Garmin Forerunner 410. To buy or not to buy?

Me too. Bought 4 months ago. It is a bit inaccurate. About - 200m on a 5k run, usually it's less rather then more. But I am running absolutely everywhere - under the bridges, through the bushes etc. In other words I'm not looking for a good gps signal. Still it is much better than my htc + endomondo app and it is still better than my miss's Iphone 4s + endomondo. So it is good. If you consider other brands, will suggest you go for garmin.

200m over 5k is within Garmin's claimed 95% accuracy. How do you know the course is exactly 5k?

Yep, was just interested to know how you knew the 5k itself was right.

The garmin is a brilliant bit of kit. I just have a very very old 101, which has just given up the ghost. However, I put it to give my lat and long figures, sat aon the beach and moved my arm - it could see me moving!

Sometimes people get a bit uppity because they pace a race totally on the basis of their garmin and don't leave any leeway, and end up missing their target. You just have to accept it does have some limitations and live with that, which is obviously what you are doing.

I'll run a half marathon tomorrow, after will let you now what garmin tells about that.

I am not sure I understand what are you saying to be honest. Can you explain please?

Meanwhile, I've done my first half marathon. It was amazing all the way through. Lots of people, everybody's positive and look forward crossing finish line, new records, whatever else people run for. The feeling after you've done was fantastic.

Anyway..

Garmin..

said

that I've done 21.08 km at the finish line. I pushed the button spot on the gate on both ends. In real life I have serious reason to believe I ran 21.2 km, which is stated on the official site of the HMrt. Therefore math suggests that would be 120m off on 21.2 km, which I find quit impressive. That would be 0.56% off. Brilliant.

I did battery test as well, it was fully charged, when i took it with me at 9:00 AM, we started to run at 11:00AM (when i switched gps on), at the finish line at 1:00PM it still had 84% of charge left. get in..

By the way my miss's iphone 4s showed that we did 23.89km, which is a bit less then 10% off. It's not always that bad though. The funny thing is that it always adds distance whereas garmin tends to take a bit off, she always have better results if we run together (virtually).

i got the 410 a few weeks back and love it!

I have used just about every running app under the sun on my ipod touch and iphone and the garmin watch is by far the best and most accurate!

the bezel does take a bit of getting used too especialy if your wearing gloves but once i'm out on a run i dont flip screens that often anyway.

Got my 410 last week and used it for 5 runs so far. Really happy with it once you get used to how it all works. Yes the bezel is a bit hit and miss but once I'm running I just  lock the bezel and set the screens to auto scroll.

Downloading to Garmin Connect is a breeze and I can also download to Fetch Everyone which I was already using. I always like to have a backup of things just in case.

If anyone has tried uploading routes and workouts from Garmin Connect to the watch have you found you can only upload one and after that the next one overwrites the first, or is their a way round this.

I had been using Nike+ on my ipod nano but the 410 is way more accurate. Only trouble is I now realise I wasn't running as far as I thought so my splits are not as good as I thought!

Pete C - Sadly the price on Amazon is now £150, but I stil think that is a good price for what you get.

Booktrunk - The 610 looks good and the touch screen seems an improvement over the 410, but I couldn't justify spending the extra £100 for the few bits extra.

Even if the course is measured, doesn't mean YOU ran 5km - the measurement will take one line around the course. Most people won't run to that line. That's why in some major marathons and road races  you see elites following an actual line (usually blue for some reason) on the road - because that's the shortest route. It's like distance track running - you gain distance every time you move out from the very inside of lane 1. Presumably the same would apply in reverse if they measure a course to paths but everyone cuts the corners.

 I bought a 410 a few weeks ago for HM training. Loving it so far. Used Run the Line and DCRainmaker to help me with the set-up and functions. Had a few issues with uploading, but I think I've resolved them now and overall I'm quite happy except that it's showing me how slow I'm running , and that I haven't quite got used to the buttons so keeping lapping instead of stopping and visa versa.!! To be honest, I don't really care if the watch doesn't say the race distance - a race is a race, it's about racing and pushing your body, but I like having an idea of where I've gone and how far that was in training, and it helps me then to plan future routes.

Also - sorry for the edit - I highly recommend a sweatband underneath. Reduces slipping, makes it more comfy and stops it getting sweaty.

I replaced my 405 with a 610 about a year ago and have used heavily for training for 2 marathons and some shorter races. It's fantastic to use, the features are good (interval training, vibrating alerts, touch screen) and Garmin Connect is a great service.

That said, I'm increasingly getting reliability issues - hangs quite often when switched on, the metal back has blistered, sometimes the workout history doesn't show, firmware updates on a Mac are fraught with risk.

Although I think the Forerunner products are strong and Garmin Connect is a good reason to buy Garmin also, I do think they could do better with reliability, especialy given the pricing.