Heads up!!! Here’s your massive Cyber Monday sports tech deals list! This includes the Garmin Forerunner 965 for just $499, Garmin Epix for $429, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 for just $619, the GoPro Hero 12 Black for $299, (or Hero 13 bundle for $339!) and plenty more! Go check out the full list of 100+ deals here!
I’m DC RAINMAKER…
I swim, bike and run. Then, I come here and write about my adventures. It’s as simple as that. Most of the time. If you’re new around these parts, here’s the long version of my story.
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Smart Trainers Buyers Guide: Looking at a smart trainer this winter? I cover all the units to buy (and avoid) for indoor training. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
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I have built an extensive list of my most frequently asked questions. Below are the most popular.
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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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
You’re a ripper Ray.
Nice! Thanks for the info!
So, if you have a GPS map of the run what does it look like? Presumably a bunch of interlinking oval’s edging across the ocean? And then are they in a straight line or turning port or starboard? It’s edge of the seat stuff!
The link in the third paragraph about prior cruise ship runs has GPS tracks in it. I also figured it would be linked ovals, but the ship is going much faster than I thought. Like it is moving the whole length of the oval, in the time it takes Ray to run from one end to the other, so it’s just a wavy line and no oval-ness is left. Like pulling a slinky straight.
I was on the dawn pacific last november, this was my gps link to connect.garmin.com, the boat is traveling at 24m/h (40km/h) the gps will record a straight line, in one direction you will have a faster speed and the other slower similar to doing intervals(fartleg) on a straight road, to get a looping oval effect your physical speed must be great than the boat when you are running towards the back.
Nice! I saw Queen Mary 2 in Barcelona, when it was “parked” just outside my windows for a short while (having worked at the offices of the WTC in the port). Can’t wait to see the pics from the rest of your time aboard this iconic “ladyship” :) It seems people are dressed in warm clothes, so I’m guessing you’re not cruising the Mediterranean, are you?
I have been on 1 cruise ship before I started running much, but either way, it was a terrible experience. I guess it was all my poor timing. My ship had a 2 lane track, but at the time I went, there were more obstacles than open space. When people didn’t have their chairs folded into the outer lane on one side and the inner lane on the other side (already leaving a very small area to squeeze past), there were many waiters serving drinks, crews with large equipment cleaning windows, and a ton of people just casually walking on top of the painted track. I completed about 2 laps and headed down to the treadmill.
can you upload this to strava, the GPS path would have a very interesting shape. Out of curiosity.
I had planned to upload the activities, but ran into a minor snag where I managed to totally hose up the file (seriously, I’ve done this one other time ever…and this be the only time it happens again. Go figure.).
You guys are such DC Rainmaker amateurs! Ray already documented the look of a GPS track on deck years ago: link to dcrainmaker.com
Closes 8pm what time zone??
No matter the time zone, that’s too early!
Wow looks like you all had a blast!! The run looks like a lot of fun. I’ve never been on a cruise but when I do go on one I’m plan on still getting my run on. Thanks for sharing. :)
Train Healthy Be Wealthy
Awesome post! I suppose you’ll address this in your next post detailing more than just the runaround but did you decide to this based on cost or just worked out that way? Looking at ticket costs it “appears” comparable but I’m sure you have enough reward miles you can just travel as you please.
Yup, I’ll be covering it in tomorrow’s post! (12AM Eastern)
I found myself on a cruise once for a vacation. It was a great experience for culture and food, but the running on the deck lap course was interesting. The wind difference from making one turn is crazy. It’s one of the few things I can recall. I also believe our track was about 300m long, which meant I spent a lot of time turning.
Are you on the Queen Mary 2 now?? I saw the ship in Hamburg / Germany on Saturday… so I just wondered if the runner on deck was you. ;-)
I was on the ship, but disembarked on Saturday there in Hamburg. :)
What a funny situation! I left Hamburg on Saturday afternoon by plane.
Nice pics…hey who is minding the store!!
We’ve got employees!
Awesome post.
I was wondering if the travellers on the Queen Mary 2 were all aged, or if you also encountered young people.
For the most part. We noticed a few younger folks (college aged), perhaps attached to parents, as they were mostly hanging by the pool and didn’t appear to be coupled.
We may have seen a handful of other people in the 30’s, but none that popped into mind.
On our longer Dubai-Singapore cruise last November, there was approximately one other couple our age. We came BFF’s (and actually, they live nearby here in Europe). We pretty much figured that’d be the case going in, given that was a re-positioning cruise as part of a longer 42+ day itin from northern Europe to Sydney. Still, we had a good time there. :)
Finally, on our honeymoon cruise, it was a much more even distribution. That was peak-summer cruise in Europe, so there was everyone from families to plenty of honeymoon folks like us to older folks.
Ultimately, each cruise ship and line caters to different crowds. And the specific itin caters to different crowds as well, also influenced heavily by time of year.
Weird, I never thought to run around the cruise ship. I was mostly caught up with how many other weird things there were to do?
The cruise ship Queen Mary remains a classic to this day. War and the survival of the future generations to admire the beauty of this ship. Although the luxury cruise ship Queen Mary in the present but still a beautiful prominent than other ships. Thank you for your site.
I used to work ons ships as fitness instructor for over 9 years. I had the privilege to work on Cunard too. The Queen Vic’s gym is much busier, sometimes with no available treadmills. And the view is way nicer as the treadmills are by the front windows where you see a bit of the bow and the rest is ocean. This brought back great memories.