Race of the Garmins

I've been used to the assorted beeping heard at the start of races as everyone starts their stopwatches. Then their is the occasional beep as someone marks a lap or split during the race. Sometimes you hear an alarm as someone ventures outside their heart rate zone. Now their is a new sound...

... the chirp of the wrist mounted GPS unit. At nearly every kilometre mark on last Sunday's race, was heard this chirp. What I did find interesting was that of the people I noticed using these units, not one seemed to be happy about whatever the unit was telling. Maybe they weren't happy with the pace, Based on previous conversations, some weren't convinced the course was accurate as the race signage didn't exactly match their GPS.

Training toys have appealed to me in the past, but at this stage I am still unconvinced about any advantage a GPS unit will give me. Each to their own I guess.

Comments

  1. Anonymous28 May 2008 at 17:18

    Personally I love my garmin and find it handy for giving me feedback while training. It also makes pretty google earth pictures and the pace/elevation/distance stats are interesting to look at. However, I would never dream of wearing it in a race as I know they are not going to be accurate. I always shake my head at the threads on CR where people start questioning the distance of races based on their foot pod or GPS data

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  2. Anonymous30 May 2008 at 19:41

    Ditti Beki!

    I have a polar watch with a foot pod and for me it is a valuable training tool but I NEVER wear the footpod in races preferring to rely on the km markers to manually take splits, luckily I am blessed with metronome like pacing. I run alot of Aths Victoria races and I would feel a bit of a tool running about with a footpod on my shoe.

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