For a week or two I toyed with the idea of using my iPhone as both the iPod I listened to during a run and the GPS tracking my distance, pace, etc. I didn’t have much success. To begin with, I never found an armband or other case that seemed to adequately secure my iPhone. More importantly, none of the software seemed that great. To top it off, using my iPhone’s GPS and playing music at the same time meant it didn’t stand a chance of lasting four hours (or more).
Still, for those who do feel comfortable running with their iPhone and don’t need it to last multiple hours there’s good news on the software front. There are free options and paid apps, and one of the best seems to be RunKeeper Pro. I played with the free version a little while back, but the $9.99 paid app lets you customize workouts and adds voice cues for distance run, etc. It seems to be getting a lot of positive feedback, and once the cold and wet weather of winter is behind me I might look into finding a new case for my iPhone and giving it a try.
Until then, though, I’m sticking with my Garmin and my iPod nano.