The other day I walked into my friend's cellphone store and asked if I could handover my current cell phone for a smaller phone. The look he responded with was a mix of confusion and "are you crazy?!"
Yup, that's my phone. It's just about as big as this girl's head and I vouch that she looks happy with it only because a. she's getting paid to model it and b. she's never tried to go running with it.
My phone is too big and while it's great for emailing and using Facebook, trying to use it to track my run and play music off it while I'm running is not so great. It means I stumble with having to jam it in a pocket and have to either wear something with a pocket or safety pin it in my sweater pocket. Sure, with the cold weather right now pockets aren't a problem but come summer when my training clothes goes from lots of layers to bare necessities, what am I going to do then? Wear it in my sports bra?!
So I tried to replace my phone. Hand in my $800+ some larger-than-life phone and get a smaller one. Apparently Korea's phones are getting bigger and bigger, so asking for a phone that's armband-friendly isn't so easy. My friend suggested an iPhone and I reacted with basically the same response he gave me when I asked for a smaller phone -- confusion and "are you crazy?!"
Currently I'm using two applications on my phone -- 8Tracks for music and MapMyRun for tracking my run. Most days it works ok but some days the wifi and 4G connection fails, meaning my music suddenly stops. Running without music would be possible if I ran with a running partner but currently I don't. More so, some times the GPS doesn't kick in until a few minutes after I've started my run so it's rather shady too. I am eager to find something that's a lot more reliable and accurate -- something that gives me both music and a means of tracking my run.
I messaged on the Seoul Flyer's Facebook group page, asking what other runners are using. Most recommended Garmin -- a GPS watch that tracks your mileage and pace. That's great and all, but then what to I do about music. More importantly though, I'm definitely not interested in knowing I can constantly look at it for info on my run while I'm running. I know me. I will be so overly distracted with it. MapMyRun is great in that it tells me a verbal notice for every kilometre, telling me my distance, time and pace for that kilometre. One message per kilometre is enough for me.
The Adidas miCoach seems to be the ONLY gadget I could find that would play music plus give me an accurate read of my running info. It uses blue tooth earphones and I'm not too sure if they're included in the price. Regardless, the already massive price tag, $500, kills my interest. If I had $500 laying around the house I'd surely put it to other use. $500 for such a gadget is surely an investment and I'm by no means a pro star runner to making such an investment in a sport that is but merely an accessory to my current sport, boxing.
A friend suggested me buying an iPod Touch -- it's small, can easily fit into an armband, I can use apps and play music with it. That'd be awesome and I thought this was the solution to my problem, that is until I realise it'd need to depend on wifi and out by Dankook lake there's no strong signal plus I may run into needing a password for who ever's wifi it is I'd be tapping into. So that's a no go.
It'd cost me over $500 to exchange my current phone and set up a new one but for $500 I'd be able to get the Adidas miCoach. What I ended up doing was taking a new member's suggestion and buying a Spibelt. It's a stretchy belt that I'm hoping will fit my phone but for the $20 price tag, I'm really not too concerned if it doesn't. I'm not going to sweat over $20 if it doesn't work out. At least I tried.
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