YOU DON’T RUN WITH A GPS WATCH?!? *devastating*

Obviously my headlines are very dramatic, if you haven’t already realized this by now. For some background, when I was 8 on a vacation with my family, we were driving to the hotel and I was “so starving” that I proceeded to pretend to gnaw on my arm. My mom, being the kind, kind woman that she is, ran into a Chinese restaurant and screamed “my daughter is starving!” I gained two chicken wings from that experience and only lost 1% of my dignity.

For those who are still reading - hi. Let’s talk running watches.

For my very first race, a 10k during the Long Beach Turkey Trot, *shout outtttt LBC* I ran with an analog Nixon watch. It was SOOO hard to figure out my finish time before the results were posted, because I was trying to count the watch hands (arms? Wtf, idk) and I couldn’t remember if we started right at 7 or 7:02… I quickly realized everyone else had this techy-looking, bulky looking thing on their arm, weighing them over. This was 2012 people, cool looking GPS watches were in the making, but most people had a ridiculous boulder on their arm. 

I’ve worn a few different watches in my day, and I think there are particular watches that will suit you more than others. Some people may just need a watch to track distance and may not care about pacing. Some people may want all the bells and whistles. Also, it’s 2020 and you can connect your phone with your watch and do extremely cool things with it, probably (#descriptive). 

Here are some Garmin Forerunner watches I’d recommend, along with my brain telling you why that is:

Garmin Forerunner 920XT

ON MY WRIST

Pros: 

• I’m listing this watch first because this is the bad boy of my choice (meaning, it’s what I currently own). It is also the older model and therefore is probably a bit cheaper

• I love the interface. It’s simple and displays EVERYTHING I want to see when I’m running

• NOTE: this is a great triathlon watch, meaning it’s optimized to track your swim/bike/run splits during a tri. Thus, it’s also water proof and tracks your swimming. NOTE 2: I am not currently training for tris. Saying that, I do occasionally bike and swim so it’s nice for me to having this tracking function

• (Fairly common but) the screen is also customizable so you can swap out what you want to see for different workouts

Cons:

• It’s not as cute as newer watches out there, but it does the job, it’s sturdy and I love it

• Doesn’t have heart rate at the wrist, but you can easily wear/connect a chest strap to track this

Garmin Forerunner 35

BEST FOR BEGINNERS, AKA WELCOME TO THE WATCH GAME

Pros:

• OMG THIS IS A STEAL RIGHT NOW. Check out this discount I found on Amazon (helllllooooo, cash money record) 

• Great for if you’re just getting into running and want an easy-to-use, sleek watch to track your distance and pace. Also great for more experienced runners on a budget 

• Has heart rate on the wrist 

• Is fairly lightweight so you won’t slightly fall over when running

• Is apparently waterproof up to 50 meters. BUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU HIT 60 THO

Cons:

• From my research, it seems like the strap can be a bit annoying, but I also feel like whoever wrote that is also the person to give a restaurant 4/5 stars for limited parking

• Will lack some features more experienced runners may want

Garmin Forerunner 745

I WANT TO BE SWAGGY

Pros:

• Does literally everything as a multi-sport watch (well a little less than the 945, but enough stuff that there’s no way you’d use all of the functions)

• Wrist-based heart rate monitoring

• Accesses multiple global navigational satellite systems for better tracking, a.k.a. you might not have to hold your Garmin up to the sky, like that actually does something, to catch a signal

Cons:

• A bit expensive. Just waiting to be delivered that huge check you randomly see people get on those commercials for no reason, or for the random helpful people from Honda to hook it up

• People talk about the battery life not being “super long” but honestly, it’s 16-hours when using GPS, which is typically fine unless you’re doing a 24-hour race or something like that…

Garmin Forerunner 645 Music

DRAW ME LIKE ONE OF YOUR FRENCH GIRLS (wait wut)

Pros:

• What I mean by the title is, this watch is pretty cute/sleek and lightweight

• Fairly affordable for what it offers!

• You can store up to 500 songs on the WATCH and play it to wireless headphones. A lot of watches may have this capability now, but from my past of cycling through LITERALLY 12 DIFFERENT iPod Shuffles, I think it’s pretty sweet

• Did you hear that Garmin & Spotify are now friends?! If you have Spotify Premium, you can literally store songs and playlists you make on Spotify right on the watch. Friendship goals

• Does most of the tracking you’ll want

Cons:

• Not as good of battery life as other models

• To get more advanced metrics, you’ll need extra hardware

What kind of GPS watch do you use?