Sunday, August 31, 2008

My Garmin Forerunner is Dead!

My Garmin Forerunner 305 has officially kicked the bucket. Over the past several weeks, the power had been randomly shutting off, and it had been doing so with increasing regularity. Now it won't even turn on.

I did some research and it seems many others have eventually had the same problem after extended use. I've owned mine for about 18 months. And while nothing lasts forever, this does seem to be a design flaw based on what I've been reading. It apparently is fixable, but I'll have to send it in. I hope to negotiate a good price for the repair.

So in the meantime, I think I'll just give a qualitative assessment of my pace. While I could use a stopwatch and time myself, I'll give labeling runs as easy, medium, tempo... or whatever a shot for the time being. I guess I don't really care much about my pace as much these days anyway, I'm more concerned with distance. Guessing that could prove tricky on trails.

Today's run went well. Just some general tightness in the right hamstring, which I've been experiencing off and on for the past few weeks. Not much of an issue today, and it felt better as the run went on.

Route I did was from a friend's house in Falmouth, over to Mackworth Island, a loop around that and then back. Nice day. Warm, but dry air and a pretty strong north wind.

Ran 8.8 miles @ easy pace.
Paved roads and trails.
Mostly flat.
Lower 70s, sunny, windy.
Shorts, short sleeved shirt.

8 comments:

Blaine Moore said...

Just open a support ticket with Garmin. Even if it is out of warranty they'll still usually fix them for you. (So I've been told; mine is still under warranty.)

I had to send mine back a few months ago, and it was a really quick turnaround. I think they just ship out a refurbished one to you as soon as yours arrives; I don't see how they could have fixed it as quickly otherwise. (That, and I'm pretty sure I got a different one back.)

Anonymous said...

Hey Jamie,

It's worth tryig to call Garmin. I had mine less than a year, so I was still in warranty, but they might be able to help you. Like Blaine, they sent me back a refurb in about 2 weeks. I was really happy.

Also, they did give me some troubleshooting tips over the phone before having me send it in. Who knows, that might work for you.

Ultrathoner said...

That's a bummer.

I rely on my Garmin to tell me how far and how fast...er... how slow...I'm going. A couple of times it helped me decide which trail to take back to the car on a foggy night run. The heart rate monitor keeps me honest and from not doing more than I should.

Good luck.

Unknown said...

Try resetting it. There is a way to do this. I forget which buttons to hold down to do it.
Mine has "Kicked the Bucket" several times and they just told me to reset it and it has worked fine every time. I've called them each time it happens because I keep forgetting which buttons to hold down.
Hope this helps.

mindy said...

Sucks about the Garmin - sounds like people have lots of good ideas though for fixin'. I only have the 205, but you're welcome to use mine until you get yours back. Take care of that hamstring.

Garry said...

Sometimes I enjoy the freedom of running with out the damn thing! In my current phase of training it is liberating to just go out for a low tech run. Having said that I still need to have it! Good luck getting it fixed and let us know if it just needs to be reset as someone has already mentioned.

Jamie Anderson said...

Thanks everyone. Regarding reseting: yup, I tried that. Both soft and hard resets. Also tried firmware upgrades. None of it worked. Should have mentioned that originally. Apparently the problem is a loose chip, based on what I've read of others who have experienced the same. Kinda sucks, but so be it. I'd rather have a broken Garmin than a broken leg!

UMaine Cooperative Extension said...

Garmin schmarmin! Get yourself a cheap timex ironman for your time and use gmaps pedometer for your distance. Kind of cumbersome, but inexpensive and accurate enough to get the job done. Feel the freedom!