The Discovery Run

Guys, I am so excited about today's post! I'm happy to finally share my experience with The Discovery Run through Road Runner Sports. I have been wanting to participate in this event for quite some time--I have heard a lot of great things about this community running event and wanted to check it out for myself. So now I am finally able to share my experience, with you!

The Discovery Run is a running event that begins at Road Runner Sports (closest to me, was the Tualatin location) and ventures out to local businesses within the community. The event is fueled by friendly competition and the best part is...(wait for it)... it is completely free! (Score!) After a quick registration process online, you are ready to roll! Each event has a number of sponsors worth checking out prior to the event, itself.  I would suggest arriving a little early, maybe around 5:30 or so, so that you have plenty of time to see what they are all about and even squeeze a little RRS shopping in as well!

My drug my husband along to participate in this event with me this last week. He is such a trooper! Unfortunately, we were stuck in terrible traffic and made it to the event only a few moments before it began. We had just enough time to sign a waiver, grab a wrist band (for beer afterward...YES!) and to line up with the group. There was a large turn out and this particular event was Halloween themed so we saw a lot of participants dressed up. We walked up to the crowd to join everyone at the start line. Everyone was staring at this giant map that was waiting to be revealed to us at 6pm sharp.

And on the dot, the map is unveiled and the checkpoint locations are revealed. You see, the point of this community run, is to run to as many of the locations as possible in one hour. The run itself goes from 6:00-7:00pm. So, not only is the massive map unveiled but a link to google maps is sent to your smart phone for you to follow. So once the map is revealed and the email is sent, everyone takes off.

At each location there are volunteers who pass out raffle tickets. These tickets come in handy at the end of the run, so that you are entered to win free prizes courtesy of RRS (Yay, for free things!) Danny and I didn't even have enough time to get ourselves together before taking off to the first location (Mistake #1-- Not making it on time and planning any sort of strategy.) The first location we arrived at made us do 10 burpees and 10 squat jumps for our tickets, here are some poorly photographed photos that I took during the race. 

I may just have a future in photography...ha! Kidding.

Getting our fitness on for those tickets! 

That's my cute little husband running ;-) 

Grabbing our tickets from a local barber shop

Snagged this shot right before the sun went down.

So, Danny and I were lost after the very first stop. It appeared that many of the individuals that were participating come pretty often, so those individuals were wearing their honorary, neon green Discovery Run T-Shirts. As we ran in circles, trying to find our way around Tualatin, we watched for those dang neon shirts like a hawk to show us where to go next. We eventually found a family of three running around in bright colors, we figured they were legit and probably knew what they were doing...we took a chance on them. They let us follow run with them and thank goodness we did, otherwise we would have never made it past that first marker! (Ha! Mistake #2--we did not get the memo about the google map sent to our iphones...we had no clue this existed until the end. This is why I am telling you that it is important to go early to know what the heck you are doing. Otherwise, you will look super cool like Danny and I running around in circles like a bunch of maniacs looking for people in neon shirts running around Tualatin.) 

But seriously, everyone was SO friendly! People that we didn't even know were passing us, high-fiving  and cheering each other on. It was awesome. Once we realized that we had 5 minutes left in the hour, we decided to sprint back to RRS to toss our raffle tickets into a giant bucket in hopes of receiving F-R-E-E STUFF! That hour flew by! Being our competitive-running-selves, we also realized that we had missed two locations that were in the same shopping center as RRS. We booked it to those two locations and made it back to RRS at 7:00 on the dot! From 7-7:30 they call out raffle winners and you get to enjoy some cold beer for your hard effort. BIG POINTS for beer after the run, Danny and I thoroughly enjoyed this. 

Our tickets lined up and ready to go!

We love beer, yes we do.

Although we didn't win anything, we had a lot of fun. Some of the prizes were really awesome, I was crossing my fingers for some compression socks (I LOVE compression socks--especially FREE compression socks!) 

So, things I loved:

--Fun, energetic vibe

--That the event caters to both runners AND walkers (most people run in order to get to as many locations as possible, but we also saw a lot of walkers as well.) 

--Family friendly atmosphere 

--PRIZES!

--BEER! 

--Oh! And there is a secret location that is only revealed if you "like" them on Facebook (you can pick up extra raffle tickets at this secret location and you want a lot of raffle tickets for a better chance to win prizes). 

Things to know: 

--A smartphone is EXTREMELY helpful for navigating (unless you know the area very well)

--Run like the wind to get to as many locations as possible (some of the best prizes were from raffle tickets that were called from the locations we never made it to...sad face.) 

--Go early! Next time, I would like to make it in time to check out every vendor and to shop around the store prior to the run. I also would suggest going early to make a strategic plan of how you are going to get to every location efficiently. 

--Go with a buddy or a group, especially for your first time. I personally think I wouldn't have had as much fun flying solo by myself for my first experience. 

The next Discovery Run event is December 5th and I hope you consider joining me because...heck yes, I am going to be there! Loren Sheets puts on an awesome event and really keeps the crowd energized at the Tualatin Road Runner location. This event occurs every forth Thursday of the month (next month is skipped due to the Thanksgiving holiday) and unfortunately, their last event of 2013 is December 5th. So if you haven't already, check it out and JOIN ME DECEMBER 5TH and "LIKE" their Facebook Page for more information!