If there’s one thing I remember from The Lion King it’s that Simba and Elton John’s love child, Pumbaa, is one heck of a meerkat you have to respect the circle of life.  In a nutshell, you’re born/built, you live/function, you die/die — thanks, Disney, for that life lesson.  This holds true in animated lion movies and running GPS devices alike.

It seems like just yesterday that my beautiful wife surprised me with my first GPS watch, the Garmin Forerunner 301, way back in 2006.  I ran plenty of miles with my 301 before sending it on its way to the great satellite in the sky and replacing it with the snazzy Forerunner 305 (above).  This new and improved gizmo became the best training partner I could hope for*.  I had some spectacular runs with the 305, including at least seven of my nine** marathons, and of course my humble proposal to my previously mentioned beautiful wife.

Well, in the 2+ years of (literally) beating the beep out of my 305, it has slowly started to fail.  The first sign of struggle was when the notification beeps fell silent.  That was fine though; those beeps got annoying every mile (and trust me, there were a lot of miles).  The next vital organ to conk out was the heart rate monitor, which flatlined without warning.  The data-glutton inside me enjoyed recording my heart rate, but it’s something I could do without.  The dealbreaker, however, was when I could no longer transfer data to my computer without a prayer to the merciful satellite gods.

As with any gizmo, gadget, and widget, the moment you buy a brand new, top-o’-the-line doo-dad, a fancier, brand newer one comes out.  As you might assume, being fairly tech savvy would lead me to the latest and greatest from Garmin**.  Not so.  Instead, I hurried back for my lost 305’s identical twin.  The reasons make it fairly obvious: it was 60% cheaper, I have 305-specific accessories, and not to be overlooked, I know all the ins and outs.

I’m now the proud owner of a new Garmin Forerunner 305, with all the bells and whistles beeps and syncs.  Stay tuned for a big announcement coming soon!

*sorry Colin, the whole long distance thing just isn’t working out.  It’s not me, it’s you.

**at time of posting.