1st Thursday Adventure Run

Some of my friends have been doing this for years, but I never really paid any attention to it until recently. I signed up for the one in April, but for some reason the website and their Facebook group had conflicting dates, so I missed it. I wanted to make sure I confirmed the correct date for the first one in May, and thankfully it was correct. Here’s some tips I suggest as this was my first one and I have no prior experience with this event:
–Get there around or a little before 5:30 pm, the lot can fill up (although it looks like everyone found a spot even if they arrived late). Plus, you want to be able to do all the vendor booths to get your stickers to enter one of the raffles. The Adidas one was awesome; I got to wear free shoes with no obligation during my run to try out. You just leave your ID with your old shoes. The booth is staffed the entire time too, so no fear of having someone walk out with them. There’s some other random tables (the Spartan Race had one too; extra burpies=more tickets, so I suggest doing it if you have the stamina before the actual run) that have some free swag too. I also didn’t buy the $ 17.99 shirt that gets you extra tickets at each checkpoint. You feel a little intimidated into buying one when you walk in, as one of the salespeople is literally at the front of the door waiting for customers and soliciting you immediately. I politely declined and proceeded to the check-​in booth to register. Pre-​registering also enables you to receive the map of the checkpoints for the day.
–Try to map out where to go before you run. We ended up running all over the place and didn’t really stay in a pattern. We were able to a good portion of the checkpoints, but not all of them. Some of the stores/​establishments giving out tickets also didn’t have a designated line/​staff member for just tickets, so we had to wait for some time before moving on.
–Follow the pacers in the yellow vests. They lead you to different checkpoints and help you keep up with your run. Just be mindful of crossing intersections and running in the streets; parts of the run don’t have sidewalks (I wish it was in a circle too, like a big loop, that way you’d be able to hit all of the checkpoints – maybe that’s too easy though).
–The Roadrunner store should also offer water at the end. There’s no water stations or fountains anywhere during the race or after, so if I didn’t run back to my car to drink some out of my water bottle, I’d be super dehydrated (you’re running for an hour all over the place, after work, so you’ll likely be very tired after this) once this was over. If they can give you free beer, why not water too?
–Make sure to lay your tickets out in color order and weigh them down with something so they don’t blow away. Yes, there’s an entire system to making sure you don’t miss the raffle at the end of the race. Some people even bring actual tape to keep them on the ground. A little too hardcore for me, but I respect the hustle. The DJ’s microphone also seemed to be made out of tinfoil, as it consistently died or sent off a ton of reverb. Not so pleasant when the speakers are the size of a house and roughly 10 feet from your ear.
–I checked out the after party at the end, and grabbed dinner (that you have to pay for, the race itself is free). While none of our group won anything but a pack of socks (even though only about 15 people came out afterwards), we did score some free beer and coasters, so at least we didn’t go home completely empty handed.
Now that I know the layout and the action, I’ll definitely come prepared next time. I want those free shoes!

This is an awesome event, tons of fun! Brian does an awesome job. Fun people, interesting checkpoints, great prizes, fun happy hours afterwards! My only complaint is that it doesnt run over the winter! Can’t wait till next year!

I came out to this fun race because a bunch of my friends were signed up. For what the run is it is great. You run about 3 – 4 miles in an hour and stop by various local businesses to gather tickets for a raffle at the end. During the raffle they give out certificates for shoes, clothing etc. So if you are getting into running or want to do something fun this is a great event.
Just for running you get a free beer with the opportunity to get more like shoes. It’s just a fun night out and a reason to go out and be active. I’d highly recommend for anyone that lives in the area and likes to run.