Product Review: Great Positive Strokes from Nike/TomTom Watch
June 1, 2011 By: GPS World Staff GPS WorldA Runner Reviews the Nike+ SportWatch
My first impression of the new Nike+ SportWatch (with GPS powered by TomTom) was, “How is a brick that size not going to get in the way of this 50-year-old runner who still thinks he’s all that and a bag of chips?”
Sure, it’s larger than a standard running watch, but it needs to be. Not only does it need to pack in all those nifty features, it makes it easy to read while bouncing down the running trail. It also turned out to be one of the nicest fans I ever met.
It charges through one’s laptop, and the program has all kinds of logging and organizational training aids for the runner who is A.D.D. about their training. However, at this stage of my game, I’m all about distance, time, and fending off aging so I can still have something to brag about. This gizmo even helped me do that.
I took it out of the box, put the chip in my Pegasus trainers, pressed two buttons, took a few steps, and was on my way, negotiating routes that I had been running for years. The first mile clicked off really fast, then the second. It’s almost like the Nike TomTom silently coached me to push a little harder. What I also instantly discovered is that my distances have been grossly underestimated. Thus my times always seemed slower that I thought. Global Positioning Systems from space don’t cheat. They are exact and yet this watch was also encouragingly friendly with its accuracy. At the end of what I thought all these years was just over seven miles, the watch congratulated me on a “record setting” pace for 9.14 miles. A few days later, I ran hills. Accepting the times would be a bit slower, the display at the end treated me to another accolade: “And the crowd went wild!” Then it systematically ran through the fastest mile, pace, total time, and estimated calories burned.
This gadget not only helps you run better because of all the information it puts out and organizes, it also gives you the GPS all of us runners need — Great Positive Strokes at the end of your efforts. And I’m definitely a fan of that.
David Loveall is a Eugene, Oregon-based photographer and 2009 Boston marathoner.
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