In 2009, Karin gave me a Christmas present I hadn’t expected. It was a Garmin Forerunner 305 heart rate monitor with GPS. I had heard runners equipped with something that beat constantly and found it rather annoying. Now I was standing there with one myself thinking: “What am I going to use this for?” But I had to try it out, and it turned out to be a fantastic invention.

It turned out that I could simply switch off the beeping noises, and my new monitor could be set up to display masses of data. Of course, I selected those that worked best for me. They were the distance covered, time since start, the current pace, average pace, the current pulse, calories burned and current time.

The heartbeat monitor could also be adjusted to running, cycling and other sports. Different rates relevant to each sport could be set according to requirements and wishes. The monitor can probably do a lot more than I have discovered, but since I started using it I have greatly benefited from the functions I use.

For ten years, I had been running alone and generally been satisfied with my performances, however, good or bad they were. It was not unusual for me to run for a while and then “spoil” myself by walking until I felt ready to run again. On a 10-kilometre run, it was not unusual for me to walk two times. But the Garmin didn’t allow that. I now came to compete with my own previous results, and it became a sport to do better than the last time. I completely stopped walking; at least I walked much less. I began to regard myself as rather a weakling and a bit of a sissy if I already started walking after just a few kilometres, and as it turned out, it actually wasn’t more difficult to run all the time than to keep taking walking breaks. This is not a truth that applies in every single situation or on long distances, but on my ordinary training runs, it turned out to be the case. It didn’t take long before I saw considerable improvements in my performances.

I created a profile on the Garmin website and since then I have uploaded all my training sessions and my runs. It gives me a lot of possibilities. Among other things, I can see details about the race and the route that I have run.

The only negative thing about the monitor was that the battery turned out to be rather poor. After 18 months, it was only able to provide enough power for six hours, which was not satisfactory. But I had the monitor replaced under the guarantee. When the same thing happened after a year or so, I had it exchanged again, and the latest battery still seems to be working properly.

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