving me trouble: first, it had several totally-dead-need-a-hard-reset events in January. Then, I noticed that the average lap pace wasn't updating. It would get stuck - say, on 7:45; then when it beeped the lap, the time would be far from the average, like 8:30. This didn't happen all of the time, but when it did, it would keep occurring until I did a reset.
Then Saturday morning it just up and died. I turned it on and it beeped like normal, and then...nothing on the screen. Everything about it appears to be working except the screen! I tried all the tricks, but no luck.
The problem is that Saturday is the Crescent City Classic, and I have not been back running enough to do well pacing off a stopwatch. I need my Garmin crutch! But - this is a terrible time to buy a new one. I haven't done any research into which Garmin I'd like to buy to replace the one I have, and even if I can make that decision and get one on time, I'll have no time to learn to use it.
Well, oh well. A few weeks post-marathon wasn't going to be a crazy fast race anyway, probably minutes off my PR, so could be worse. At least ol' Garmin held on for my marathon!
This happened to me right before the GW Parkway Classic in Alexandria last year (10 miler). Of course I couldn't run that without a Garmin, so I bought a 220 the week before the race. My first several runs, it kept beeping at what I thought was every mile, but my paces were RIDICULOUS. I was all, "What?!?! I'm so sure that I'm running a 4:53 mile!" I was pissed that I had a lemon watch. I still wore it during the race, but it kept beeping at odd times that didn't correspond to any of the mile signs, so everyone next to me seemed annoyed and confused at my random beeping, so I shut it off. I *finally* realized at the end of the race that it was, in fact, not broken but set to km. I'm such an idiot that it took me a full week to realize that.
ReplyDeleteSo FYI. Don't be an idiot like me when you get your new Garmin.
Can you borrow one for the run? Or just do it naked. You've been running long enough to know what feels comfortably hard.
ReplyDeleteBut having said that, I'd probably go out and buy one too.
Ugh that sucks! Does your husband have one that you can borrow for the race? If I lived closed to you, I'd lend you one! I can see why you don't want to rush to buy one this week since you haven't done research and figured out which one you want.
ReplyDeleteI guess it depends what you are looking for? They have been having pretty good specials on some of the more techy ones on Amazon. I've purchased for less from heartratemonitorsusa.com (I think that is the right website). I actually bought my daughter a Garmin a few months ago. It isn't bluetooth so you have to plug it into a computer to download your runs, but it was CHEAP... I think I paid $60 for a new one? I believe it was the Garmin 10. Anyway, I have the 920XT and I don't love mine. I got for the "long" battery life, but it isn't as long as I had hoped and it's pretty big. I had the 220 and I really liked that, max battery is 8-10 hours? There are usually used ones floating around for sale in Facebook groups - if you're a member of any that sell things? I'm in a MRTT group and see them all the time.
ReplyDelete