My neighbor is a marathon runner. She’s run locally and in neighboring states for years. Last year she took on the hills of San Francisco and is training for the pavement-pounding Chicago Marathon this fall. Of course, her dream is every runner’s ultimate ambition: the Boston Marathon. We live in an area of hills and ravines not far from the river, so she gets a good workout running in the neighborhood, but boredom was starting to kick in. Tired of the same old sights, she just bought a Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS Fitness Trainer with Heart Rate Monitor to help expand her practice route and track her performance. She said it was love at first sight!

The Garmin Forerunner 305 includes a high sensitivity GPS receiver, an easy to use new courses feature and a rugged wireless heart rate monitor that guarantees optimal performance. Its unique design wraps the GPS antenna around the wrist for improved reception under trees and near tall buildings. The Forerunner 305 ensures great reception whether you’re running in an urban cityscape, suburban neighborhoods or out in the country. The ANT wireless heart rate monitor has a soft, comfortable chest strap and superior battery life. With the Forerunner 305 you don’t have to worry about cross-talk with your MP3 or cell phone. The unit reliably measures and sends data to keep you training in your optimal heart rate zone.

What makes the Forerunner 305 so much fun for distance runners, bikers and cross trainers is the course feature that lets you compete against previous workouts. The Forerunner 305 allows you to transition easily between sports without resetting the unit to track your total workout. An optional Foot Pod accessory can track distance, pace and calories burned when you train indoors, even when GPS reception is unavailable. The Forerunner’s three main data screens can be customized to track 12 data fields, providing instant and continuous feedback during your workout. As with all Forerunners, workout data is stored in memory for review and analysis.