GPS watches: Good ... or evil?

My life changed when I got the Garmin Forerunner 305 last Christmas. But did it change for the better?

A quick synopsis of the GPS watch for the uninitiated: It straps onto your wrist; locks onto orbiting satellites; tracks data including pace, time, distance and heart rate; and allows runners to customize workouts in a variety of ways.

There's no question my Garmin has made me more aware of my ability, and that it's made tracking progress ridiculously easy. (Playing connect-the-dots with Google Maps' distance measurement tool is fun the first few times, but eventually the thrill wears off.)

I like how it gives you your mile splits in real-time, so you know if you're falling off the pace during a tempo workout or if you're maybe pushing a little too hard on an easy run. I like how it coaches you through intervals, which can be harder to manage if you don't have a high school track handy. And I really like it during races, when I can set up the Virtual Partner feature -- to explain, I can program it so my "partner" (i.e. the watch) will run 13.1 miles in 1 hour and 47 minutes at an even pace ... then throughout my half-marathon, a glance at my watch will tell me precisely how far ahead or behind my "partner" is. I've set many a PR this way.

I recently asked a bunch of fellow runners using my Facebook profile, and the consensus seems to be that a Garmin is a must-have gadget.

David: "I would never leave for a run without the 405 [the latest Garmin model]. I like the Virtual Partner on long runs so I don't have to do the math in my head."

Mike: "The Garmin is a terrific tool for those in all levels of fitness. The measurement of distance, elevation, location and heart rate are priceless. I have a 305 and a 405. I sincerely hate to run without it." Then, in the next breath: "Can't live without it."

Cathy: "Most favorite of all my toys!"

Which leads me to what I really don't like about my Garmin: the fact that I would never leave for a run without mine, that I hate to run without it/can't live without it, that it's my most favorite toy, too. I mean, I really hate being addicted to anything. And I'm addicted to this gadget. In a sense, I'm kind of like a 5-year-old who can't get to sleep without their favorite blanket. And if you're a parent, you know that someday, you'd like to break them of that crutch.

Interestingly, the Facebook discussion -- which included so many raves -- ended with a diss.

Aaron: "Soooooooo not needed. Why does such a pure sport that requires virtually nothing become inundated with equipment? Part of the freedom of running is just doing it, with no constraints. Who cares if you run 6.5 miles vs. 6.7? Run on feel, not by what a computer tells you. Running is sadly going the way of biking. Folks spent more time tinkering with the equipment rather than doing the actual sport."

And this may surprise you: Aaron is probably the fastest runner of all who contributed thoughts, a guy who can run a three-hour marathon and a sub-17-minute 5K.

Are his comments on target? Perhaps. But I'd need my Garmin and a strong signal from those satellites to be sure.

Do you have thoughts on GPS watches? Are they the greatest fitness invention ever? Or will they ruin running?