Friday, April 27, 2012

The DailyMile MacGuffin Game


It's like geocaching and running all mixed into one.

The object of the game though is to take the "flag" or "cache" or "treasure" or "MacGuffin" and move it.

Rules are pretty simple.

First, you can only find or move the MacGuffin on a run. Runs can be on the trail, on the road, or both. But it must one single run. You can't find the MacGuffin on today's run and place it somewhere on tomorrow's run.

Second, the MacGuffin needs to be placed on a man-made object. This may be difficult on trail runs and exceptions can be made. But it you think about it, it'll be hard to find the MacGuffin if there are a thousand trees to look at. And looking at trees is sometimes dangerous on trail runs. So try to place it on a man-made object.

Third, tell people when and where you find the MacGuffin. You don't need to tell us where you hide it, but tell us when you find it. This should draw out the person that hid it originally and drive some discussion. Might even make friends.

Finally, the MacGuffin can be anything you want it to be. Personally, I have two out in the wild. The one I found and moved today was a small DailyMile magnet. The other one I have hidden off my road is a larger DailyMile sticker that I've attached with a pushpin.

So, those are the rules. If you have any questions, let me know. In the meantime, have fun!

3 comments:

Lauren said...

Virginia eh? My brother and his family lives there.

ANYWAY, This DailyMile Macguffin Game, sounds extremely interesting to me.

Questions
1) Do you need to describe what the marker looks like? Or does it always look the same?
2) What does the person do when they find it? Place it in a new location and blog about that?

I would love to do this. Lots of runners run the same trails that I do, but we rarely run across each other. This seems like a super fun game. I'm going to actually plant something tomorrow AM before you can respond to this post.

ps. my brother is a runner (in VA), but he's a road runner. I never asked him if it's hilly or not. It seems like you don't get the elevation that we do out here on the west coast. (I'm sure I'm wrong in lots of cases, I mean you have the Appalachians after all, right? -- I don't know (sadly) my US east coast geography. Ho Hum. Now it's time for me to get the heck to bed, after a wine night and a planned long mountain run tomorrow -- let's see if I can make it. Perhaps a breakfast burrito could help.

Neil Richard said...

1 - I would think you'd need to describe it when you put it out there. At least the first time. And I would think you'dafter describe it periodically after that just so others know what they're looking for.

2 - When somebody finds it, they move it. And then they'd talk about it via blog, DailyMile, etc. Just some way to let fellow runners know about it.

As for Virginia, we have elevation, but mainly in the mountains. There's a few hard ultras out there that always sound daunting. But I live near the coast. Which means my elevation varies by only 100 feet during a run. And it's all at sea level.

And with young kids in the house and a day that will be spent running a chainsaw and a timezone difference, I think I'll be able to respond before you leave.

Lauren said...

I actually drove to the mountains, went off-roading to the trailhead and TURNED AROUND and drove all the way home and went to bed. LOL. Thanks for your responses re: the dailymile Macguffin Game. I'm definitely going to do this, but probably not tomorrow. : ))