Garmin Forerunner 205 Handheld GPS Receiver

As a runner, I was constantly going online to map my routes, and syncing up the timer on my iPod to guess my pace and the time of my training runs. Pedometers weren't very accurate and were impossible to set up. The Forerunner takes the guesswork out of training--it's like having a treadmill control panel on your wrist.

I can monitor my pace and timing as I run, gauge my mileage and even check out elevations. It also displays training history specs by day as well as week. The display is nice and large, and has a backlit function as well. Plus, the display is customizable--you can select how many fields you'd like to display as well as what information is contained in those fields (pace, time, mileage, elevation, etc.) The built-in GPS eliminates the need to set up your stride measurements as well. Since I have a small wrist, however, wearing it during a run took some getting used to--it's an awkward fit (but far better than the previous versions). I mitigated some of the discomfort by turning the display to sit on the inside of my wrist. Also, since it's not really a GPS in the true sense of the word, the mapping function is really simplistic--useless, really. Don't expect it to direct you to a destination like a true GPS would.

Has my running improved much since I started to use it? Probably not. But this helps me to more accurately gauge the effectiveness of my runs and gives me a precise indication on how I WILL need to improve moving forward in my training.