Heads up! Here’s your massive list of sports tech deals! This includes the Garmin Forerunner 965 for just $499, Garmin Epix for $429, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 Black Titanium for $735, the GoPro Hero 12 Black for $299, (or Hero 13 bundle for $339!) and plenty more! Go check out the full list here!
I’m DC RAINMAKER…
Here’s how to save!
Wanna save some cash and support the site? These companies help support the site! With Backcountry.com or Competitive Cyclist with either the coupon code DCRAINMAKER for first time users saving 15% on applicable products.
You can also pick-up tons of gear at REI via these links, which is a long-time supporter as well:
Alternatively, for everything else on the planet, simply buy your goods from Amazon via the link below and I get a tiny bit back as an Amazon Associate. No cost to you, easy as pie!
You can use the above link for any Amazon country and it (should) automatically redirect to your local Amazon site.
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Check out my weekly podcast - with DesFit, which is packed with both gadget and non-gadget goodness!
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5 Easy Steps To The Site
1
In Depth Product Reviews
You probably stumbled upon here looking for a review of a sports gadget. If you’re trying to decide which unit to buy – check out my in-depth reviews section. Some reviews are over 60 pages long when printed out, with hundreds of photos! I aim to leave no stone unturned.
2
Read My Sports Gadget Recommendations.
Here’s my most recent GPS watch guide here, and cycling GPS computers here. Plus there are smart trainers here, all in these guides cover almost every category of sports gadgets out there. Looking for the equipment I use day-to-day? I also just put together my complete ‘Gear I Use’ equipment list, from swim to bike to run and everything in between (plus a few extra things). And to compliment that, here’s The Girl’s (my wife’s) list. Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by!
3
Have some fun in the travel section.
I travel a fair bit, both for work and for fun. Here’s a bunch of random trip reports and daily trip-logs that I’ve put together and posted. I’ve sorted it all by world geography, in an attempt to make it easy to figure out where I’ve been.
4
My Photography Gear: The Cameras/Drones/Action Cams I Use Daily
The most common question I receive outside of the “what’s the best GPS watch for me” variant, are photography-esq based. So in efforts to combat the amount of emails I need to sort through on a daily basis, I’ve complied this “My Photography Gear” post for your curious minds (including drones & action cams!)! It’s a nice break from the day-to-day sports-tech talk, and I hope you get something out of it!
5
The Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use List
Many readers stumble into my website in search of information on the latest and greatest sports tech products. But at the end of the day, you might just be wondering “What does Ray use when not testing new products?”. So here is the most up to date list of products I like and fit the bill for me and my training needs best! DC Rainmaker 2023 swim, bike, run, and general gear list. But wait, are you a female and feel like these things might not apply to you? If that’s the case (but certainly not saying my choices aren’t good for women), and you just want to see a different gear junkies “picks”, check out The Girl’s Gear Guide too.
Plan to do a 60K ride on Saturday followed by a 10K run on Sunday morning, a happy bunny.
Planned workout: Eat lots of chocolate. Race bike while feeling the effects of copious amounts of chocolate in my system, and thus forcing me to not want to touch chocolate for a few months.
I plan to relax and nurse my ankle back to health. I am asking my bunny to bring me a roller for Easter instead of chocolate.
When I was 5 and an only child, the Easter bunny brought me a 2-wheeler (bike). Hence forth, Easter was known as ‘Eastmas’…but sadly, the subsequent Easters were never quite as bountiful (as I was soon a big sister…and the Eastmas Bunnyman became poorer). :)
My easter plan this year is to have a Peeps duel in the microwave. Winner picks the swim workout.
It is my birthday on the 24th!! So I plan to go for a barefoot run and then eat my very first leg of turkey (those things are massive!)
No funny easter stories, but my workout this weekend involves too much travel with the family on BC ferries!
Plan to do a 20 mile run on Sunday. Last long run before the 1st marathon.
No funny Easter Stories, but I did fill 1035 plastic eggs today! Tomorrow they get hid…
Hi Dc,
Love reading your blog and really appreciate the hard work (eg: how does the Forerunner Calorie count calories).
Would love to win the Forerunne. I would be the first in Australia and wear it with pride in the Gold Coast Marathon.
ta shaun
One Easter for a family gathering my younger cousin who was in HS and on the Track team was talking smack about his running times, so I challenged him to race, right then. We went out to the street in front of the house and I blew him away in a sprint distance of 5 mailboxes. And did I mention I was wearing my Easter’s best, khakis and dress shoes.
If all goes according to plan, will be running everyday from now till Sunday with a variety of work-outs.
Plan to do a slow 2 hour MTB ride and half-hour run, not necessary in that order. Trying to recover from achilles tendonitis.
Short story: Mignon eggs are real egg shells filled with chocolate mix — a nice Easter tradition in Northern Europe since about 1896. When I was visiting Finland a couple of years ago, I purchased some for my friends and family. Mostly reception was great — it is pretty cool and contains a lot of chocolate! My father-in-law was less fascinated. He left his mignon egg in the freezer and tried to boil it for breakfast a couple of days later.
FIY: link to suomikauppa.fi
This weekend im gonna go to a small island, drink gin and tonics and relax. Ive earned it. Maybe some open water swimming to keep the muscles active
My father brought my sister and I to a public park when we were maybe 4 – 6 year old kids for a big easter egg hunt. We got there a minute or two after the organizer said “go” so we hurried out to find eggs in the huge grass field. Other kids had taken all of the nearby eggs and just as we were about to grab our first eggs of the hunt we hear Dad yell “No, no, no, not the brown eggs!”.
Bragged about you in the ladies locker room. Showered up after having my husband and I’s first date night in a racquetball lesson.
Cheeky little 50 mile ride on the back of a pool session. Keep up the good work
When I was 8 years old, my dad had me go into the attic to get our Easter baskets. He was sure to give me the old “only step on the boards speech” before I entered the attic. To my defense, there was crap everywhere and I couldn;t see where the boards were and I cam e crashing down into the garage, followed by our easter baskets!
My planned workout is relaxing with the family over Easter. Bike is not happy after a crash yesterday :(
Nice. Another excellent competition. Thanks for doing this.
Andrew
after 2 weeks off due to an injury (something to do with barefoot running…), i’ll try to get back on track with the training for my first half marathon!
a few easy runs and on Sunday, the longest distance I’ve recorded so far (22-24 km)
no special easter plan. just relax
Planned workout 4km pool swim in saturday And just a Little Bit of cycling (50) with girlfriend in sunday
Baked yams, but instead of using marshmallows, use peeps! A variety of colors would be cool; blue, yellow, pink. They have/had white ones that had sparkles on them too. Peeps rule!
me too :)
You know I want it!!!
omg, I want this sooooo bad! my workout “plan” for the weekend is to get out rock climbing to celebrate the end of this semester :)
It could be great to have new garmin watch
we used to leave cut-paper bunny foot prints in a path around the house leading to a basket filled with goodies for the kids. now they just want the goodies and grimace at the fake tracks.
great giveaway, i could certainly use one.
following you since the beginning as i was searching for info on the edge 705…
Being a Brit we get the Friday and Monday off around Easter (and the same the following weekend thanks to the Royal wedding!) so my training plans are: big ride Friday, MTB Saturday, Club ride Sunday and another long ride Monday. I’m spending Easter in the saddle!
On saturday, i’ll try to finish my first olympic distance triathlon… there’ll probably be a recovery training on sunday.
Never one a giveway like this, hopefully this one will be my first!
Greets from The Netherlands
Tom Smulders
Cool giveaway! Much sleeker than my 310XT
Workout for this weekend: Long run, by time instead of distance. Trying to get acclimated to the heat, because it’s pretty much already summer in central Florida. During the run I will have my fingers crossed that the random number generator gods smile upon me.
planned workout: do visita iglesia photowalk then 21km walk to my friends and co-runners.
When I was 5yrs old or so I swore up and down that I’d seen the Easter Bunny’s shadow on my bedroom wall. As if it would add credibility, I insisted he was wearing blue overalls :P
Just got myself a brandnew 310XT yesterday, but this one sounds really interesting :-)
Wifey and I were planning to run a 10K this Easter weekend, but with thunderstorms on the horizon, we’ll probably just cuddle up on the sofa and watch some DVDs… Oh, and eat lots of chocolate!
Years ago I used to made a small piece of one of my Easter eggs last till next Easter… But now I have given up Chocolate for Lent I can’t wait to stuff myself with Chocolate Easter Bunnies.
Yay!
I’m going to be chasing rabbits on the Big Island in the Hawaii State Time Trial Championship race this weekend. Individual on Saturday and team on Sunday. And then I’m whipping up some deep fried cadbury creme eggs after.
Some easy swimming for me this Easter as I’m still nursing sore knees after running the Marathon de Paris.
It was emmigrants from Boston, Lincolnshire in the UK that named Boston, MA after their home town.
Thanks for the giveaway — count me in!! Cheers!
I plan to do a 100k ride saturday morning before flying over to the other side of Norway to joint my family for a 600k car ride back home on sunday.
great watch…too bad its not triathlon made…but being a gadget man I still want one…thanks for all the hard work Ray!
Thanks for the chance! I’m doing a 2-day hike on the Israel trail.
I have no plans for Easter other than enjoying the delicious European chocolate bunnies!
Ann
Thanks! I like this new Garmin….
just planning to do a 15K run over the weekend!
easy 50k ride, have to give my knee some more rest. Oh and of course lots of eggs :)
Its my birthday on the 23rd, so I’ll be celebrating that and my cycling will take second place. Hopefully manage to go to Tokai Forest (Cape Town, South Africa) on Monday morning.
Easter plan? try to find time for running while staying with my family. Oh, and I need to buy my nephew an easter cake for monday (no bunnies or eggs in my country)
Working out and then going tona friends house for dinner.
I am planning to find some new routes to bicycle over the nearby Mountains. Last time it was nearly 1,5 hours uphill and then down over the other side in about 20 minutes and I saw over 20 deers and one marten eating a dead deer. Totally a bit over 30K. And what is the best thing here in Japan is that all routes are covered by tarmac.
Your blog is really great! I have been following it few months now. especially your reviews are great! Thank you!
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We live in Italy (U.S. Army stationed overseas), so Easter & Easter Monday (called Pasquetta) will be very quiet days here. As such, I’ll be spending Easter morning running. I’ll be spending Easter afternoon recovering from aforementioned run & maybe doing some gardening/yardwork/dogwalking.
Plan to ride in Maui on my birthday trip (thanks wifey). If I have the guts I’ll ride up Haleakala, but I think Ryder Hesjedal’s record is safe. I’m a Yukoner, so the heat will clip my wings a little. Then I gorge on the chocolate bunnies (ears first of course). Shout out to your girl from a former Newfoundlander.
My planned workout is a long MTB and a long racebike ride, because in the past two weeks i hardly did any training :)
what a fantastic giveaway! thanls for the chance! Easter…the only funny stories are that my kids ate afraid of the Easter Bunny.
the one at our mall is really creepy, I’d be scared of him also if I was 5! workout this week: week 11 of training plan for half marathon #2 with a 12 miles on Sunday!
Weekend workout…*gulp*, I plan to run my first half, but things are looking a little touch and go at the moment because of a recent month of rest I took. 3 hour cut off and I ran 10k in 1h10min on Sunday, but going to give it my all.
PS: thanks for all the reviews, they are phenomenal.
Making plans for my forth coming season startup camp, Nordic skiing. That involved lots of trail running and MTB. Love your blogg!
On the lookout for an easter bunny! Best wishes from a long-term reader from Germany! Yeah
PUES NADA A VER SI HA Y SUERTE….TENGO EL 310 XT , EL JOULE…..Y ESTA NUEVA HERRAMIENTA NO VENDRÍA MAL LA VERDAD…..
SALUDOS DESDE ESPAÑA.
I’m planning an early morning run (8 miles?) on Friday with a colleague, then probably a short run (4 miles) on Saturday and my long run (12 miles) Sunday or Monday. Training for a 10k race in 10 days time.
150k ride in the French alps! only 2500 climbing meters. will need chocolate to recover this Easter weekend for sure..
Ok I’m in and I hope for 610 :-)
plan to add more swim & bike to my running training plan. Thanks!
I don’t know what kind of mood the Easter Bunny was in one year when I was a kid, but inside those plastic eggs we hunted at Grandma’s we found mostly candy, but also some coins (US and foreign currency), stones, hardware store items, fishing tackle, and a few IOUs.
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As I register for a sprint triathlon at the end of May (first in a year!) I will be starting training seriously this week-end… taking advantage of visiting grand-ma who lives in the country side South of France to do long bike rides, swim in the lake and run… much better than in Paris! Of course, there will be Easter Chocolate and my 30th bday celebration just before!!
Hey Ray – good on you for giving the watch away. No eggs for me after puking up on expired pineapple chocolate eggs last year (NB: I didn’t realise they were expired until said experience. Probably will go for a couple of runs… Cheers Jason.
I have the perfect Easter story!! Last year,
My sister and I were in charge of hiding the eggs at the park for our the younger siblings in our family. the day before,they had picked out a place that they were going to have the hunt and have lunch. So we were on our way to the park but my sister had forgot her camera, so I made a quick U-turn and went back home. This added like an extra 30-40 mins to our trip. When we arrived the kids had found and opened some plastic eggs already. We immediately ran over to the parent and they had thought we hid those… and as soon as she had explained to me, this lady came over and saw me with a bag full of eggs, and she says ” i guess those are ours then”. I laughed, glad she took to so kindly.
Hi
Writing from Finland. I would like to try FR610 here because people say that Finland is so poor periferia that even gps wont work here.
It would help me find home after i have runned away from polarbears and Santa.
Best Regards Petteri
I (24) was still running around with my two sisters (21 and 22) last year is search of easter eggs that my parents hid in their garden… And all three of us were rather competitive to be honest. Growing up doesn’t have to ruin the fun!
Great review on the 610. Good thing I held off on the 410.
long ride on saturday, relaxing on sunday, 1hr20 easy run on monday.
great giveaway, as always!
Can’t recall a funny Easter story, but the weather should be nice this weekend so I plan to make a long cycling foray into the Marin Headlands (North of San Francisco), followed by a ~15k trail run up some lung-burning hills. Spring is definitely in the air!
Saturday, still undecided between a 140km+ group ride or just riding a couple of easy 45km loops near home with wife for company :) Sunday, 15-ish km easy run.
looking forward to a toblerone easter egg there are savage
Plan to do an aquathalon in Lake 288 in Houston. A quick 400 swim and 1 mile run!
Lovely weather forecast here in the English Midlands for the Easter weekend. Plenty of pedalling in order!
Nice giveaway Ray!
Cheers
Clive
I’m going to run my first 1/2 marathon on 8. May..
Hoping to get close to 1h 40m
That watch looks great!
Hallo DC, You can put me up for an entry. My Easter plans is basically church, family, lots of food and hopefully a couple of runs (5-7km) during the weekend, with a long run on Saturday or Sunday (17-22km). A Forerunner 610 wouldn’t be too bad either ;)
Doing a 10km race on Easter Sunday morning – went out with 2 friends to run the course on Monday night … no GPSs so we had no real clue where the 10km point was … I think I did 10.3km – now if I’d had a FR610 rather than a FR60 …
No funny Easter Stories but I’m ready for my first marathon would like to wear it!
Tks for all hard work and plenty of useful info you’re giving us.
Planning to recover from my HIM last weekend and go for a nice slow 2 hour OWS. Pick me pick me random.org! Enjoy the weekend ray.
Plans for Easter: recovery runs + don’t give up in fighting my thyroid problems :)
Cheers!
No funny stories here but I’m ready for my first half marathon after a long stop (not wanted) so will be more than happy to wear it.
Tks for all your useful info here and hard work.
For the first time ever I’m going to “celebrate” the eastern bunny! My wife’s parents invited us for eastern brunch. My wife and I got all exited and even arranged a eastern breakfast with my sister. My family never celebrated eastern like this. For the first time ever I’m exited about eastern ;-).
When I was young (about a year or 5/6) I ran inside yelling “papa papa I just saw the easter bunny!”. A few months later friends told me that the easter bunny did not exist and that it in fact was your father and mother which were hiding the chocolate eggs. Crying I ran home telling my father “they told me the easter bunny doesn’t exist and that it is in fact you who is hiding the eggs”. My father quickly responded “Well I never have seen the easter bunny but you have told me that you’ve seen it right?”. My tears dried up and I said “yes I have”, made me enjoy searching for easter eggs a few years longer… :)
I’ll leave for a training camp in Spain on Friday evening. Saturday’s plan is an easy swim and short ride (20K), then a morning swim on Sunday, about 100K ride and an 8K run.
Plan to join a group ride! Thanks for this awesome giveaway!
Will be “helping” my 2 kids eat the mountain of easter eggs that have been bought for them :) and try and squeeze a run in their somewhere :)
120km ride on Saturday, and 16km run (longest in 18 months) on Sunday!
I did a 110k ride yesterday, but my plans for the weekend include a road ride of at least 60k and a trail run of at least 16k. It’s late autumn/early winter here though so I’m hoping the weather gods are kind.
I’m so looking forward to my easter training, as its my first training in 9 weeks since diagnosis and surgery on a hernia, so a nice gentle 3/4k for me in un-seasonal 20c sunshine
oh please let it be me :-)
Last weekend before flying to Mallorca for two weeks of training camp and the Mallorca Triathlon. So training volume will increase to more than 30h a week ;-)
YEAH
What an Eggciting competition. I’ll be Eggstatic if I find a 610 Hopping its way over that Atlantic.
Mostly riding the weekend couple of Century rides to knock out.
Thats all Yolks!