Garmin Breakdown! What Do You Mean - Run By Feel???

Run by feel?  Are you kidding me?  I depend on my Garmin 405 to tell me everything!  My pace, my distance, how much further I have to go, how close I am, how awesome I am running :)

Okay, that's what I was thinking a few days ago when my Garmin decided it needed a break from all the running I had been doing.

When I made my Facebook status "Garmin running watch not working = crappy day" I received some sympathetic feedback, but some people actually thought it would be a good idea to run without a watch!  What?

Well, they may be on to something...

I have noticed on some runs that I begin to concentrate on my watch more than my running (which seems hard to do when you are running, but it happens).

During my twelve hour race, my watch stopped at seven hours and I really felt naked for about half an hour.  I eventually stopped thinking about it and enjoyed the rest of the race ("enjoyed" may be a little strong, but you know what I mean).  Plus, I literately skipped a run on Monday because my watch was not working!  How sad is that?

I actually have been working on running more by feel, but I was still wearing my Garmin so I could check it at the end of my run.  It bothered me a little at first, but I got used to not looking at it until I finished.  But running without the watch at all just seemed wrong...

I joke with people that if my Garmin did not record the miles then I can't count them as part of my weekly total (I guess I should say I half joked about that).  Anyway, with my Garmin freaking out and having no other watch to use I went to the track.  Now, I am sure when people were saying run by feel they were not suggesting I go to the track for a workout with out a watch (but, that's what I did).  It worked out okay because there were clocks everywhere, but it really drove home the point of how much I rely on that watch and how much more I need to work on running by feel.

With all that said, here is the deal with my watch.  It locked up and when I tried to reset it (by holding in the two buttons) it started beeping.  The beeping would not stop!  I was in my office and ended up putting it in my desk so it would not bother anyone...

I took it home that day and let it run out of power (had to put it in the kitchen cabinet so it would not drive my wife nuts).  I was really bummed and was hoping that I could fix it somehow.  I checked it the next morning,  reset it again and it worked!

Believe me, I am leaving out several hours worth of me trying to fix the watch (and checking the Garmin web site about warranties, and how long it would take to get it fixed, and would they replace it, and could they ship it overnight) - you get the point...