In LA

Amazon just knocked %20 off the price of the Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS Receiver With Heart Rate Monitor, which lowers the price of this handy runner’s training tool down to $125, the lowest I’ve seen. MSRP’s a laughable $299, the watch seems to sell most places for $160-180.

I have the less-full-featured version of this watch, the Garmin 205. When I’m running regularly and am in good shape, I find this watch to be handy. I can look at it at any moment to see my current pace and make sure I’m not running too fast to go the distance and avoid injury. If I’m running a particularly interesting or novel route I’ll connect the watch to my computer and look at the path I’ve taken overlaid on an online map alongside an altitude/time/pace graph. It’s also handy for biking. The Garmin 305 builds on the features of the 205 and adds a heart-rate monitor (which is recorded along with the other data for later review on your computer) and the ability to communicate with wireless accessories (such as the Garmin GSC 10 Speed/Cadence Bike Sensor). I find running to be a much more enjoyable activity when it’s combined with data collection.

If you’re in the market for such a GPS watch now¹, I think this is a good buy at $125² .

1. and don’t feel like waiting a few years for the watch to get discontinued and show up at a local garage sale so that you can then buy it for 1/3 the price but live with reduced battery life due to the advanced age of its rechargeable battery pack [↩]
2. i just can’t bring myself to write “$124.99″ for some reason. $124.99 is effectively $125. Can someone explain to me the marketing benefit of ending all prices in $0.99? [↩]

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 16th, 2010 at 6:52 am and is filed under Deals, Geeky, Running. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.