I started my first blog entry on 2 July 2007 describing my anxious wait for this GPS (Global Positioning System) gadget. Then, there was only 1 pageview on that day. To date, there are 2,488 pageviews. I must say reciprocity and diligence in coming up with new interesting blog entries helped. Now, how to sustain the interest and encourage more people to engage in the comments section?

Back to subject. Here it is the Garmin Forerunner 305.

The chest belt is used for measuring heart rate. USB Cradle is for charging and transferring GPS and training data from the watch to the computer via Garmin Training Center software. Most important of all is the watch which I’ll activate to receive the GPS signal before starting on a run / walk.

This is the Garmin Training Center software. It can even plot the path that I took automatically on a map. Cool, right?:)

A closer look at the main items in the package.

There are 2 main uses for this watch – track my walking / running path and geo-tagging my pictures.

Garmin’s GPS data format is in .tcx and to use it in Mapmyrun, I will need to convert it into .gpx format for uploading and auto plotting of running path to the Google Map mashup. The software that I use to convert to gpx is this tcx converter software. Simple and easy to use.

Matching the GPS data in gpx format and photos exif information based on timestamp in Copiks PhotoMapper, I can geo-tag my pictures taken while using the watch to record the walking path.

Interesting, isn’t it?

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