Brooks Run Happy Cavalcade of Curiosities Tour

An email arrived in my inbox asking if I was interested in helping with the Brooks Run Happy Cavalcade of Curiosities Tour last week. Not much convincing was needed to get me on board. After all, I would be getting the opportunity to spend several hours helping out at a running event all the while talking "running". This sounded like something right up my alley.

With a few email exchanges I was all set. The event ran this past weekend during the afternoon so I arrived a few minutes early to meet the guys from Brooks and find out what I would be doing.

Pretty simple stuff, they gave me a table with a bunch of Brooks stuff: bandana, stickers, ear buds, shirts, and hats on it. As people came by I offered them an opportunity to enter a drawing for 2 to any "Rock and Roll" marathon of their choice. Then, I scanned their entry to see what they won something that day. There were the items that I described above. In addition, they could win a pair of Brooks running shoes of their choice or a head to toe fitting shoes, socks, shorts, and shirt. That was grand price and unfortunately, I didn't give one them away, but I did give away some shoes.

As I understood it, the Brooks has this Tour bus going around the country. Some of the stuff they have on display in the bus was kind of cool. Several pairs of really out there shoe designs. A couple of displays showing the different components going into Brooks shoes – among other items. After talking a peek at this stuff, I headed to the top of the bus where the Brooks guys provided a gait analysis to the runner coming by for "free of charge". Very interesting process, gait analysis is more than just watching someone run. Really, there is a lot of interpretation involved. Then, there is the guidance provided to the runner which helps get them into the right running shoe.

Throughout the event I kept expecting to see people that I knew but strangely, I only saw one – Chad R. came by during the evening. The other surprising thing is how many of these people are really new to running. We talked about everything from running, training plans, courses around the Huntersville to which marathon they were doing this fall. The enthusiasm was so strong that it flowed throughout the building. More than a few people thought I was part of the Brooks traveling tour and were surprised that I lived just down the road them and was running many of the roads and back streets as they were. Just image it really is a small world.

At one point, I did get a chance to slip out side and check out Jordan's Nuun booth. He had a bunch of different flavors and I tried them all. On side note, I liked it enough that I bought a bottle but more about this later in another post.

I was actually a little sad to see the day come to an end. This was an awesome experience. I was glad that I agreed to do it. Too bad the Brooks Tour was only in Charlotte two days. They had a lot of stuff to check out. Maybe they will be back again.

 

Thoughts from the Cool Down Runner