Timex Marathon GPS Review
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Running with a GPS watch can have a number of advantages for a runner, but it depends of what the runner really wants and needs. These days, there are a number of GPS watches on the market that do almost everything except wiping your butt, I’m still waiting for that one. For the runner that doesn’t need the super techy features, the Timex Marathon GPS is a nice option.
The Timex Marathon GPS watch has all the major GPS running watch functionalities such as distance, pace, average pace, time, but doesn’t come with the more fancy coaching features that some of the high end watches come with including a fancy price. For me personally, I often like to go for a run and know the distance that I am running and how long it took me, but not a whole lot more. It sounds rudimentary in today’s day of technology, but sometimes it’s nice to keep it simple.
The Timex Marathon GPS Watch uses SiRFstarIV™ GPS technology which I find can take a little longer that I would like for finding satellites. In my uses, the GPS usually took 2-3 minutes to find signal and in other GPS watches I have used it only takes about a minute to find signal. This isn’t a deal breaker, but it can get annoying if you are running with a group and they are all waiting on you for your watch to get signal. As for accuracy, I found the watch to be accurate with distance almost all the time, but I felt the pace was off from time to time. Since I wasn’t using the watch for racing and speed workouts much, this didn’t bother me.
The face of the Timex Marathon GPS is about the size of the Timex Ironman watches which is a fair amount smaller than other GPS watches on the market. This means that the display characters are smaller and there is less room to display a lot of data. While I prefer the larger display, you have to manage your expectations such as this watch retails for $100 and it is a simple watch, not a super techy watch. The units for this watch come in kilometers or miles, so you can pick your preference. The Marathon GPS has a 100 lap memory which is plenty for 99% of runners out there. I find the split button is a little touchy, so there are times when I would have extra splits during my runs.
The fit of the Timex Marathon GPS is similar to other smaller GPS watches. It is bigger than your standard running watch such as an Ironman, but it isn’t cumbersome like other GPS watches on the market, including other Timex GPS watches. For battery life, you get up to 8 hours of using the GPS feature. If you don’t always want to use the GPS, the watch battery last much longer. I use the Timex Marathon GPS watch as my casual watch a lot and I find that I can usually get up to a couple weeks sometimes without having to recharge it. To recharge this watch, all you need to do use clip the USB adapter to the watch and plug it into a wall/car charger or your computer.
My overall impression of the Timex GPS watch is that it is good, but not great. It does the job it was intended for, but it doesn’t knock my socks off in terms of technology. Please keep in mind the newer fancier technologies are often saved for higher end/priced GPS watches. For $100, the Marathon GPS watch is a pretty good deal for a GPS running watch.
For more info on the Marathon GPS and other Timex products, visit www.timex.com or www.amazon.com/timex.
