Garmin Forerunner 101 Wrist-Mounted GPS Personal Training Device

The Forerunner is just the extra leap the user needs. There are the main features, such as real-time recording of pace (i.e., min per km or mile) or speed (both of which can be easily switched), as well as time elapsed and distance covered. However, even the relatively basic Forerunner 101 comes with plenty of bells and whistles. A virtual partner lets you gauge in real time how far you're ahead or behind a target pace; info such as maximum and average pace and total distance (imperial or metric units can be readily switched) are logged for each run and stored by day and week. The map feature seems a little superfluous, since the screen is just too small to see any revealing features, but it's cool nonetheless.

The design and features are thoroughly professional and refined, and the navigation through the menus is very simple and intuitive - no fantastically confusing arrays of buttons. A simple menu button lets you switch between the different menu levels, which can be further navigated and selected with up-down buttons and an enter button, respectively. After just reading up on the basics, I largely ignored the menu, and just played around with it no problem.

Its accuracy is simply exceptional - just a few days after the inaugural run, I wore it during a 10-mile race, and at crossing over the finish line, its deviation from the distance advertised was just 0.4% - so miniscule that it really proved its mettle and attests to the fidelity of the instrument (and the diligent surveying of the race organisers).

Granted, it's a tad bulkier than an ordinary stop watch, or pulse monitor, but it fits even spindly wrists (with a sportsy Velcro band) just fine. And it doesn't add that much weight that one should be concerned about losing minutes in the workout because of it.

As it is GPS based, it takes a few moments for it to get its bearings. However, as detailed in the manual, usually after less than one minute it has made a stable connection. Running beneath dense tree canopies can dupe it a little, and running close to solid barriers, such as walls or tall houses can shush the signal. So, for obvious reasons, it's no good using it on an indoor track.

Highly recommended for the serious athlete, enthusiastic runner, as well as the laid-back jogger or walker!


A must for runners and walkers   June 17, 2005
Mike Lamont (Scottish Borders)
42 out of 42 found this review helpful

As a keen hill/road runner and walker I've being eyeing up GPS gadgets for a couple of years now. When they first came out they were over 300, but now you can get the basic Garmin Forerunner for under 100.
I've been using mine for a few weeks now for offroad running, and I'm suitably impressed.
Yes, as most reviews state, it does occasionally lose the satellite signal (in thick woodland), but this happens less often than I expected and not for long. It then plots a point2point line from when it last had a signal, so unless your weaving about under trees, it's still pretty accurate.
On a 30 mile trip in the car it only varied by 1% on the cars milometer (which is probably a higher accuracy than the car).
The virtual running partner is an excellent training aid as you try an keep ahead of your little LCD figure.

Summary: Very impressed, so far, well worth the money. Only regret is that I could have paid a little more for the 201, so I could interface it with PC mapping software.


Great piece of kit   September 16, 2005
6 mile runner!! (Haywards Heath, West Sussex)
42 out of 42 found this review helpful

Well, after much deliberation whether to go for the 101 or the 201 or 301 - I'm chuffed with my decision. You've got to ask yourself - how often will you hook the more expensive models up to your pc for data analysis etc?? If like me the novelty will have worn off in 2 days, then the 101 is the ideal piece of kit.
Used it now for a few runs and the data shown, as well as post run info (average pace, calories used) is great.
A definate recommendation.


Excellent   July 19, 2005
23 out of 23 found this review helpful

I bought the Forerunner 101 to help improve my run times. I found it a little complicated at first, mainly because the manual is very skimpy, but now I've got the hang of (most) of it I wonder how I ever managed without it. The ability to enter a time / distance / pace you want to achieve and then have the Forerunner constantly showing you whether you are ahead or behind your target, and by how much, is incredibly useful. Battery life is good if you use top quality batteries. Overall the unit is very well designed and light enough to go un-noticed on the wrist. I also like the Calories Burned feature, which takes into account your weight, distance and descent/ascent.
Overall, highly reccomended.


Utterly useless!   November 14, 2006
Andy G (London, UK)
19 out of 22 found this review helpful

I realise that this review will be very much at odds with the other reviews on here, but I thought it might provide a little balance to some of the glowing comments so far.

Having only run with simple stopwatch previously, when it broke I thought I'd invest in something that would be much more useful if I was to take my running seriously, so I bought a Forerunner 101. Unfortunately I found it completely useless every time I tried it.

I do most of my running around central London, so naturally there are a number of tall buildings, trees etc that could potentially block the GPS signal. But despite this, every route that I run has a clear view of the sky for almost all of the distance. I found that the Forerunner consistently failed to detect and maintain a signal meaning that I was never able to complete a run that the Forerunner successfully tracked and recorded.

I followed all of the instructions for registering and setting up the device the first time it was used, and patiently waited each subsequent time that I tried to use it to see if it would establish a GPS connection. But it rarely seemed to recognise that I was outside despite there being a "clear view of the sky" on every occasion. It seemed to me that unless I was going to be running at least 30 feet away from any building over two storeys high, the Forerunner would not work properly. And without the GPS feature working, it was nothing more than a very expensive stopwatch.

After attempting four runs with the Forerunner, I gave up and returned it. And have reverted to a simple stopwatch again!