Since I reviewed the Garmin ForeRunner 10 back in mid-October, the YouTube video has continued gathering comments. So I figured it was time for an update. You can see the Garmin peeking out above between my two thermal-tech layers and gloves. You can even glimpse the toll all of the salting and slush are taking on my beautiful new bright orange running shoes!
Quick summary: the Garmin ForeRunner 10 is an amazing running watch that is precise and reliable, and only the 5-hour battery time is a drawback.
What have I done since the review?
- Finished training for the Corning Red Baron Half Marathon
- Completed the half marathon, taking almost 9 minutes off my half-time from August
- After a couple of days rest, started a ‘running streak’, where I sought to run at least 5 miles every day.
- Ran every day (including Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years Day) from November 9th through January 13th (65 days!)
- My numbers cover more than 550 miles run, anywhere from 5 miles to 14 in a session.
- As winter set in, I have run in weather that was soaking rain, driving wind, heavy snow, and with temperatures from 3F up to 60F.
During all of that there was only a single issue – one morning that was ~8F with driving wind I turned on the GPS, and did my inside stretches and warm-ups before heading outside. Once outside I heard a light beep from my wrist and assumed the watch was ready so I tapped the button to Start. But evidently the beep was telling me it was going into PowerSave mode in 30 seconds, because I got another beep about a half mile into my run and saw that the watch was now ‘Ready’. I now make sure to actually check before pressing Run.
The precision of the Garmin ForeRunner 10 is simply astounding. There are two places I will hit the 1-mile mark regardless of route, and every day and every run I get the mile-marker beep within +/- 10 ft of the same location.
As for the battery life, I have never pushed it as hard as I did during the marathon. I have never gone more than two days without plugging it in to Sync and recharge. Speaking of which, the sync process is simple and works extremely well, making life easy for me when I come home from a run and want to upload my data.
I took a huge leap of faith in jumping from my Nike watch to the Garmin two days before a marathon, but I have not regretted it since. It is slim, sleek and lightweight – which is great since I don’t normally wear a watch so I didn’t want something that would be a burden to wear. It is reliable and provides all of the functionality I desire as a runner. The cool thing to remember is that this is a ‘entry level’ watch … but it doesn’t feel that way at all.
You can check out the Garmin ForeRunner 10 at Amazon, where it costs $129.99.