Garmin Forerunner 101 Wrist-Mounted GPS Personal Training Device

This is an amazing product for an amazing price. BUY ONE! I was originally looking for a good heart rate watch. No real reason for the heart rate part, jut thought it might be interesting but after stumbling upon this find and reading all the reviews I thought I'll give it a try. That was the best thing!! My original selling point was to use the personal trainer that comes with this devise, but to this day I have not yet used `him' and still think it's the best thing . . . . . . i have that bit to come! GPS is the way forward - How did I ever live without it? No longer do I need to look on Google or drive round the area to see how far I have/will run nor do I need to take the exact route home. Thanks to this little fella I just go where ever and it tells me how far I ran, my arrearage everything and calories burned. Hell, I even started to do more warm downs now as I know I have covered the goal before arriving home. I'm telling you, this is something we can all befit from. I have also used it for more silly things like clocking the top speeds of some friends and me on our mini motos. What a laugh. So many uses - The distance of a local bike rides we have done and even out of curiosity I took it to the last football match I was playing in to see how many miles we cover (it was 1.8 miles you know ). You can see I have run with this little fella. A review said that it is not very good under trees but I have never experienced this and I leave in a wooded area, so no idea how much coverage it needs to block out the signal? I say don't worrie. Batt life is good. Not yet changed them and it is not as big as it could be. In short - it rocks.

This is a great product for someone who is looking for a reliable training aid and who cant afford the newest top of the range Garmin. It is simple to use and from what i've experienced so far very reliable. The only slight problem i had was that because i have skinny wrists and it is slightly bulky it was a little uncomfortable (heavy), so now i just wear a sweat band under it. The virtual training partner of this product is great, because you can train to a pace and not worry about leaving someone behind.

I bought this for my wife who's obsessive about distances and times. It was great for a year (no probs with losing signal). We ran with it 3 or 4 times a week and I used it for cycling too. It occasionally gave a weird speed or distance, but generally was very sound. Then last month it just stopped working (never used in damp conditions, and everything functioned except the GPS!) . I was about to chuck it away, having spent a frustrating month trying to fix it - and then after much searching of the internet I came across a reset process,actually for a different model, which I tried - and it put the 101 back into operation. Garmin's service and support in the UK seems weak, and it would be easy to improve their website FAQs/support. The quoted battery life is also very optimistic, we get about 5 hours for alkaline and about 4 for NiMH, which covers you for most routine runs, so it's a minor quibble: but I always put freshly-charged batteries in, each time we use it.

As a keen hill/road runner and walker I've being eyeing up GPS gadgets for a couple of years now. When they first came out they were over £300, but now you can get the basic Garmin Forerunner for under £100. I've been using mine for a few weeks now for offroad running, and I'm suitably impressed. Yes, as most reviews state, it does occasionally lose the satellite signal (in thick woodland), but this happens less often than I expected and not for long. It then plots a point2point line from when it last had a signal, so unless your weaving about under trees, it's still pretty accurate. On a 30 mile trip in the car it only varied by 1% on the cars milometer (which is probably a higher accuracy than the car). The virtual running partner is an excellent training aid as you try an keep ahead of your little LCD figure. Summary: Very impressed, so far, well worth the money. Only regret is that I could have paid a little more for the 201, so I could interface it with PC mapping software.

I realise that this review will be very much at odds with the other reviews on here, but I thought it might provide a little balance to some of the glowing comments so far. Having only run with simple stopwatch previously, when it broke I thought I'd invest in something that would be much more useful if I was to take my running seriously, so I bought a Forerunner 101. Unfortunately I found it completely useless every time I tried it. I do most of my running around central London, so naturally there are a number of tall buildings, trees etc that could potentially block the GPS signal. But despite this, every route that I run has a clear view of the sky for almost all of the distance. I found that the Forerunner consistently failed to detect and maintain a signal meaning that I was never able to complete a run that the Forerunner successfully tracked and recorded. I followed all of the instructions for registering and setting up the device the first time it was used, and patiently waited each subsequent time that I tried to use it to see if it would establish a GPS connection. But it rarely seemed to recognise that I was outside despite there being a "clear view of the sky" on every occasion. It seemed to me that unless I was going to be running at least 30 feet away from any building over two storeys high, the Forerunner would not work properly. And without the GPS feature working, it was nothing more than a very expensive stopwatch. After attempting four runs with the Forerunner, I gave up and returned it. And have reverted to a simple stopwatch again!

I use mine on every run, set to record each and every miles pace - I don't think the map features etc are much use but at the end of the run it does tell you accurately how far you went and how fast (or slow) your went. One key thing is that you do need to let it get lock before setting off and it does this better on the ground than it does on your wrist. The navigator mode isn't much to write about but it did get me back to my hotel in one very big and strange city. For the price its well worth it as an extra motivational aid - it will keep you honest about how far and fast you are running with the displays of weekly distance and average pace.

I've not had it long, but its much better than the Navman i've been using! I went for the 101, as i'm not bothered about uploading data or my heartrate, and so far so good! it takes a few minutes to get the GPS signals, but once it has them it hasn't let go. A good tool at an excellent price!

Bought this a couple of weeks ago so that I could tell exactly how far and how fast I have run. I am really pleased with it. It's very easy to use and the menu system is very simple. I have definitely been running more since I bought it. The virtual training partner is great! You can force yourself to go that bit faster to keep up with your virtual partner. It's a great training aid. I can't recommend it highly enough! It's great!

Bon produit, très résistant, avec un velcro qui tient et le vrai plus: utilisation de piles rondes type télécommande télé: changement aisé nconvénient: il consomme de la pile Parfait pour sa fonction 'entraîneur' et pour récupérer l'info vitesse, temps, calories etc.. En revanche, la fonction GPS c'est vraiment le strict minimum Mais bon, ça le fait quand même et ce n'est pas sa fonction premiere

Perfekter GPS Empfänger. Macht das wie beschrieben und das auch perfekt! ohne wenn und aber!

I have owned my Forerunner for a year now. I absolutely love the item. First, it is fantastic to know exactly how far I've run, no matter what roads, trails, or bike path I run on. I am no longer confined to my 'measured routes'...I can explore! The Forerunner also gives the current pace. This is probably the second most useful feature it has. While running, I can tell if I have RECENTLY sped up or slowed down. It is much better than the average pace which a sdm will give you. Think about it, if you are on mile 10 and you speed up 30 seconds per mile, your average pace will not be affected immediately. Some of the other features I find less useful but harmless. The mapping feature on the 101 is silly since the map must be displayed on the 2" screen. Its simply too small. The virtual trainer could be useful, but I never use it. Other great features are: if set, it will take your mile splits automatically and if set, the back light will come on at each mile (for those early morning runs). The battery life is great. I am using two normal Duracell batteries and run about 80 miles before changing the batteries. The signal strength is fine. I have run on tree covered paths and on cloudy days with very few problems. I lost the signal once, but it was very thick tree cover. It continued to track my distance but I don't think it was 100% accurate with the weak signal. Other than that I've never lost my signal. This product is simply great and I cannot explain how useful it is. Here is how I use it: I typically start my weekday runs around 5:00am. I leave my front door and walk for a minute or so. I have my signal. I start off on a 6 mile run. I warm up with a pace around 9 min/mi and keep that pace for the first mile. While thinking about my upcoming race my watch beeps and lights up (it is 5:10 am now) and I see that I ran a 9:08 mile. I pick up the pace until I get to an 8 min pace. I realize I ran this same route earlier this week. I decide to turn and run down a new street for some variety. Before I know it my watch beeps, I look down at the lit screen to see that my second mile was 7:58. This goes on for a couple of miles. Around my fourth mile I my mind starts to wander. I look down and notice that I've slowed down during this time. I immediately pick up the pace and decide it is time to find a way home. The way home takes a little longer than I expected, but I get there. I stop my watch to see that I actually ran 6.67 miles and have found another good route. Once inside I can review my data...distance, pace each mile, average pace, fastest pace, the route, and I can compare that to my previous runs! I see I've had another successful run and feel great! I hope my example illustrates the way I use my Forerunner and why I love it.

This thing is an excellent product at a very reasonable price. It is lightweight and has an ingenious strap system so you can wear it on your wrist or even over a jacket (It get's cold here in Oregon). The batteries last a Long Time, just be sure to turn it off when you are done using it. There is no auto-off after a certain amount of time, like my other GPS unit. You get the data you need and more. Pace, altitude, distance, time, lap, and it creates a map of your walk at the same time, so you can use it to back track. The reception is good here and I live (and walk) in a Pacific Northwest forest! When it does lose a signal, it grabs it back quickly. Be sure to set it outside about 5 minutes before you want to walk or run. It takes a while to get the first fix, which can be frustrating if you are waiting. You can use it as a basic GPS, so if you hike in a strange place turn it on, start a new run and it will draw you a map and point you the way back to where you started. Pretty Neat. I have another GPS with much more sophisticated and extensive GPS features, but I find myself using the Forerunner instead most of the time when I am hiking. After getting used to the convenience of the light weight, hands-free Forerunner with it's big easy to read display, the other GPS seems like carrying a brick. Update 3/2009: Even though I wrote this review years ago and technology has greatly advanced - mine finally got lost and I investigated all of the newer options. I was willing to spend more. But I am buying another one of these again. I usually like the newest stuff - but nothing seems to match the combo of size and utility. If the batteries are a concern - get a battery recharger.

That being said, I only give it 4 stars because I kind of miss the ability to link to my computer (I'm an ultra geek). Still, Lion batteries ONLY have a life of 3 years max - don't let anyone tell you otherwise - and 3 years it won't be NEAR it's original life. EVEN IF it were brand new out of the box, Lion chemistry starts to decay the day after it comes off the manufacturing line - do some research on the internet - that's why the whole slew of ipods are all dying right now. Enough said - AAA batteries was the primary reason I bought this. Truth is, I rarely keep gadgets long enough to worry about the batteries, but I like passing them on to family and friends and I'd like them to get something that they can use for a couple of years too... Plus, I like putting in a fresh set of batteries every week and not having to worry if it's fully charged... (I use rechargeable AAA's). All the other reviewers have already covered the basics of the watch. Very easy to use, backlight is amazing at night. History and data compilation are interesting. What I really wanted to convey is that I was on the fence about this for over a month. Was it worth the money? Would I use it enough? Without a doubt - YES! If it broke today I'd buy a new one tomorrow. The best thing about it is freedom. I'm pretty anal - most serious runners are. I stick to the exact same path so I can get statistics, make sure I'm sticking to my pace, make sure I ran the distance I intended, compare my run with previous runs. After a while though, it can get a little boring. All of a sudden, I put this on and I'm free from all that. I can run anywhere, I run spontaneously - but a glance down at my wrist and I know how far I've run, I know I'm keeping pace, EVERYTHING. And that little training buddy is pretty cool too - although I usually just like the raw data screen... I hope in future versions they'll integrate a heart rate monitor. I have one now but can't bring myself to wear two devices at a time... -jr