I Got A-Got A-Got A-Got A Garmin

Remember the Garmin Christmas commercial sung to The Carol of the Bells?

I liked that one a lot; I'm a big fan of commercials with catchy tunes. You know, the kind that immediately boost your mood even IF the catchy jingle does get stuck in your head, on a continuous loop, all day long. Much like the local radio ad for Hadeed's Carpet Cleaning service I hear daily.

"For all your oriental rug cleaning needs, just one call to Joe Hadeed. If you stand ON IT, we stand behiiiiiiind it."

Ahem. Sorry about that.

The Garmin commercial jingle said give a-give a-give a-give a Garmin. Only, I wasn't given one; I bought one for myself.

Of course, the commercial was for the Garmin GPS systems for cars and boats, I think. While, my directionally challenged self could surely benefit from one of those car devices, the Garmin I purchased is for outdoor running purposes only. It won't help me navigate through the scary Capital Beltway system, but it will tell me how fast and how far I'm running. I don't go anywhere, anyway. So I suppose I don't really need a navigational system in my car.

We've been a Garmin Forerunner family for quite some time. Well, I should clarify and say that CRAIG has been a Garmin Forerunner owner for quite some time. He's on his third GPS and I'm just starting out.

I've been wanting one for a while now; since the weather is warming up and I'm not confined to running indoors on the treadmill any longer, I took the plunge. Thanks to an Amazon.com gift certificate I received from some credit card points I accrued (I'm sure if Dave Ramsey were to read this, he'd be shaking is head at me), I scored a good deal plus free shipping.

Today was the first day that I had the opportunity to test out my new purchase.


This afternoon, I strapped on my new gadget. And this is where I refrain from telling you how long it took me to figure out how to input my stats. I'm a serious technology failure and kept hitting the wrong button. Thankfully I figured it out, or I would have added nine years to my age. For some reason I kept inputting 1967 as my birth year.






Please ignore the the lint on the face of the watch. I'm trying my best to ignore it as well, but, well, it's kind of bothering me.

Go figure.

Since I'm still in very dire need of a hair cut, I went with pig tails again.



Look how (extra) creepy I look in this picture. That's the blankest stare I've seen in a long time. Makes you wonder what's behind those crazy eyes, eh?




With watch ready to go and hair all done up, I set off on my run. And as I ran, I battled the elements.

And by the elements, I mean...

(source)

WIND! And lots of it.

If I hadn't been so eager to try out my new toy, I probably wouldn't have even tried to run. Wind makes me mad. And it makes my hat fall off.

But, there were other elements, too.

You're probably wondering why I'm labeling pretty little flowering tree buds as elements that wreaked havoc on my run. Normally, I'd think that pretty flowering tree buds were gentle and harmless, but they're not. I know better. They're allergy inducing, sinus clogging buds of doom.

The last picture of the purple flower isn't part of the doom group; it's just pretty so I thought I'd include it.

But I foraged on. Battling the elements. Holding on to my hat.

As it turns out, I run faster outside than I thought I did. OR the presence of the Garmin made me run faster? I'm not sure. Anyhow, I ran a 5k, up hills (both ways!) and through a wind tunnel in 26:50.

So, take that, wind and blooming buds of doom!