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!
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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.
Short bike/run brick on saturday morning, then a longer marshmallow peep/jelly bean brick on Sunday.
AE – Bethesda
plan for easter: after a long period of non-cycling at all, and a smaller period of short rides, i plan a longer ride for the weekend.
happy easter!
miriam 21st april
Planned workout: rest after my first marathon!
When I was about 10, we had family friends visiting for Easter. We used hard boiled eggs for our hunts and after that year’s easter egg hunt their son and I decided it would be fun to throw every single egg (had to be around 50) from our front porch down into the cul-de-sac below. When my dad realized what we had done he made us go down and pick up every single piece of shell. Must have taken hours.
Thanks for the great blog. And another excellent give away!
I came down one easter morning to find that my dog ate the 2 dozen hardboiled and died eggs hidden in my house. It was a long day after that because she had the easter trots!
Easter…slightly funny…my son, at age 4, was picking up Easter eggs and putting them in his basket. And my daughter, at age 2, was walking along right behind him, picking them up from his basket and putting them in hers. :)
Hoppy Easter!
Jennifer
Not me, but once my fiance’s father hid her and her sister’s Easter baskets, and then had to run off to work. He hid them so well, that even her mother wasn’t able to find it. In the end they called him, to find out that they were hidden in the guest room closet, a top the highest shelf. Imagine an 8 year old trying to find that!
Annually on Easter, I still hear of the Easter Sunday that I ran away after a huge tantrum about God knows what. I packed my basket full of candy, and a small ‘weekend’er’ full of stuffed animals, and I hit the road. I made it about 1/2 a block before I decided that dessert was of more value to me than my personal agenda and headed for home with my candy. Without fail, I will hear about it again this Sunday. Ugh.
Regarding training, I will get in a few miles, though nothing huge. I am just getting back back after it, following my intense focus period of booze and cheese post marathon.
Thanks for another great giveaway Ray…
An early morning swim (3,000 yards), with a nifty 15k run…followed directly by a peep induced food coma.
Growing up we would always celebrate Easter the Monday after the actual holiday. My dad said it was because he had to work on Sunday’s. When we grew up, he told us it was so he could buy the Easter candy for 90% off on Monday.
Planned workout: 10 mile run on Saturday, 40k bike on Sunday then on to choco feast
This week end I plan to prepare for my next century ride on May 1st. I will do a 110km intensity outside bike ride on saturday. then a 1h indoor cycling session on Sunday followed by a bike ride with my triathlon club on Monday.
I will spend enough energy to taste the chocolate eggs with my 3 children on Monday afternoon without impacting too much my racing weight ;-)
Thanks for the great review and for all you do. Sign me up.
Duane
Doing my first triathlon this weekend. Your posts have been more than helpful. Thanks, Ray!
Great review of the 610. I am still using the 205 and ready for an upgrade. The weekend workout will be pretty light recovery runs as I am recovering from the Boston Marathon. Great day and great race in Boston this year!!
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I’m on holidays until Sunday, I will relax with my family, do a 6K + 10K run preparing for next week Fila Night Run in Brasilia!!!
Everybody needs more electronic devices. I dont have this one, and want one. Free would be for me!
Egg me. Okay, I just plan to throw eggs at something or someone.
This is week 1 of HIM training. I like electronics. I love free electronics. Cavemann @ BT
I plan to spend the holiday with my fiance (he proposed to me during the Boston marathon) and to eat silly amounts of Cadbury Cream Eggs.
Hi Dc,
Great work in this blog,if only you could add reviews from other manufacters as well (polar and suunto).
Greetings from Greece!
Dionisis
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No Easter stories, but very long rides planned for the long weekend, prepping for 1st IM. Count me in for the raffle!
Plan to do the Lake Travis Tri this weekend. link to rbsportsllc.com
followed by a nice long ride.
About 3 years back, my brother and I hid the eggs for my sisters to go find. It was a semi-rainy day and I found a small frog on the van in the driveway, so I switched out the candy in one of the eggs for the frog. The video from when the girls opened the eggs 20 minutes later inside the house is as hysterical as you could imagine.
Happy Easter!
I will use the FR610 to determine the time and distance it takes to eat an entire Lindt Bunny easter egg. No trianing planned this weekend, as I’m going away!
Plan to go to church and then probably chase my 3 year old around after he eats too much chocolate. Happy Easter!
I am new to running!! Started training for my first back in January!! My first 10km is on May 1st!! I am VERY excited and will be spending easter weeekend training outside :) :)
This weekend’s workout – probably 35-40 miles on the bike Saturday and a 5 or so mile run on Sunday. Sunday may also include a little time on the rollers if I have time between various Easter visits.
I’m always surprised to see how competitive people are. A few years back I took my 3 year old to an Easter egg hunt. They divided kids into age groups and then released the hounds.
You could hear parents yelling at their kids to grab more eggs, go go go! It was crazy. Of course the more timid kids got no eggs at all. While the more aggressive kids knocked each other over. My son was a middle of the packer, the Easter egg doesn’t fall far from the tree…or, you know, whatever.
The bottom line is that it’s Easter people, not a race, calm down, and let all the kids get at least an egg. Sheesh!
When I was a kid the Easter bunny forgot to hide the eggs one year. So my older brother and i quickly found out who the bunny really was. We quickly hid the eggs for my younger brother who never knew the truth. Wefound the last egg 10 months later!!
Run, cycle and be happy for the easter bunny will bring me lots of chocolate treats this weekend.
ok…so I remember every Easter as a kid my parents would buy me and my sister a hollow chocolate bunny with the candy eyes. After church we would all go over to my great-grandparent’s house for lunch. On the way home my sister was in a panic…it seems that she left her bunny at our great-grandparent’s house. So my dad turned the car around. When we got there my sister found her bunny but to her great disappointment my great-grandfather had eaten the ears off! This weekend I plan on logging a long run of about 1-2 hours.
Funny story…my mom would dress us in ridiculous matching Easter outfits before church. The picture is still hanging in my parent’s house. I’m talking pastels, man.
sean gg
I’m writing from Hungary. In this country a new constitution is going to be promulgated on Easter Monday. Normally we are free on this holiday with my wife, but because she works as a news anchor, she has to work on this particular Monday. Well, it’s not that funny, but could be kind of interesting.
I’m writing from Hungary. In this country a new constitution is going to be promulgated on Easter Monday. Normally we are free on this holiday with my wife, but because she works as a news anchor, she has to work on this particular Monday. Well, it’s not that funny, but could be kind of interesting.
When I was 10 and attending Easter mass. The preist sneezed while handing out communion to the women in front of me. As the hosts rained down all over the floor, my laughter wasn’t contageous to the rest of the congragation.
Finishing week three of the couch to 5k tomorrow! Then, a 15km hike along the south coast of South Africa on Sunday! :)
I plan to run through the park this weekend and search for a golden egg.
Just finished my first marathon a few days ago, still need to relax during eastern.
Easter plan this year is a chocolate feast – where every dish must contain some form of cocoa/chocolate! Better do some rides to work that off!
Virginia – Adelaide, Australia
I’m saving up for a 305, so a 610 would be amazing!
No Easter story and no plans to ride this weekend. Just got back from vacation =)
Have an off day today. Going to get tested @ Memorial Herman Sports Rehab for running zones tomorrow!
Did I comment already?? Something failed yesterday.
Pray for dry dirt and probably a long run.
I am learning to run and have my C25K Week 1 Day 3 workout to do later today along with the Arms and Shoulders workout from P90x… should be good for about 800 calories ;) Great giveaway!!
Make it a great day!
I will do the Buddhist bunny hop ….
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When we were kids my brother used to hide the chocolate easter eggs, I remember one time that I couldn’t find them all.
Later in the evening the room got an chocolatly smell, and we found the missing egg, molten inside a hot lamp.
Hi DC,
Just got my 310xt w/ HRM & foot pod a month ago after reading your reviews, only to find this new fangled device available. FML
Hope this giveaway makes up for it. :D
Being the ultra-novice blubber laden runner, my workout plans for the weekend are:-
Running my first 12k, (weather permitting on the road) else in the gym with a load of Trance in my mp3 player :D
Hopefully I’ll win this watch to replace my oversized 305.
Fingers crossed!
My Forerunner 305 just died, thats how I found your site – researching on what to purchase next….and Im so confused. Its my birthday on the 25th April as well, so hopefully my hubby wont be giving me a new watch ;-). Im trail running this weekend in the CVNP
I would love to have one of these. How cool.
How much are these going for? I want one.
Got 3 days off work, lots of training incoming!
I plan to eat – then I am going to eat some more…. Then I might think about trying to run all the weight off that I just consumed. A 610 might just help succeed with this plan.
This Easter will be the first in a series of back to back weekends forming my training for the Mohican 100 miler in June. I just finished my first 100 miler at Umstead in April. So on Sunday I will be looking to do 20 miles, having already done 25-26 on Saturday on the course.
Hey Greater blog. Hope I can win the FR. I am in my last weeks of training for Grama Marathon in Minesota. goog luck everyone.
Sunday is my SLR day on my training plan for my first 70.3. My plan is to follow the plan after eating some bunny ears!
Woohoo! Happy Easter! Free Forerunners for everyone!
Spending easter with my family, workouts in the morning and some lovely recovering in the sun afterwards. Only bad thing is that the insides of my Garmin FR60 now resebles that of a sauna. Well, I guess I should’nt have tried to change the batteries myself…
Planned workout: Swim, Bike, Run Repeat. Hoping for Gu instead of Chocolate this year.
Easter brunch out, followed by very slow run home.
Sat: 80 mi ride on W&OD followed up with my 25th birthday party!! woohoo
Sun: 70 mi ride around
dont really have much of a story, but this year my son already saw one of his easter gifts in the hatch of the car!! oops!!!! LOL luckily he’s 4 and it was in a bag so i was able to quickly divert his attention before too many questions were asked!
Plan to rest allot after a half marathon a few days ago
10 mile race pace run on Saturday and then a 20 mile run Easter Sunday. It is going to be a fun weekend.
i would look good with that watch
I woke up really early, hunted all the eggs, and then proceeded to rehide them, just so it wouldn’t seem like I took all of them
Weather in Ontario has been terrible this month. So, all the good I did indoor, is slowly fading away! I need some good solid outdoor rides, (preparing for the Nove Colli in May). This weekend is my chance!!
I plan to run in a local 5k Saturday morning and spend Sunday with family. Happy Easter and thanks for the great reviews!
Excellent review, as always. Of course, it throws a wrench into the works – I was prepared to buy the 310, now I’m not so sure.
If I win this, I won’t need to buy either (hint hint…)
Thanks.
First time caller long time listener.
Running plans include procrastination, rationilizing and binge drinking.
I really appreciate your product reviews it helps demystify the marketing hype. Much Appreciated.
Peace
NewtP
Hi DC! I’m an avid fan of your site and I really find all your reviews (particularly about Garmins) quite useful. And since you mentioned that anyone in the world can join (and I so would love that GF610 to land on my wrist) I decided to post my comment all the way from the Philippines! :)
Anyways, it’s a tradition here in the Philippines to visit churches during Holy Week so I plan to do my weekend run on a new route that passes by as many churches as I can.
– Dennis R
The 610 would look extremley nice on my wrist. Thanks for the review.
Peace
NewtP
My grandma always kept a list of where she hid the easter eggs which meant they were always found that day. One year my cousins and I found where she kept the eggs and hid them ourselves which made for a much more challenging hunt and eggs found months later.
Thanks for the chance to win!!
When one thinks of an easter egg hunt one usually thinks of kids running around the house looking for the eggs. While I was dating my future wife she her family invited me over for Easter brunch and told me they were doing an Easter egg hunt. I thought nothing of it as I enjoy chocolate as much as the next person.
Wasn’t I surprised to see my future father-in-law (50) battling it out with my wife’s grandmother (80) in an anything goes contest to who could get the most treats.
I guess you can never be too old for the bunny.
Training for my first marathon in Oktober. A Garmin with GPS that whould be something for my training. :)
Some yoga and running planned for Easter. Going to see Hop, too. Don’t judge.
We’re still plowing through chocolate from last year, that’s my Easter story. Count me in for the giveaway!
Swim! and run, probably a short bike mixed in too..
Thx for sharigiving to us!
Count me in.
test
No funny Easter stories! Planned workout this weekend is an outside 10miler and hoping the rest of the snow here melts!!
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One year for Easter we decided to hide real eggs. We thought we found them all until a couple of weeks later when a corner of the backyard started to smell very badly…needless to say we stuck with plastic eggs after that.
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5k Parkrun on Saturday, 40-odd km mtb ride on Sunday.
Hi dc, i am a newbie triathlete, cannot Believe I qualify for this statement yet, as I am participating in my first tri event ever this Saturday, boy am I nervous, anxious, n just a bag of emotions right now!!!! It’s a sprint, n it’s aptly called the Easter Egg tri, don’t know if there is an actual Easter egg hunt after,because of my emotional instability right now..but it’s a great feeling at the same time. Can’t explain it, other than to say I have trained hard and am internally confident because of that.
I have been reading ur column for the past month trying to determine which garmin hrm I must get. I have yet to buy it since the one I had my eyes on was the 310, and u were previously saying that a. New model might come out. So I was waiting for that and thus a potential price drop on the 310, but to no avail per your recent post.
I would love to see that 610 on me so I can represent the dc rainmaker in hot Hollywood Florida. And if I do win I know that my future in tri’s will lead me to qualify for bigger events in my age group, 50, and a
Ways tell everyone who asks that the dc rainmaker was a part of my success.
Thanks for all your posts as they really give me the info I need….
Best,
Scott G
Glazeri@bellsouth.net
No planned workout for Sunday, just quality time with the family. My funny story or at least I thought it was funny at the time; I was about 5 or 6 years old and had found all the Easter eggs or at least I thought I had found them all till I sat down in the bathroom for a private moment and found an egg sitting there on top of the TP.
I’ll be heading down to St. George, Utah to swim in the (hopefully not so) cold Sand Hollow reservoir. Two weeks until IM St. George!
Hopefully I will be at game 6 of the Hawks Canucks series on Easter!
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Saturday: 60min Z2 on the bike
Sunday: 45min Z1/2
12 Oz curls mixed at random.
Into week 4 of pulled hamstring recovery, so no running, but daily 10k brisk walks planned and hopefully fix the bike and get out on it for first time this year. Oh and lots of rolling exercises on my brand new foam roller! Happy hols all!
Biking, then lamb chops and chocolate!