Runner's Heights: The Compass Trail

Do you take vaccines for the flu season or should you just test your luck? Well, for me, the answer is usually is the former. Not that I am afraid of the flu but because I am afraid it might result in some result in some time off from running and concomitant fall in the weekly mileage. So, for the sake of running, I will brave the flu vaccine needle and bear any symptoms that the vaccine wishes to dole out. And although, I am not completely sure if they work, but I have been regularly taking the Echinacea and Golden Seal supplement from Trader Joe's. Only time will tell if these home-made remedies will help tide over the flu and cold season. Maybe, I will revisit this topic again in spring.

I recently bought a Famous Trails watch. The watch has a digital compass which is why I was interested in it. It is has a large footprint, almost as large as timepiece-on-a-chain and unfortunately, for such a large watch, the bezel is surprizingly cluttered with unnecessary displays such as a circling dashed line for displaying seconds (it could have been easily replace with pulsating dots if that's what the manufacturers were interested in). The back seems to be stainless steel but has no information or serial number identifying the make, manufacturer or the country of origin. After a google search, I learned that the watch is a generic from China with a serial model number LP984N sold by a Hong Kong based exporter, Best Fortune Products Co. The offset printing on the box is hazy and the user manual is a single sheet of incoherently-written instructions made out of the same type of paper that grocery store receipts are printed on. All in all, the packaging and the documentation are extremely shoddy.

Famous Trails features the watch on its site.

I bought it on sale for $30 and perhaps, the watch is worth even less. The Big5 Sporting Goods label says that the regular price is $130 which would have been ridiculously exorbitant.

Here's a picture in case you wish to avoid this product like the plague.