Much like every single character in the Game of Thrones
television and book series, we all must die at some point. True too that we
will probably do so in a variety of morbidly obscure and sometimes awfully,
painful ways, very often with no warning and for no apparent reason….for this
alone, I hate you George R R Martin.
But that is a topic of a million blogs already written, so I
digress... and tell you MY story;
For a sport which is predominantly seen by many as a solo
pursuit for individual glory, this week I had to face the harsh reality of
saying goodbye to a friend who I’ve spent EVERY running step over two years on my
long journey with….my Garmin 610.
The Garmin 610 came into my life at a time when I didn’t
even want a running GPS watch. I was happily enjoying using my dollar-store Casio
rip-off (with it’s simple stop-start stopwatch function) and running here and
there with the help of natural guidance and the feeling of the cool afternoon
wind in my (probably at the time) horrifically unfashionable hair.
But like it or not, the Garmin came as a gift from my (now)
wife and although I was cautious the first time I took it out for a run, I soon
fell in love with the myriad of information available at my fingertips! For the
nerdier amongst you, I was like Patrick Stewart in those X-Men movies with his
gigantic sphere of awesome psychic powers……except I could walk.
Now, I’m not Michael Bay and (as such) I don’t want this to
sound like a product endorsement or an
And besides, that….the watch began to suck almost
immediately!
Don’t get me wrong, I used, admired and treasured the
constant pace updates, the running km counter, the ability to plan training
workouts, even the cheerful beeps and noises at every km interval and the sheer
fact that this EXPENSIVE gift made me look, feel and run like a professional.
This watch took me from the school-yard to the super bowl…..even if only for the
entertainment and amusement of others sometimes.
And for these reasons alone, I LOVED it!
Together we ran EVERY training step, in a variety of
conditions and temperatures. It saw every close call with every car on the
road, listened to each ‘Run Forrest Run’ trumpeted out of a thousand car
windows, and absorbed every single drop of wrist sweat that I had to spare. In fact, it was this wrist sweat that soon
created a permanent bumpy rust patch on the back of the watch, and a matching
abrasion where the hair used to grow on my wrist.
As I went on, I trained and I worked harder and harder, and
whilst my body didn’t seem to succumb to the assault, the thin rubber band of
the Garmin did! Luckily, with some carefully applied gaff tape (then reapplied,
then reapplied and reapplied again) the problem was starved off for a few more months
of glorious training.
Then, in the week before I was to yield to the pressure of a
watch that would fling itself off mid-run; and decide to send my now irreplaceable
training partner back, tragedy struck! I noticed a small crack in the
touch-screen of the watch!
Now, until this point I’d neglected to mention that this
touch screen was one of the coolest things about this
Unfortunately with the crack in the screen (which I can
honestly say I have NO idea how it happened perhaps as a result of a band
mishap?)! I decided the chances of the nice folk at Garmin replacing my faulty
band were looking less and less likely!
Still it was under warranty, and with some prompting from
the nice folk at Intraining I sent it away and was incredibly surprised when
they COMPLETELY replaced the watch!!!! Awesome work Garmin! Thanks for that!
So now it was Garmin 610 ….take two!
As you could probably imagine, it wasn’t long before long
the same problems started again, the band started
to crack, the watch
occasionally fogged up, the rust came (and my wrist hair left again) and (like
before) I used barely any of the extensive features of the top-of-the-line
watch!
Did I mention it would occasionally mis-measure a run by around
40meters?...yeah, well it did….and yeah, well I didn’t care!
The love was still there! And as I became faster and won the
occasional race, the Garmin was there too. Suddenly every success became
synonymous with the watch, and it was a crucial piece of equipment. I would’ve
run without shoes before I’d ever left the Garmin at home again! I considered
marrying it, however complications with convincing my already understanding
wife to enter into a polygamist relationship with an inanimate object would
probably stretched the friendship. 
And so the partnership rolled on!
Through online apps and the uploading of data, two long years went by like amusement
park visitors buying ridiculously overpriced ride photos!
Closer and closer the kilometres rolled towards the 10,000km
mark! What an achievement! Me and my Garmin were UNSTOPPABLE!
I even began planning the glorious message I would send to
Garmin! Thanking them for their product and celebrating our achievement! Would
I make a triumphant video and share it with the world?!
Aaaaaaaaand…..then the moisture spot appeared
…and the watch stopped.
Still, try as I could to revive my fallen comrade he was
gone forever!
I put it in rice, cous-cous, a combination of rice and
cous-cous, I left it in the sun for days at a time, I tried gentle words of
encouragement…nothing worked.
But in spite of all evidence contrary, I was resolute! I
wouldn’t give up! No way! Not ever!
I wouldn’t let go of my friend so easily!
But then the strap broke again.
And so did the camel’s back.
So with this in mind I’d like to introduce you to the latest
member of my running family; my sparkling new Garmin 620!
It has a new improved band that won’t break, plastic back
that won’t rust and hurt my wrist, it measures distance accurately, and it’s
waterproof! Joy of joys!
It also measures my cadence, vertical oscillation, V02 max,
and a million other really interesting features that I probably will never use.
As to whether it will be my new best friend….
The jury is still out. Watch this space!
Till next time!
Much love! Keep running!
(Thanks for reading and sharing)
Clay Dawson
Watch enthusiast, runner and occasional idiot.
Intraining Sponsored Athlete
(Intraining are awesome – check them out! They have TWO
stores now!)
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