Our Family Fun Walk arrow coloring contest winners have been chosen:
Mackenzie Mills, age 4
Helen Koeppen
They will receive a pedometer and you can see their arrows and all of the arrows entered on the Family Fun Walk route today!
For 2009, marathon finishers receive the Discovery Walk medal award on a red neck ribbon which says Marathon 26.2 2009.
All pre-registered marathon participants will receive a certificate with their name on it denoting they have completed a marathon. They are printed and just waiting for you to cross the finish line!
Those who register for the marathon during the registration hours on Friday or Saturday will get a certificate, but it will have a space to write in their name rather than being printed with their name, as we have done in past years.
These changes are in response to the poll we took of our marathoners last year. They strongly wanted an award with the year on it and that said they had done a marathon. Previously we had patches, but our core committee marathoners and marathon finishers overwhelmingly said they don't wear or display patches, but they would value something different with the award. We think most marathoners will love this bold neck ribbon and wear or display their medal with pride.
We didn't previously do personalized certificates because our finish area was already bogged down with giving out 12 different awards based on years walked. Now that everyone gets the same award except the marathoners, we hope the lines go faster. We can take the extra time to go through the stack of certificates to give each pre-registered marathoner their personalized certificate.
We can't guarantee that we'll have a working printer and computer operator at the finish to produce certificates for those who register on Friday or Saturday, but that may happen as well.
We're sorry for those who will miss the patches, but our designers and quartermaster and budget are very happy to do without the extra hassle.
Triathlon finishers will likewise get a Triathlon ribbon on their swim medal rather than a try-athlon patch as they did in the past. Our quartermaster says the ribbons are buried in the box of medals and so we don't have a photo of them yet. But we believe they really are there.
Mail-in registration for the 2009 Discovery Walk Festival is closed, you can still register online through April 20, and you can always register at the event.
Day of event registration is open Friday April 24 from 2 pm - 6 pm, Saturday April 25 6:30 am - 12 pm, and Sunday April 26 7:30 am - 12 pm. You can ALWAYS register at the event!
Location: Vancouver Hilton Hotel, 301 West 6th St., Vancouver, WA USA 98660. This is registration, packet pick-up, start and finish for our walks, and bikes, and registration for the swims (shuttle provided to and from the Hough Pool).
Team registration: You can register online as a team or register together at the event at the Group Registration Table. If you have the names of your team members but are unable to register online, email the registrar by April 22 with the team information and we can be prepared for your team and make the day-of-event registration go faster. Team roster sheet (note that at the event your members will have to fill out and sign start cards, so it's best to use this sheet in advance and email it to the registrar, it is of limited use to bring it to the event)
Our registration numbers are trending the same as for 2008, so it looks like another good year.
If you have questions about your registration, email the registrar.