For My Birthday: THE GPS Watch

Last year around Christmas time I was seriously considering buying a Garmin. There were some good deals going around and a lot of my friends on The Team (Team in Training) use them and like them. But I didn’t buy. Garmins are gi-freaking-normous and expensive and nearly everyone that has one and likes it seems to do so in spite of the annoying problems (waiting to sync, not holding it’s charge, lost data). I kept feeling like, with the technology that’s out there, why can’t they make a smaller, more comfortable watch? I’ll wait until they do.

Garmin Vs Bia

So, now my birthday is coming up (July 10 – heads up in case anyone wants to send me something) and someone IS making a better watch! The Bia GPS Sports Watch project on Kickstarter describes in great detail a watch that will be (if funded) smaller, faster, cheaper, and easier to use!

For my birthday, I’ll be pledging as a Full Multi-Sport Bad@ass:

PLEDGE $199 OR MORE

FULL MULTI-SPORT BAD@SS. Add GPS! Get one black/silver Bia sports watch, any solid band AND a Bia GPS Go Stick. This will retail for at *least* $249. The equivalent multi-sport device from Garmin costs $349. Estimated Delivery: Apr 2013

This would be huge! And I’m totally willing to wait until spring of 2013 for this.

Here’s the catch: Bia has to raise $400,000 on Kickstarter by JULY 13TH in order to go forward! If they don’t get enough backers by the end of the day on July 13th, no one who pledged will be charged and I’ll have to figure out something else for my birthday.

So PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE pledge with me! Consider it an investment in your future athlete AND a way to help me get my birthday gift. Check out the backer list and you’ll see there are hundreds of men AND women backing this. But please consider pledging for at least $200. As of today, Bia would need 1,685 MORE people to pledge $200 in 24 days for this to go through.

My future training watch.

DO YOUR RESEARCH! Listen. Watch. Read.

First, listen to Cheryl’s interview on The Partnerunning Show. She gives GREAT details about the project (the how’s and why’s and the awesome safety feature).

Listen to
internet radio with Partnerunning on Blog Talk Radio

Second, watch a video interview as Cheryl talks about the difficulties dealing with *coughmalecough* investors who don’t get it.

Brilliant! Angled for ease of reading.

Third, read this great interview on Another Mother Runner! She really asks the tough questions: Bia Sport: A GPS for Women? ALSO! DC Rainmaker (a dude) has backed this watch and gives an incredibly detailed account of the pros and cons in his post: The Bia women’s GPS watch: My detailed thoughts

Seriously, everyone is talking about it!

• Mashable: The High-Tech Sports Watch Made for Female Wrists [VIDEO]
• Another Drop in the Bucket:  Bring Bia To A Wrist Near You
• BexLife! The FIRST GPS Sports Watch for Women – Support My Pals at Bia Sport
• So Just Keep Running: Bia – A Rockin’ GPS Sport Watch To-Be
• Shut Up + Run: Bia Sport and a New Race Series
• The Purple Giraffe: Bia – GPS without the wait?!
• Healthy Family Spirit: Bia Sports Watch – GPS Go Stick
• Gizmag: Bia sports watch made specifically for women adds à la carte GPS
• Triathlon Business: Female specific GPS sports watch, Bia, seeks crowd funding on Kickstarter

From now until July 13th, I hope we (all the backers) can rally over 2,000 runners, swimmers, cyclists, triathletes, female or male or transgender, to support this. And not just because I want it for a much-belated-birthday gift. Whether you’re a casual or serious athlete, you deserve something that works smarter for you. And maybe this isn’t it. Maybe it’s Bia 2.0. or Bia 3.0. Or maybe (hopefully not) the almost-success of Bia is what encourages someone else to take up this cause and do what Garmin and their ilk won’t do- develop a better, smarter product. Who knows. We’ll never know if we don’t get the ball rolling and show “them” that we want this to happen! Step 1 is to get this project funded. 

Cattywompus: Couples and Cancer

This is going to be weird. I’m always bewildered at how life can be up and down at the same time, the whole sunshine while it’s raining idea. This last week I’ve been celebrating running in so many ways. There was the best day ever and then a wonderful opportunity to be interviewed on The Partnerunning Show.

Let me talk more about that for a second. Andrew and Sue O’Brien are the Couple on the Run. I love their spirit and style and that their relationship is so tied in with their running. They inspired me to write this post back in November 2011: Marathons and Marriage: An Ode to Partner Running.

When Andrew and Sue asked if they could interview me for their show and talk about possibly writing some articles for their upcoming Partnerunning Mag, I was ecstatic and super nervous. We connected over Skype last Saturday night (well…it was Sunday afternoon down under) and it was so much fun talking with them and being able to share my running journey. What a great way to end a really ridiculously good week.

So anyway, during my interview with Andrew and Sue, they asked about who inspires me the most. This reminded me of another couple that I treasure dearly, Virginia and Van Garner. I am one of the many lucky, lucky people who have gotten to know the Garners through Team in Training and how awesome they both are as human beings, cancer survivors, fundraisers, and marathoners!

In fact, the whole week of celebrating running and the entire interview with Andrew and Sue, pointed out to me how much I owe to my involvement with Team in Training. I wouldn’t be a runner now if it weren’t for the team.

Then the cattywompusness of life hits on a Monday morning when I see that my team is sharing all over facebook that we lost one of our honored teammates Sunday night, Alessandra, who was diagnosed at only 14 and fought for 5 long years. I wouldn’t have met Alessandra if it weren’t for the team.

I don’t have a lot to say right now other than cancer sucks, my friends who are raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society right now are amazing, and that I am so thankful for them, for running, for everything.