Garmin failed me, but I took my run into Unexplored Territory!

It was hard to get started today.

I wheedled and whined, caw-caw-ed and barked (even maybe howled), but I finally got off my butt and went for a run.

At 1:30 PM, I set my Garmin to find my location (like it hasn't found it a bazillion times before).

Apparently, cloudy days makes Garmin sad and confused.

By 1:46, I had decided that Garmin could suck it, downloaded and installed Runkeeper, and was on my way.

I decided to take a new route. Now that I had my phone with me, I wouldn't worry too much about getting lost. I came across a beautiful church.

As I ran along, Runkeeper kept speaking at me in her sweet dulcet tones: "10 minutes, 1.29 miles, average pace blah blah blah"... It was nice to know my stats as I went along!

It also had a nice camera shortcut inside the Runkeeper app, so I didn't have to close Runkeeper to take a picture.

I ran two loops around St Leonard's park, which was full of school kids doing some sort of activity/ athletic competition day.

Runkeeper uses Google maps, which is nice and accurate. (found GPS signals quite quickly, too!)

This is what the screen looks like on my Sony Xperia phone (which really isn't the best smart phone on the market today, but good enough for its price).

I did a total of 3.13 miles in 35:44.

By the time I got home, Garmin was sitting by the window like he was in Time Out for being naughty. But when I turned him around to look at his face, he simply showed the time and date as if nothing had happened...as if I hadn't asked him to find some satellites...as if he hadn't failed me...

Anyway, I think I'll keep Runkeeper around for those cloudy days when Garmin is being a dunce.

Do you use Runkeeper? Do you run with a GPS watch or your phone?