Product reviews

As requested by Ron in his comments last week, here are my reviews of two running products I've been using:

• Amphipod RunLite 4 – I bought this hydration belt plus two additional 10.5 oz. bottles and an energy-gel flask. The appeal of this for me over Fuel Belt is its customizable bottle configuration. The Velcro fastener is very strong and has never come undone. As long as the belt is snug (and it does stay snug very well over long distances) it stays pretty much bounce-free – and I've run with as many as six bottles! I especially like the convenience of grabbing a bottle one-handed, especially for those bottles in the back. My only knock on the product: Its customizability means that sometimes the bottles may slowly shuffle around over long distances if the belt isn't snug. This can be reduced by adjusting the tightness of the belt on the fly, which isn't too big a deal.
• Garmin Forerunner 205 – For me, this is an essential piece of hardware to keep my running pace and adrenaline in check. I train on a trail with pre-marked distances, and using these as a guide, I've found the Forerunner to be quite accurate. During certified road races, the device tells me I've run further than the official course distance; at the Rock 'N' Roll Half Marathon, for example, my Garmin distance was 13.30 miles, an extra 1,000 feet over 13.1. This of course is not a fault of the device itself but the fact that it's practically impossible to stay true to the USATF-certified shortest possible route. Two knocks on the device:
1. I use Interval training heavily to do 5/1's, but in this mode you can't use the auto-lap feature (to automatically mark miles).
2. Sometimes it takes a while (a minute or so) to get a GPS lock even outdoors. Strangely, I can often get a lock inside my house quickly.

Good luck to Ron at next year's Little Rock Marathon!