Discovery Walk Festival Blog

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.

The Discovery Walk Festival has its registration, packet-pickup, start and finish inside the Discovery Ballroom of the Vancouver Hilton Hotel, 301 West 6th Street, Vancouver Washington, USA 98660.

All of the walks and (bikes on Sunday) start from right inside the Hilton, and that is where you will also finish.  The swims on Sunday will take place at Propstra Aquatic Center, but you will register at the Hilton and we provide a shuttle to and from the pool.

YOU CAN REGISTER AT THE EVENT
Registration is open on Friday from 2 pm – 6 pm.
Saturday 6:30 am – 12 pm.
Sunday 7:30 am – 12 pm.
Registration, start and finish are all in the Discovery Ballroom, Vancouver Hilton Hotel.

Schedule of events:

Friday, April 23
Mayor’s Friendship Walk presented by Cascade Heart
Easy 6K/10K Walk through the Historic Reserve.
• Registration open 2PM – 6PM
• Opening Ceremony 3:45PM
• Walk Start Times: 6K and 10K start 4PM – 6P
• Finish by 9PM

Saturday, April 24
Lewis and Clark Walk
Choose your walking distance – Marathon 42K, 21K, 10K or 5K.
The marathon route will be twice-around the 21K route.
Trail rated 2 with some hills.
• Registration open 6:30AM – 12PM
• Walk Start Times:
* 42K: 7AM – note the single start time.  Must start second 21K loop by 11 am or you will be limited to completing only an additional 10K if able to start by 12 pm.
* 21K: 7-9AM
* 5K/10K: 8AM-12PM
* Family Fun Walk 5K: 10AM
• Finish by 4PM
For fun, food, and local entertainment, enjoy the Vancouver Farmers Market right next door.  We hope you pause or return to enjoy the food and entertainment.
Vancouver Farmers Market: Food, produce and crafts open 9 am – 4 pm Saturday and 10 am – 4 pm Sunday.

Sunday, April 25
Lt. Broughton Walk, Swims & Bikes presented by Veolia Water
Choose your distance: 22K, 10K or 5K walk, 15K/25K/50K Bike,
300 meter/600 meter Swim.
• Registration open 7:30AM – 12PM.
• Walk Start times: 22K: 8-9AM – 5K/10K 8AM – 12PM
• Bike Start times: 9AM – 12PM
• Swims start 1:30PM-3:45PM with shuttle provided from and back to the Hilton.
• Closing Ceremony and IML Walking Association awards 3PM
• Finish by 4PM

We had a big work party on Saturday to assemble the start cards for the pre-registered walkers and to put the 2010 ribbons on the Saturday/Sunday walk medals.   With 16 people, that took us two hours to complete.

We are keeping online registration open as long as is convenient for our registrar, at least through midnight tonight (April 20).

If you find the online registration closed, you can register at the event for the same price.  Just come in, fill out a start card, and pay at the Registration Table. We have a long start window for all events (other than the single start time for the marathon distance), so if you arrive a little after the first starting time you shouldn’t encounter any delay.  And then you’ll be able to get started immediately.

We prefer that you pay with cash.  That also saves time at registration and saves fees.  We do take Visa and MasterCharge, but you may experience a delay when paying by card rather than cash, as we only have one card station.

We don’t have “goodie bags” for our participants.  We ended that practice a couple of years ago when we noted how much goes to waste.  Rather than contributing to trash, we will have brochures for other events out on on Info Table and we will hand out any extras we get from sponsors either along the trail or at the Finish.  That way, you aren’t getting something you don’t really want that will end up in the trash or recycling bin.

The deadline has passed for mail-in registrations.  We welcome online registrations through Friday, April 16.  After that point, we prefer that people come and register live at the event.

Everyone is welcome to register at the event.  Registration has not been congested the past three years, so you really don’t have to fear long lines.   In fact, on Friday and Saturday we probably have a longer line for picking up your pre-registration start cards.

We also still take team registrations through the event, at the team rate price.  A team is 10 or more people.  To get the team rate at the event, either the team must all register together or a representative must pay for 10 entries and then the team members can come pick them up at the Team Registration table at their convenience.

We welcome teams from:

Cascade Heart

Veolia Water

Primorsky Walking League Zhenshen (Russia)

Sole Survivors (Canada)

790th Chemical Company

Daimler

Gardner School

Going Lean

Liberty Bible Church

Troop 40394

Weight Watchers

WOW Walking Club

The major sponsors of the 2010 Discovery Walk Festival are:

Cascade Heart presents the Mayor’s Friendship Walk

Veolia Water presents the Lt. Broughton Walk

We also thank Umpqua Bank for its support of the swim, and Walking.about.com for sponsoring the award for the Mayor’s Walk.

We will have Aquaclips to give away and will have a presence by Reebok to promote their new fitness shoes.