Between races and training Laguna Hills Adventure Run hosted by the ever inspiring Ultra Runner Andrea Kooiman is my social break time. My boy friend and I have been going to this run for few months now and grown to absolutely like it. Tons of prizes, free stuffs, free beer and inspiration!
Laguna Hills Road Runner sponsors this ‘Adventure Run’ on 4th Thursday of the month. The idea is simple. It’s free. Follow their Facebook page. If you register ahead of time before the run you get a free beer ticket on the day of the run. Walk-ins are welcome. You show up around 5:30 PM or 6 PM and get yourself registered and checked in. If you wear the adventure run theme shirt which is on sale now at road runner for about 8$ you get an extra beer ticket. At 6:30 PM you will get a map with few store locations that you will run and collect points. The run is between 6:30 PM and 7:30 PM. The points are treated as raffle and you get to win several prices ranging from box of fig bars to free chiropractor sessions to free shoes. It varies every month but the shoes and fig bars has been a constant theme. And also they give away lot of free races from Spartan, Renegade race and Rock It racing, Lexus LaceUp. My boy friend won a Lexus Lace Up Race entry last month.
If you don’t win anything during the run you can try your luck at the after party. Which is usually at one of the bar or restaurant close by ( Last month they had it at Heros and Legends). You get raffles at the after party and in my experience the odds of winning are better at the after party as lot of people don go to the after party.
About the run courses and raffle Locations, In the old days they used to have locations in a way you could manage to check out and collect points in a loop and still manage to return to the start line by 7:30 PM.(Which is roughly about 5 miles in a loop starting at the Laguna Hills Road Runner location and in and around El Toro and Los Olivos). But last two times the locations are so spread out we had to optimize our options and decide which ones to skip and possibly make it back on time. We tried to manage a 5 mile in an hour and plan around the locations we want to go according to that. We usually have to skip few locations because it would be so far and wouldn’t be possible to cover about 10 miles in an hour. I am not a fast runner like that!
The host of this run is the Orange County’s famous Ultra Runner Andrea Kooiman. She has been doing her 100 mile ultra runs every month and this event kind of follows the week after. I get amazed at the energy she has in hosting this event after such a grueling 100mile races. She was also the host of Disney Race Weekend this past weekend, and one of the best runner/motivator/coach! Follow her Ultra Running Adventure in the recent OCRegister Article. She is such an inspiration!
The next Laguna Hills Adventure Run is on September 22nd. Check out and Register here.
If you live by Costa Mesa, Costa Mesa Road Runner has their Adventure Run on 3rd Thursday of the Month. The next Run is on September 15th. Check them out here.
Check out other Adventure Runs at other cities here – http://www.adventurerun.com/
My personal tips:
- If you are looking to buy anything at road runner, buy it on the day of Adventure Run, that way you get free raffle tickets to win shoes!
- You can sign up to races if the Race Representative is there. WE usually sign up with Jonathan Pauley for Renegade races, and it saves money on online convenient fee.
- I always take free stuff home. Most all of them are really good products for runners. Like Gel, Pre-run snacks etc.
- Go to after party! You are bound to win atleast few things, since the # of people aren’t as much as the people at the run.
- If you feel like your legs are hurting after your few mile run that week, talk to Andrea Kooiman, and you will stop complaining after hearing her talk about her the 100 mile race the week before!
- Have fun! People are super friendly, and its fun to be among runners!
- Be careful with the shoe trials that gets you a free entry for free shoe. Some time the shoes aren’t good for my feet, and I ended up hurting my feet bad after the run. If you have a strong feet, go for it!
Run•Roll•Rest•Repeat 
[…] I do Adventure runs for freebies. You get a chance to win prizes, shoes, free race entries, while trying to run about 5 miles(not speed as you run to random store locations). Road Runner stores at Costa Mesa (3rd Thursday) and Laguna Hills(4th Thursday) host these Adventure runs on one Thursday a month until October. It starts around 6:30, but you get there early to do registration to get the tag for raffle points. Plan on being there for a while until 8 or so, as its pretty fun event. (Read more on my old blog) […]
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