Discovery Walk Festival Blog

The Vancouver International Discovery Walk Festival will not be held in 2012 and beyond.

For any questions, please email abyrd628@comcast.net

Participation:

• Walk: 570 total. 366 free, 134 credit-only, 70 award.

• Bike: 58 total. 37 free, 14 credit-only, 7 award.

• Swim: 20 total. 4 free, 16 credit-only.

• Triathlon Awards: 17

We were very pleased to see so many families participating. The route showed the best of the historical area and the weather cooperated. We were disappointed that the 790th Chemical Company could not attend due to the uncertainty of the budget/government shutdown vote. Our numbers would have been closer to 2010 were that not the case.

We welcome additions to our Core Committee to rebuild for 2012.

For 2011, the Discovery Walk Festival will be a single-day of a 5K/10K Family Fun walk, a 15K/25K/50K bike and two 300-meter swims on April 9, 2011 from Hudson’s Bay High School, Vancouver, WA, USA.  Directions
All events are IVV volkssport-sanctioned.  We are not hosting IML Walking Association distances in 2011.

Registration: Everyone will register at the event itself, from 8 am until 12 pm on April 9, 2011. We do not have mail-in or online registration this year. You will arrive, fill out a registration card, sign the liability waiver, and pay any optional fees for a medal or IVV credit. Then you start walking, biking or swimming!

Costs:

• Anyone may walk, bike or swim for free. (No medal)

• Medals are an optional $10 and include IVV credit.

• IVV credit alone is $3 for each event.

• Pay by cash or check, we are unable to accept credit or debit cards this year.

Special Programs: Each distance qualifies for different programs. This changes as we make last-minute changes to the routes for the safety of the walkers. We will be happy to stamp any Special Program books you present, but you are responsible for spotting and naming any items needed to fulfill each program.
This is a list of special programs/state challenges we can identify. If you see anything else, it is your responsibility to record its name and location. Challenges 2011

Routes may change up to and on the day of the event and may no longer include the identified challenge items.

For 2011, the Discovery Walk Festival will be a single-day of a 5K/10K Family Fun walk, a 15K/25K/50K bike and two 300-meter swims in early April.  All events will be volkssport-sanctioned.  We will not host IML Walking Association distances in 2011.  Dates and location are being finalized.

We welcome additions to our Core Committee to plan for 2011 and rebuild for 2012.

The 2010 Discovery Walk Festival had participants from the following states and countries:

We had 112 visitors from outside of Oregon/Washington and 260 from distant points of Oregon/Washington, for a total of 372 who could be considered travelers generating overnight stays.

Our event statistics for 2010:

Total includes 251 child (free) walkers.

128 no-shows were deducted.

Overall, we had an increase of about 200 over 2009.

2010 Discovery Walk Festival Marathon Finishers

We counted 82 finishers — those who completed the 42 kilometer marathon route and picked up their finisher certificate at the finish line.

Nicola Anderegg

Pam Baddgor

Steve Barrick

Jason Barton

Marion Bauman

Debbie Bioller

Marike Bongers

April Borbon

Sean Britten

Maryann Brown

Robert Bruce

Nina Carmichael

Steve Carmichael

Laura Caruso

Ric Catron

Allison Cavil

Linda Chase

Gary Clarke

Didi Clarke

Anne Cotter

Ursula Dinges

Donna Drews

Mel Feather

Ruth Fischer

Tom Friar

Janice Giles

Jane Goddard

Walter Griffin

Cathy Griffin

Wesley Haynes

Patricia Heller

Sandy Hiles

Jack Hines

Merritt Hoffman

Dave Huff

Jennifer Imperial

Chris Imperial

Cindy Johnson

Hanna Karczewski

Colleen Kelly

Keith Kirby

Diane R Lampe

Fred Lopez

Mekkin Lunsted

Jill MacInnes

Lisa Martell

Dana Martin

Heather McDonald

Susan McEachern

Betsy Miller

Leslie Morrow

Michelle Natalie

Susan Newland

Diane Olson

Dawn Pack

Ann Palenshus

Troy Pasch

Jack Peterson

Terry Roberts

Kari Rogno

James Ross

James Scheer

PeggyAnn Sherwood

Carey Siegfried-Roads

Tamela Stockli

Shirley Stoklossa

J. Arlene Tanaka

Anita Thomas

Jeannie Thorp

Diane Turpin

Jack Turpin

Michele Upchurch

Angela Upchurch

Willem H. van Heuven

Jan vandeVis

Michael Vogel

Linda Warren

Ethel Wood

Leroy Wright

Gary Yewell

For additions and corrections, email info@discoverywalk.org

We had 124 registered for the marathon distance and 105 started the marathon course.  We then had dropouts who elected to finish at the half marathon point when the route returned to our start/finish, and those who chose to complete only another 10 kilometers for a 31 kilometer walk.

Distance:  We measured the 21K course at 21.4 kilometers, from the outside of the Hilton.  That makes the long course 43 kilometers total, rounding up.  Different measurement methods will produce different results.  We used 3 methods to measure 10 kilometers of the course and they matched within 95%  Given that accuracy, we decided to use the MapMyFitness.com distance as it checked so well with a mechanical meter wheel and a handheld GPS.

There was no way to trim the course (other than walkers bypassing the checkpoints, which would cut a couple hundred meters of distance).

We hosted 1201 walkers in spring weather — mostly nice, but a shower here and there. We loved seeing the 104 walkers from the 790th Chemical Company Battalion of the Washington State Guard, and more teams such as the Weight Watchers team and the Sole Survivors.

We welcomed 519 walkers for the 14th annual Discovery Walk Festival Mayor’s Friendship Walk. Mayor Tim Leavitt welcomed the crowd, which included walkers from our sister city of Joyo, Japan, as well as walkers from Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway and Russia.

We also greeted walkers from our major sponsors: Cascade Heart and Veolia Water both had large contingents. We look forward to two more great days of walking.