Torture testing my heart rate monitor

I'm a gadget guy. My friends make fun of me, but I figure if gadgets motivate me to run, that's a good thing. My current gadget is the Nike Triax Elite HRM/SDM. It's a watch, heart rate monitor (HRM) strap and speed/distance monitor (SDM) foot pod. I've been using it since December 2004.

In late 2005, I lost the HRM. I don't know what happened to it. I finished a long run, took it off while stretching to conserve the battery, and couldn't find it the next day. I started to look for a replacement.

Only the Nike Watch Repair site carried replacement parts. They were out of stock and didn't allow backorders. I checked occasionally for over six months. No dice.

I e-mailed them and their response was, "please call us." My feeling was if I wanted to call, I would have. [Edit: I should have called. See my blog entry "Nike Watch Repair Customer Service.] So I waited, checking occasionally. This past November, they had them in stock. For a reasonable price ($35 + $6.95 shipping), I got the strap in a few days.

I never did figure out how I lost the first strap, but after a year without, it was nice to have one again. Today when I finished my long run, I took off my wet shirt and my HRM strap. I put them on my friend's truck bumper. You can see where this is going.

As I drove home, I noticed my shirt and HRM were missing. Almost simultaneously, I saw them lying in one of the busiest 4-lane streets in my city. Of course they didn't land in the side street where we parked our cars.

I made the first possible U-turn, then turned around again to get my stuff. I got out of my car and ran toward the strap. I was several feet away when I stopped to wait for a passing car. The car ran over the HRM, sending the thing three feet in the air and separating the monitor from the elastic band. Argh! Of course, the $5 shirt, for which I have plenty of replacements, lay untouched.

I grabbed the monitor. It was cracked and had some big gouges from the asphalt. Maybe the damage was only cosmetic. I picked up the rest of my stuff and hoped for the best.

When I got home, I checked the HRM. It was dead.

I checked the replacement part website. They're temporarily out of stock again, and the price is up to $45. [Edit: this was totally wrong. See "Nike Watch Repair Customer Service."] I was able to place a backorder, but I doubt I'll get it in the next 8 days before the race. [Edit: Again, I should have called. See "Nike Watch Repair Customer Service."] My wife suggested that I order two. I don't know if she was joking.

The silver lining to this little black cloud? I think I know how I lost the first strap.