Gadgets

Best of Tokyo Marathon 2011 Live Ustream from Joseph Tame on Vimeo.


I'm slow, and I haven't ever run a marathon (yet) but I still seem to collect gadgets and gear for running (at least I'm not like this guy).  This morning was a good example. I had on my left wrist the giant Garmin Forerunner that my husband and I share (you can share if you don't use all the features). On my right shoulder I had my new iPhone in an armband with headphones.  I was trying out the Runkeeper app for the iPhone to see if it could replace the Garmin, but I wasn't sure how it would work.

Perhaps I haven't figured it all out yet, but with my armband, I couldn't see my pace or mileage on the iPhone very easily.  I also couldn't do anything with the phone while I was running.  I usually run about halfway and then decide I need music for the way back. With the iPhone in my armband, I would have had to come to a complete stop, take off the armband, pause Runkeeper, and then try to load my music. If I needed to adjust the volume I would have had to take the phone out of the armband. I bought a cheap armband at Target, so I assume that there are better ones out there, but even so, I can't imagine being able to do anything with the phone while I'm running, even changing songs on the iPod.

Cool things about Runkeeper include audio cues that tell you when you get to a mile, and can tell you your average pace and your split pace at each mile.  Runkeeper does your splits, but doesn't appear to keep the total time after each split like the Garmin does (so in case you run a little over 4 miles, but you want your average pace for just the 4 miles, you can see the total time for 4 miles on the Garmin and figure it out from that).  You can access your music within the Runkeeper app, which is cool if you are prepared to listen to it the entire time. You can see a map of your run, too.  The information automatically is downloaded onto the Runkeeper website, and you can get more information about the run, including the elevation.  I assume the Garmin website will do all of this too, but we never hooked it up, and you would have to sync it with the computer to transfer all the data.

Runkeeper does not sync with Dailymile either. I really like Dailymile, and so I don't think I'll stop using it.  But this means I will have four different places where I can track my runs - Runkeeper, Dailymile, the MIT website and my own fitness spreadsheet.  Kind of overkill, I think.

I might take the iPhone on my longer runs just so I have a phone with me in case I need it. And while I'm with the pace group I won't need to constantly check my pace.  But I can't imagine using this set up for all of my runs.

I still love my new iPhone.  But maybe it can't do EVERYTHING.