Garmin Forerunner 201 Waterproof Running GPS (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

I've owned multiple heart rate monitors, bike computers, an assortment of wrist watch timers, including the Time & Distance GPS system by Timex, and I've tested a variety of GPS units for various applications. The Forerunner 201 is by far the best for running and biking.Why is it so good? It collects everything you need to know to train effectively, pace, speed, distance, time, lap time, altitude, and collects it all for you in a log book as well as in the unit itself. The unit itself holds about 2 years worth of data, and you can sort and view it in variety of ways, on a map, weekly, daily, by lap, etc. On top of the training features you can use the Forerunner 201 for simple navigation tasks. Need to find a trailhead? Just enter the coordinates and press GOTO, and the unit points the way.Using the Timex GPS you had to write all your data down between each run, and the unit would not do any navigation or mapping. I liked the Timex unit, but the Forerunner 201 is superior in a number of areas. The heartrate monitors don't tell you your speed or distance, so you have to have a separete unit. You can get specialized GPS units, that have base maps, and other specialzed navigation features, but they are not very well suited for running.The log book is great. It's simple you can view graphs on speed & altitude and basic weekly stats. It even has a little map so you can view your various courses in the log book. If you need a better map you can upload your run to a utility like GPS Vizualizer ( [...] ) and get a nice color map to print out or load on your web page.The GPS signal will cut off if you get under a thick tree canopy or inside a building, this is a problem with all GPS insturments, they don't work inside. It leaves a little blank spot in your map between where you disappeared and where you reappear, I suppose you could estimate the blank distance if you really wanted too.The accuracy is pretty good overall. I ran a half marathon and programmed it to beep every mile and it was within feet of every marker, and the end of the race showed 13.08, so I must have cut some corners. You'll probably want to turn on "smoothing" so things don't jump around too much. Obviously, if you maintain a steady speed and direction you get uniform readings. If you start and stop a lot, make lots of 90-degree corners, it jumps around more, and takes a while to smooth your pace out, but it's no big deal.Buy it you won't regret it.

I have purchased many electronic devices that have been a huge disappointment, including a handheld GPS unit. So perhaps I didn't have high hopes for this particular unit, given the pricerange and the ambivalent reviews.However, this does exactly what it is advertised to do, and does it extremely well. It is versatile, working for both running and biking with different speed modes. It finds satellites very quickly versus the other GPS receiver that I have. It seems durable, and the size is not overly cumbersome once you have had it on for a few minutes--it's like an oversized wristwatch.When it comes to training, I can't believe I ever trained without this. The interval training feature has been invaluable, automatically setting distances and rest periods with no intervention from me. The display is very intuitive. And, except for a few times losing the signal in heavy tree cover, I have had no problems with the reception or the apparent accuracy of the unit.Lastly, the history feature of the unit is wonderful. The device itself has a pretty good history display, keeping track of days, distances, paces, calories burned, and so forth. But, when you download the training software from Garmin, and upload your data to the machine, it makes it even better.Yes, I agree the cable to do the upload could have been a USB cable rather than a serial cable, but I suspect there were size issues to deal with here, even with a mini-USB plug, that made the serial cable the best choice. I would say that the device/PC interface is probably the one weak spot here.Lastly, I bought the bike mount for this...but then realized you can just wear it on your wrist! So I haven't even used the bike mount.All in all, one of my best purchases, especially given the price point.