Question For Garmin Forerunner Owners?
I loved the Nike+ but it was poorly executed. My favorite aspect was the virtual challenges (running with a group of users vs another group, or 1v1, etc.) What kind of online community does Garmin have? Are there challenges such as this? Thanks.
The online community is Motion Based, soon to be renamed Garmin Connect. There is a function called “dot racing” that may be like the challenges, it shows on a map where you would be from courses at different (or the same) time.
Compared to the Nike+, the distance is much more accuracte, but the coolest thing is to place your run on maps and get elevation profiles. I like the SportTracks software for managing my GPS track log book.
The garmin’s don’t play music, so you are probably running with your ipod and + anyhow, you may as well continue with both at least for awhile.
Though there are some websites such as maymyrun.com, I believe you’d be dealing with a more generic GPS “community” than necessarily Forerunner specific. I’m not personally aware of there being Forerunner based “challenges” the way Nike+ would do things here and there. There’s no Forerunner “World Run Day,” for example. There certainly are a lot of Forerunner users out there who have things to talk about, I just haven’t been aware of them doing virtual things like that.
With the GPS functions, there are certainly people sharing their running routes and the like, however. If you really wanted to do some kind of “challenge” via the Forerunner somehow, I’d expect you might find people at most running websites who might be up for something. In my own personal experience so far though, Forerunner owners are probably more likely to be up for general running type challenges regardless of the Forerunner.