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.
Back when we actually hid real eggs, realizing that awful smell later in the year was an egg we missed on Easter morning.
Long run and long swim this weekend. Louisville I-man is looming!
I begin my training for the Chicago Marathon this weekend. This is my first marathon, so we’ll see how it goes! :) Is it funny that I’m 28 years old and my mom still makes me up an Easter basket? I love Hershey’s Cookies and Cream Eggs!!! Yum!
When I was 5 my dad wondered for 2 months following Easter why his truck smelled AWFUL. What he was unaware of was that I had neglected to tell him about the little “Easter surprise” I had hidden in the wire mesh under the bench seat of his truck, which consisted of a couple hard boiled eggs. The eggs of course broke the first time he sat on the seat.
you rock DC – thanks for the great info
wow…again..you are awesome
As a kid I found a raw easter egg that had been hidden in the couch cushions for about 6 months. after that my parents learned to count how many eggs they hid. and to hard boil them.
Plan to do a couple of k’s this saturday. It should be nice weather of here…
Plan to recover from my 50K this past weekend… and enjoy Easter
We found some eggs after a year sitting next to the AC unit in our yard. We were shocked that our dog had not found the egg. Needless to say, the bugs had and it was mostly just candy wrapper left. Very gross.
2 hour trail run Saturday, then at least an hour on the bike Sunday – not celebrating Easter but it’s my son’s 4th birthday!
Really long run to avoid the MIL’s, how christian.
Planning a 100k ride for Friday, 60k Saturday, 20k Run Sunday, and perhaps an easy 50k ride plus swim Monday. Thank the bunny for the long weekend and hope that he delivers fine weather!
Last year, my kids received little bells to put on their bikes from the Easter bunny. All stashed inside an egg, of course. So they were pretty excited to go for a little ride after. That was fun :)
Just a small 5k run this weekend here…
5K run on Sunday morning! Forerunner 610 looks great!
i’m just going to spend the weekend in bed eating peeps.
It would be dream come true to have a device like that. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
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Did my first 5k last week but due to mixups by race organisers, I ended up running almost 9ks!
This weekend am going away to a beach holiday house, so will set some time for some barefoot beach runs :)
I’m recovering. Which means lots of easter eggs, egg hunts with my kid sister, and a chocolate milkshake.
No easter is complete without a chocolate milkshake.
Tapering for the RnR Nashville Marathon, so last semi-long run before the race. Aiming for a qualifying time at Boston at Nash too.
My easter workout will be a spot of cross training – giving the garden some love after its summer of neglect while I trained for IM New Zealand.
It might rain here on Easter, but if it doesn’t I’ll do my usual Sunday ride. And maybe eat some Cadbury cream eggs.
I wonder if my ankle will come back from the dead this Easter?
love your blog. fingers are crossed!
As a kid, I got so excited about hunting eggs that I ran outside to find them, slipped and fell, and had to sit the whole thing out! But it’s okay… I still found the ‘golden egg’. It was hidden inside! :)
I’ll be going for a 3+hour bike ride on Friday, running for 2 hours on Saturday, and a short bike/run combo on Sunday to finish of my training week (and definitely eat a ton of Easter candy once I’m done!)
Training for my first 70.3. I hope the weather cooperates this weekend and it’s not so freakin windy again! Oh yea, I want this watch!!!
I will take that watch – thank you very much
When I was a kid, we found a hard boiled egg hidden on a bookshelf about a month after bunny day.
This weekend I’ll break out my road bike for the first time this year, weather permitting.
No egg stories but I do plan to start Saturday with the Race to Stop The Silence – There’s still time for others to sign up at link to stopcsa.org I’ll then add another 5 miles to give me at least 10 this Saturday!
Stepping on that hidden Easter egg we couldn’t find after a few days out in the yard. Yuck!
I told my mom to hide the Easter basket really well, and she hid it so well I couldn’t find it. I got really mad
No great stories, but a 610 would sure help up with my planned mile repeats this weekend.
a new watch to jumpstart my training would be awesome!
Growing up my brothers would whip the empty plastic eggs up in the neighbor’s gutters.
was planning to do an easter years ago and ended up planning party on the wrong day!
This weekend will be a long 20km run with bunny ears! I’ll send you the pics if I win :)
This weekend I’m doing my first triathlon EVER, a mini sprint! The next day, Easter, I think I’m going to show up for an awesome, free local trail race series, the Holiday Marathon in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx for a 10k loop of trails that include parts of the famous cross course there. Hmmmm, a Garmin sure would help keep track of the mileage on that… :)
A few years back our local club organized an informal Easter Tri where the prizes were to be chocolate eggs. I saw were because one of the kids; about 6 or 7 years old, decided to grab the eggs and feed them to her pet dog!
Happy Easter!
Started preparing for summer race.
Really appreciate your blog.
Vladimir
Just joined a running group and have scheduled my first race for the fall … can’t wait!
Traveling to South Africa that weekend, I imagine I’ll be too jet lagged to enjoy anything.
Well, this weekend I was planning on taking my brand new Orbea bike on its second outing, except last Sunday (the very first time I ever took it out on the road) the rear derailleur caught in the back wheel, broke off, lodging itself between the wheel and the frame. The derailleur, the frame, the rear wheel… all totally messed up. I’m sure the derailleur was bent and that what actually caused the problem. Hopefully I will have an answer from the bike shop soon and who knows, it they fix it for me, I might just be lucky enough to ride this weekend after all.
Oh, and let me tell you, that brand new Garmin would really pick my spirits up after such a bad start to the bike and my relationship. And remember, this was the FIRST time I’d actually taken the bike out for a ride!
Make this little bunny happy, please?
Fantastic!
I love the cadbury eggs and my mom knew it. She was coming over to my wife and my house and apparently forgot to buy the eggs before Sunday. She happened to find some from the previous year in a cabinet somewhere. It took some mimosas and coaxing, but she finally admitted it. Does anyone know what year old cadbury eggs taste like on the inside?
Ok set to do another 3 x 20’s @ SST 93% AT at the weekend to compare against two previous SST sessions. Thanks again. link to tinyurl.com
Hid the plastic eggs last year for the kids and they did not find two of them and I forgot they were there. One was in the grass, which had not been mowed and when I did mow, ran over the egg and slaughtered the poor Peeps baby chicken inside. The other one I found 2 months later in a bush with the chocolate bunny completely melted inside.
AND PS: When I was younger, my brother and I would both get so much chocolate for Easter and, of course, I would stuff my face and eat mine as quick as possible. My brother, on the other hand, would tease me and eat his Easter eggs so slowly. He would literally break off one piece of chocolate at a time… Weeks and months would go by without him even making a dent in his stash. Year after year, I would always have the last laugh – his chocolaty eggs would go out of date and the chocolate would always end up nasty, and eventually, Mum would always end up making him throw them out.
Sprint intervals back home on the track I used to loathe as fat kid in junior high.
Get up @ 5am then 2 hour run and then off to work! No peeps for me.
A couple Bricks to burn off all the Easter Candy!
I’d love to have this in time for the Avenue of the Giants Marathon on May 1!
Just started a new training program. That forerunner would be great. Thanks for all the great information on your site.
this might not be funny to you but it is to me: with such a large family we do color coded hunts and everyone knows how many eggs we’re supposed to find so one year i buried my sister’s easter egg.oops?
Hi DC,
amazing review(s) was really tempted by the Nike at first until I read the 610 review. Love to do the Seattle RnR with it in June!
I don’t really have a funny story, but I do have good memories of hunting for Easter eggs and small presents my Mom hid around the house, and when the weather was nice, the yard too. At least once or twice she even made up clues for where to find them.
I plan on relaxing… thanks Ray
I plan to run 10-13 miles depending on how my ankles are doing. Should be interesting.
10 miles on the calendar for me this weekend.
I’ll be running 14 miles with my loyal border collie and rock climbing. Doesn’t get better than that for a weekend.
Once I stepped on an Easter Egg and it had the same effects as a banana peel haha I landed flat on my back.
Neat watch!
jakester99999@hotmail.com
Oh..I plan for a 9 to 10 mile run on saturday!
Friday: swim + bike hill repeats
Saturday: 3hr ride + 30min brick run
sunday: 90min long run with 60 mins @ race pace + recovery ride 90 mins.
Funny easter story: Egg hunt resulted in a young’un finding a doggie present after the snow had melted. It wasn’t pretty.
A new Garmin is better than all the Easter candy combined.
I don’t have any funny Easter stories. I plan on doing a nice long run on Saturday, 16-18 miles. Sunday’s workout will be pushing myself away from the table at brunch.
Headed to NOLA to run the Crescent City Classic. I used to take the plastic eggs and put them on my eyes. Not that funny until your cousin posts the pics 20 years later on facebook.
On friday i will be doing “bike #1” which is a 3hr40min ride ascending from Z2 into Z4b, followed by a 30min z4a/b run.
Saturday is swim #3.
All night saturday i will be loading in a massive PA system at the lincoln memorial and mixing sound for 5000 people at an Easter Sunrise service at 6:30am. Then i sleep at some point…
Kia ora from Aotearoa (New Zealand)
Not a funny Easter story (maybe ironic) – when I was a child the mean ugly dog who lived down the road killed my white bunny on Good Friday. Sadly there was no resurrection on Easter Sunday.
Love your blog.
Shan
Relaxing with the family this Easter would love to have a Garmin 610 for a 1/2 marathon I plan to run in May
Thanks for another great giveaway!! Have a nice ride planned on Saturday followed by an easy 10 mile run on Sunday before brunch!! Would love to add this to my collection of gadgets!
Two years ago i had an ultimate frisbee tournament over Easter. On sunday morning, totally rocked a bunny costume for the first game. Didn’t quite fit in.
Easter Egg hunt on Sunday with the kids. Swim Good Friday, ride 80km on Saturday and a 12km run on Sunday morning. Hammer the workouts to offset the egg intake
Easy weekend for me… Just finished my second half marathon… Should run about 10 miles this weekend. In 7 weeks I start training for my first full marathin, Chicago Marathon in October!
This watch would be helpful for that training I’m sure. Very sleek :)
I have a 3-hour bike and 2500m swim scheduled on Sunday.
Looking forward to a nice 40-50 mile bike ride this weekend.
Eating lots of Starburst jelly beans, then a nice long run, then more Starburst jelly beans.
My weekend workout consists of going rock climbing in Tennessee- I’m tapering for my first marathon April 30th!
Family Hike on Friday, but the weather looks really bad here for Saturday and Sunday so it could be riding the trainer this weekend. :(
No funny stories, but I’ll be getting up early this Sunday for a 12 mile LSD.
18k with my Dad, my wife and my best friend. What more could a guy ask for?
Training for my first marathon on May 7th, thanks for your reviews. I now know which gps watch to get. But maybe I’ll get lucky and win the forerunner 610. Sweet.
Thanks for all the reviews. Enjoyed them very much, a lot of detailed information. I know which gps watch I want now.
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Plan to do a long ride Saturday and a long run on Sunday.
I once wore an ugly hat as part of an Easter drama at church. When the actors pointed out the ugly hat in the second row, I got up and stormed out…
That said, training bike ride this Easter for the MS150. Need to log some miles on the bike!
I’ll just be getting a group together for our Sunday 30 mile ride.
Plan to do 5K running on Friday followed by 5K hill trekking race on Sunday.
No celebration of the bunny…but a 10 mile run and two long rides this weekend…got a century to prep for next weekend! Erin in ND
I plan to do a 3 mile run with my wife on Saturday and a 30 mile ride on Sunday.
No funny Easter stories here, but I plan to do a nice 5 mi run as long as my gimpy hip flexor holds up. Had a blast watching the Boston Marathon at heartbreak hill this past weekend. What a great way to celebrate Patriots Day!
Count me in.
Count me in! You can never have too many sports gadgets . . . .
We lived on base in a tightly knit duplex neighboorhood. Early easter mornign my brother (age 5) appeared beside my parents bed and woke up my dad. He was holding two easter baskets chaulk full of eggs (over 6 dozen). Dad took notice asked mom how many eggs she hid in the yard the night before… response – about a dozen. Much to my fathers dismay he had to go knock on all our neighbor’s doors easter morning and ask them which eggs were theirs.
I spent an Easter with a friend’s family who had a tradition of doing an easter egg hunt for plastic eggs that each contained a shot of booze in them. A different twist on the holiday…
hello there!
always great to know you have a watch to giveaway! I actually spent quite a bit on the TGT last yr, but seems like its performance is still easily beaten down by the venerable Garmin 305! Hope you choose to give me the 610 so I get an upgrade!
cheers,
YW
No time for Easter Eggs this year, a 80km / 20km brick on Saturday followed by a quick swim to celebrate my birthday and a loooong 200km hilly ride with a 10km run off it for Sunday!
Bring on IM China!
Easter service, lunch, surf, run. I would love to have that 610!
Recovering from Boston marathon – doing an easy 8 mile run followed by eating lots of jelly beans on Sunday!
cool! Another giveaway. :)
sorry no easter story but after watching this video “the easter bunny hates you.” I’m hoping he does not come after me :-)
link to youtube.com
12 miler on Good Friday, 25mi recovery ride on Saturday, then a church barbecue fellowship on Sunday. Looking forward to it.
Thanks again for the awesome giveaway, Ray!
2 entries please! (FB and this).
Peace!