You Don't Bring Me Flowers

I’m not afraid to say it: lately, I hate my Garmin.

Blame poor design, a failing battery or cold-weather limitations, but when you really come down to it, my Garmin has been letting me down.  And I’ve been making excuses. But it has to stop, because right now, I’m doing all the work in this relationship.

I’ve actually been accommodating my Garmin’s lack of commitment for a while now. For example, when I noticed that the light was no longer working a few weeks ago, I  told myself I had probably imagined that the light function actually exists on the 405 model. Only after going back to check the manual did I realize that while most Garmins have a light, my Garmin had made a personal decision to opt out of that feature. And yet, I forgave it. Heck, I rarely use the light anyways. And if it weren’t for my own refusal to entertain the idea of bifocals, it probably wouldn’t be necessary at all.

Then, last week, the Garmin quit working at kilometre 17.5 of an 18K run. Again, I made excuses. It was really cold outside, and besides, my pace probably wasn’t going to get any better in those last 500 metres. But it’s not the first time the Garmin has abandoned me during a long run. Two years ago, at the beginning of a half-marathon race, it quit just minutes after crossing the start line. I was forced to run 20K with no Garmin – the horror. And at the Wineglass Marathon? Happened again. It gave up at kilometre 36, despite being fully charged the night before. And like the abused runner I am, I blamed myself, reasoning that in my exhausted and addled state, I must have brushed against the bezel.

Now, the twitchy little device has started playing head games. At the 5K mark of yesterday’s 21K outing, it starting spitting out this message before every lap: “Lap history full. Delete older activities.” (Or something like that. I can’t check, because the Garmin and I aren’t speaking right now.) Since I upload (and then pretty much ignore) all my activities to the Garmin website regularly, I didn’t even know I had to delete other activities from the watch. No fair.

Bottom line – Garmin, you’d better shape up. Because I’m still young, and there’s a lot of life in these legs. And it’s not like I don’t have options. I’d like to stay together, though, for the sake of the children. Because they’re the ones who are going to have to teach their mother to use a new electronic device. And at their age, that’s just cruel. 

Comments

[Nitmos]

My Garmin (205, an oldy) has stopped beeping at the mile markers. Or did it ever? I honestly can't remember. Alas, my Garmin returns the same "full" message after several months. Easy to delete old stuff.

[Laura]

I've had some problems with my 405 as well, and it's the WORST. I now use the GPS on my cell phone for backup, but I really hate when one or the other goes down - totally throws me off my game.