So I'm in the market for a smart watch and I'm having an incredibly difficult time deciding between these two as finding very technical differences between them is difficult.
A bit of backstory, I recently started running about a year ago and found that I actually enjoy long distance quite a bit (played sports all my life but never did any type of long distance stuff). I regularly run 5ks and will do longer runs (10k+) on weekends. I've been using my iphone on a strap on my arm all this time and am looking to do away with that because its uncomfortable/obnoxious.
I've never owned a smartwatch but I want to get into the game. I can only track simple things right now as I use the Runkeeper app so I can get see my trail, my average pace, and splits. But I think I would like more data so that I can really improve my running/fitness overall. Being able to set a pacer seems nice and a lot of the extra things the forerunner can do seem cool but I'm not necessarily trying to go pro (I'm mainly uncertain if I would ever take advantage of the running and performance features that are on the forerunner). I like the Venu because it seems good for more lifestyle use and seems like it can do a lot of the important run tracking the Forerunner can do. I also have no intention of getting any type of accessories to accommodate the watches (i.e. dynamics pod etc.)
Just want to know what peoples opinions are who have experience with either. Is the Venu good for someone who wants to improve their running but isn't trying to compete with olympians or are those features pretty essential for someone trying to up their run game, or are the "smartwatch" features of the Forerunner good enough to supplant the Venu?