I bought this to monitor my steps as part of my recovery from back surgery. I'm not a runner, but this is helpful nonetheless. It keeps tracks of my steps and has a reminder function that tells me to get up and move. When it comes time to take longer walks outside, I'll use the running tracker feature. The heart monitor band is too small for me now, but I'm losing weight, so I hope it will fit in a few months. Purple is my favorite color, so I enjoy wearing it every day, and I'll enjoy wearing it when I go back to work.

I love this. It holds a charge for a long time, fully charges when connected to your computer in about 15 minutes (much faster than my old Fitbit Charge HR). The GPS is very accurate and locks in quickly (about 30 seconds). I upgraded from the fitbit because this one has its own GPS and the fitbit runs off the GPS on your phone. I would go for a 3 mile run and fitbit would show me teleporting from one end of the trail to the other in a fraction of the distance. This has been a really good upgrade for me. It's very easy to use, set, and sync. I highly recommend it. The downside is that it doesn't have a heart rate monitor.

I've had this watch for about 4 months now. I got it primarily for heart-rate training. I found the heart rate alert (it beeps when you are over/under your target range) to be incredibly useful. As someone returning to running after a long break, this watch helped me see that I was 1) running too fast when I did run and 2) taking walking breaks that were too long. It also showed me that my cross-training activities (spinning, rowing) were not of a high enough intensity to get me into target range. I needed to either start working more intensely or consider those workouts recovery days.

Now the downsides...

The battery life is inadequate for what I do. I am slow but tend to go for a long time. The notes on the Amazon website say the battery will last "up to 8 hours" in GPS mode. My experience has been not even close to that. More like 5 hours. The Garmin software is also maddeningly buggy. It actually erased all of my data for the Portland Marathon :( One time I drove to a trail and tried to start the watch, when it got the charging symbol (the little triangle) and nothing I pressed could get rid of it. I had to drive back home and plug it into my computer, whereupon it seemed to fix itself.

Lastly, the heart rate monitor strap is just killing me. It has cut into me so many times and so badly that I now have what is probably a permanent scar. I have tried tightening it, loosening it and wearing a band-aid or athletic tape. I also tried two different HRMs. Both cut into me.

So, all in all, a good "starter" watch but I am thinking of upgrading to something that has more battery life and possibly more data.

I was nervous about purchasing this watch. I had used a Timex for two years before I had battery issues. I read through the reviews, and decided to give the Forerunner a chance.
While I was disappointed about the Forerunner's limited storage space for seven runs, I like that it keeps track of daily steps and records. It has a large display for time and distance that makes it easy to catch a quick glance. Moreover, the Forerunner connects to the GPS signal faster than my previous watch. It keeps accurate distances (I ran a few times with the Map My Run app on my phone, and the distances matched), and keeps detailed mile times.
Other runners have complained about the lack of Bluetooth synching capabilities, and I agree that it's a minor inconvenience. However, the Forerunner provides great features for its price. It's a great basic watch.

This watch is perfect. It was exactly what we wanted and is very accurate in terms of distance. It gives us each mile split, or it is also able to give average pace. I like knowing each mile. It is lightweight and not too bulky. I have not tried the step counter, so I have no input on that. The GPS picks up pretty quickly. I recommend you don't walk around too much as this can slow it down when searching for the location.

However, I am having issues looking at my saved runs on the computer. The software will not recognize the device. I need to contact Garmin.