Anyone have a Garmin Forerunner 201? How do you like it?

Love it. Use it almost every time I go out.

works great

My wife has one. It's a handy tool for measuring unfamiliar routes. If you get one, keep in mind that they're only so accurate, and the accuracy varies depending on satellite coverage, overhead cover (buildings, forest) etc. We find that the "distance" of a given route can vary as much as a couple of percent from day to day. Not such a big deal for training purposes, but keep in mind when you run a race and the garmin says 10.2 km instead of 10 flat that it may be the garmin that's off, not the race course (not to say that race courses can't be inaccy\urate too)

i've heard that it loses the gps signal often, have you had this problem?

another issue in the reviews was that the pace calculator was not very accurate. is this correct?

i think it sounds like a great product, i just want to make sure it's all it's cracked up to be.

First off, don't pay $150 for it. For instance, you can get it for $99.99 at Amazon.com (with free shipping).

As far as losing GPS signal, I only experience this when trail running under dense tree cover (or going under long bridges/tunnels). It fills in dropped portions of your route with a straight line (so the total distance should be accurate if your route isn't too twisty).

It is true that the real-time pace isn't very accurate. I tend to have mine set to auto-lap every mile or quarter mile, and show the current lap pace (which is accurate after the first hundred meters or so of a lap).

FYI, apparently a Forerunner 205 (and 305) is coming shortly. Details are sketchy (see

http://www.gpslodge.com/archives/003865.php

). If you can wait, you might want to hold off at least until it's announced to see if you'd need any of the features (plus the price of the 201 might drop when it's released).

It is rare that it loses the signal and typically happens when there is cover, such as trees or buildings. It will try to compensate when a stronger signal is found, but it may not be terribly accurate in those situation, particularly if you have done anything but run straight.

I have found that the current pace calc takes a little bit of time to catch up. Meaning that when you first start and if you all of a sudden make a significant change of pace it may take a few seconds to catch up. That being said, I love that feature.

Overall a great product, would definitely recommend, just understand it is not perfect.

oop the arse. thanks for asking.