I’m in love with Big Red

Big Red, of course, being the nickname I’ve given my Garmin Forerunner 305. I’ve had it over a year now and I love it. NOTE: I get nothing in return for writing this entry. I simply love my Garmin and can’t live without it. I recommend it to all of my running friends, and wanted to share that with all of you (you know, all three of my readers).




For those that don’t know, the Garmin Forerunner 305, is a watch-styled GPS for runners. It tracks location, distance, pace, heartrate, time and probably 50 other things. The really cool thing for geek runners is that you can upload all of the data to your computer.

I love to have a running log, but I have a terrible memory. Before Big Red, I would always try to remember to write down all of my runs, try to remember the time and the distance. HA! I would forget have of the runs, or forget one or two important details.

Not just that, but in order to figure out distance, I had to either drive the route beforehand with my car, or try to use Google maps. Google maps can have a lag however, and I often found I was running on roads that didn’t exist according to Google maps. I also had to run to particular points (such as road crossings) that I could easily remember (there we go with that memory thing again) in order to plot them later on. And forget being spontaneous. If I wanted to run a particular distance, I had to run the route I planned, no matter what. I couldn’t change my mind and run a different route, unless it was one I had already plotted.

Then came Red. Now, I can run wherever I want and know exactly how fun I have run. Not only that, but I can see my pace while I’m running, not just after. You can set the Garmin to “auto-lap”, which means every mile (or kilometer, your choice), it marks a new lap. Then when you view the uploaded data, you can see how long each lap took.

Red also tracks elevation changes. Really nice when you see mile 3 took you the longest, and oh, look at that, it’s because there is a giant hill at mile 3. I found out some interesting tidbits about my running that I never realized before Big Red. I run faster uphill than downhill!

Different models come with different options, mine is the 305, so mine came with a heartrrate monitor. I wore the strap in the first six months or so of use. It was very useful for seeing how much farther I could push my running than I was at the time. Now, I’m not so into pushing, so haven’t been wearing the monitor, but it is a nice tool to have.

When I first got Red, you could upload your data to www.motionbased.com, Garmin’s site. Now you can upload your data to www.runningahead.com, my all time favorite running website, which has a really cool running log and great forums.

The Garmin Forerunner 405 is the latest model. Although it is a little smaller, I have heard some complain that it is too small, i.e. it’s too hard to read while running. People always ask me if it bothers me to wear Big Red. NO! I am very finicky about what I wear while running, too. I hate to even wear sunglasses and usually skip them, unless it’s a bright sunny day after a big snowfall and the snow glare is so bad I’ll go blind. So even though sunglasses bother me (and headbands and gloves), Big Red doesn’t bother me at all. It did take some adjustment, but I don’t even notice it now.

Anyway, I love my Garmin. If you are a runner, I recommend getting one. If you are a runner and a tech geek, then I HIGHLY recommend you get one. :)