I am doing Ironman Arizona this weekend and was looking into carrying a GPS locator so that my family would know when I would be biking/running nearby. I had considered that Spot Tracker but was concerned about its size. The Spot Tracker uses satellites for both location and notification and works in many areas around the world. On Friday night I was watching network TV and noticed an ad for the Zoombak Personal GPS locator and picked one up at my local Target store in the automotive section.
The nice thing about the Zoombak is that it is small:
It comes with a small pouch that I will attached to my race belt. It has a nice feature where you can set a zone so that when you enter/leave that zone, a text message can be sent up to five different phones. I plan to setup two different zones (one for the bike and one for the run) that will give my family ample warning when I am nearby.
The device uses celluar phone service for notification which means it normally requires a request for location. The battery will last up to 150 notifications or 5 days. There is a feature on the web where you can setup continuous tracking every five minutes but this will only last for one hour and must be manually reset. Currently, anyone who wishes to see a map of your location requires access to your account. There is a feature where using a mobile phone, a text message request will state your location to up to five phones that you setup.
I will write up a more extensive review after I use it for Ironman Arizona.
They rent the units through the mail at any time. Now, you have waited to the last second, but if you want to pay the costs for next day shipping, they would do it.
Send a request to info@myathlete.biz , and see if you can work something out. It is really cool to use it in a marathon. It is a great legal outside assistance piece.
I knew when I was wearing it at Boston this year, and knowing I was being watching, gave me extra motivation to do the best I could.
