The footpod would be useful if you run on a treadmill or in a dense city or heavily wooded area where you can't get a GPS signal. I've never used the footpod, but I agree the GPS is useless for "current pace" info (tells you how fast you may have been running 5 seconds ago?).

FWIW - I set mine to auto lap every mile, then I just watch my lap pace. Other than the very start of the new lap, it provides useful info.

Footpod-derived instantaneous pace seems to be spot on for me. (GPS-derived pace is, as you and others have said, a joke at best.)

If you haven't discovered this yet, you can use the GPS to calibrate the footpod. Plus, when you do so, the watch keeps the calibration data (distance, heartrate, cadence) as part of your workout. So you can easily calibrate the footpod every workout if you're so inclined. Only gotcha is that the watch pauses when the calibration is complete (just like you had manually hit the start/stop button). So you've got to watch/listen for the end of the calibration and then hit start/stop to continue the workout. The manual says that the distance required for calibration is variable, but it's always been 1 km for me (even though I'm using imperial units).

So are you getting the instantaneous pace from the foot pod while getting the distance from the GPS? Is there such as setting on the 405? or do you use the foot pod only for both distance and pace?

Thanks.