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 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.

Due to the unfortunate closing of the Hough Pool, the Discovery Walk swims will move to the Propstra Acquatic Center, 605 N. Devine, Vancouver, WA 98661.  This pool is about 4.5 miles from the Hilton.  We will continue to provide a free van shuttle to and from the swim from the Hilton.  The pool is 4 ft. deep throughout.  Showers and changing rooms are available.