We all have our mini anniversaries for an array of reasons, although mine would be considered a little odd. Come July 10, I'll be throwing a mini party with my iPhone because exactly a year ago, I stood among thousands for a mind-boggling seven-hour (!) wait for the much-coveted toy which does everything except to make phone calls.

I was thrilled to say the least. I downloaded apps, let the phone determine my location (even though I knew exactly where I was), and perfected my swiping skill. I visited a Mac store, bought an horribly expensive armband, installed the iMapMyRun app and waited gleefully till it was time to run. My feet was barely out of the door when I discovered that the phone wouldn't fit into the horribly expensive armband.

Dang it. It was the phone cover. So I went back into the house, removed the cover and very carefully shoved the phone in. Great, now we're good to go!

Halfway through my run, the battery went flat (so did my ego) and the iMapMy$#^&*@Run app couldn't register my distance. I threw in a bunch of expletives and seek solace later by telling myself it was teething problems.

Two weeks down the road and I attempted the same process again. I made sure the phone was fully charged (ha!) and the cover removed (ha!). And 7km later, the phone lost the GPS signal and screwed up my location and pretty much everything else.

I was livid. I visited my regular shoe store and explored other alternatives- you know, something you can do to keep track of your distance, pace, duration and calories burned.

"That can be easily solved." Assured the store manager and proceeded to sell me a mio. I told him specifically what I wanted and he guaranteed that it's THE watch I NEEDED. Well, at least I don't have to worry about the battery running flat on me.

Staying true to the spirit of a running geek, I followed every step of the instruction manual (which is actually a large piece of paper folded in half for sixteen times), keyed in the date, time, my stats and was roaring to go. 30 minutes into the run, I looked at the mio and it registered 2 miles. What? 2 pathetic miles? I swore that was half the actual distance recorded and spent the next few runs figuring out what went wrong.

Then I discovered that I stupidly bought a pedometer- it's good for walking but everything screws up once you attempt to run with it. And I can't use the stopwatch and the distance calculator at the same time because the watch couldn't handle my pace and would systematically miscalculate my actual timing and distance.

"Technology sucks." I ripped off the watch after a tiring run where I almost drowned in my own perspiration.

A month later, I left my iPhone at home when I head out for runs. My mio is now primarily used as a stopwatch- the only piece of technology that hasn't failed me. And when I run, I stopped wondering about my distance, my average pace, the calories I burnt if I turned at this corner or the next...

Which was also when I found out that running is a lot more fun when I discarded all the gadgets that tell me how far I've been, how much energy I've zapped and how good I am. My breathing will tell if I'm running hard enough.

So leave your iPod and heart rate monitor at home and make today a day to remember where it's just you and your run- everything else is secondary for once.