REI is amazing.

For the past few months I have been training for the American’s Finest City Half Marathon in San Diego. In effort to help me train, I purchased a GPS Fitness Trainer, the Garmin Forerunner 205. At first glance, it looks like a big nerdy watch. If you continue looking at it though, you realize that it IS a big nerdy watch. The GPS satellites calculates speed, distance, and pace information. It is perfect for my training because I have to go on long distance runs, but don’t want to always have to google map out my trek beforehand. The 205 allows me to just look down at my watch to show my distance (and it also reminds me how slow I run!). I love it and find it incredibly helpful, even though it gives me quite an embarrassing tan and sometimes hurts my wrist.

This past weekend I had my final big run before the actual event, 13 miles. Sadly, during the run the battery went dead. I had to guesstimate the distance necessary to finish. Since the watch was only a few months old, I knew that I could probably get it replaced or fixed. I bought the watch at REI in Santa Monica and called them up to see if they could help. We went through different methods to resuscitate it, but nothing worked. The next step was for me to come into the store. I was hesitant about coming in, because I no longer had the receipt, but then I recalled that I had purchased it under an REI membership number. Ultimately, this is what saved me because when I went into the store, they looked me up on their database to confirm the purchase and then replaced the watch with a new one. Simple. Also, since the time I purchased the watch, the price is now lower, so they refunded me the amount in which the total cost had gone down. I was pleasantly surprised! REI has the nicest and most knowledgeable workers; leading me to believe that the company trains and treats everyone well (I hope I am right). Yay, REI!

I have not charged the new watch, now that I am tapering, but I am hoping it will be a better big nerdy watch than it’s predecessor and that we will have many hours and miles together.