Rules:

Welcome to Your Quest!

The quest and the clues can be completed at any time during the quest period.

Each clue will require an answer to be entered on this site.  There's a limit on tries, so take your time.  If you strike out, you're done with the contest, so be careful.  If you think you did it but typed it wrong, or misspelled, just email us, and it'll all work out.  We do have alternative answers set up to avoid this, but people come up with wild ideas sometimes...

Answers - Some clues will only require an answer to be given such as a location name.  Other clues will require a little more leg work such as discovering the location and then you'll need to enter an answer that can only be discovered by physically being at that location.  Most clues like this will use information that's permanent (i.e. numbers on a sign, graffiti, counting something, etc. ), so there's no risk someone will take the answer as some misguided way of slowing down other competitors.  But, this is about treasure after all, and we really want to hide things in the world, so if we do hide something, please don't take it.  Don't be that guy.  No one is going to be winning stacks of thousands here, so just play fair.

This quest will have 5 clues.  These clues will not unlock until you've completed your run and uploaded your results.

 - This involves getting out in the world.
 - Flexible Start Times: Choose when you start your run, fitting with your schedule - flexibility is kind of our thing.
 - Personal Pace: Move at your own speed, focusing on your personal goals - be it time, endurance, or simply enjoying the outdoors.
 - GPS Accuracy: We provide accurate GPS tracking for reliable and useful results.
 - Treasure Hunt: Upon completing the initial loop, each finisher receives a series of intriguing clues leading to a hidden treasure.

More about the Day Quest.

Welcome to The Day Quest, a running/adventure experience that focuses on motivation with a side of adventure.  Our unique quests, are offered on local courses, offering a flexible approach to finding motivation.  We also periodically offer "Treasure Quests".

The Day Quest offers 3 types of quests - Challenge Quests, Day Quests, and Treasure Quests.

Challenge Quests - a challenge quest takes place over a longer period (1-2 months), and typically includes several quests.  The purpose of these is to explore and to get you off your normal trails.

Day Quests - a day quest is normally a single event of varying distance.  Some people go after time or racing themselves (equalizer score), or one of our other ways of tracking results that differs from typical time.

Treasure Quests - this is largely experimental, but we think treasure hunting and adventure races are awesome.  For any treasure quest, each runner will be given a clue, or series of clues, after they finish.  The first person to solve these clues will receive the "treasure", which could be anything from actual gold to a prize to something else (don't expect the world, but something unique).

Joining the Run: Guidelines and Rules

 - Primary Rule: Stay Motivated!

Tracking Your Run

Start a new activity for your quest - Just as if you were on the start line of a race, we recommend that you start your run activity near the start line and stop it near the finish line.  We believe we've figured out ways to extract your course time from your overall activity, but it's not always perfect and crossing the start/finish lines can wreck havoc with understanding your intentions.  You start and stop your watch for other races, so do it here.

Run/Walk/Hike - Don't bike, or roller skate, or drive, or do anything but move yourself.  We allow crab walks, but only ones uploaded online with the hashtag - #TheDayQuest.

Upload your results on time - Your results track the time of your run.  When you upload, we will check to make your the activity took place during the quest period, that the time when you uploaded took place during the quest period, and that the activity matches the course.

Register before you upload - If you try to run a quest and upload to Garmin without first registering for the quest, we will ignore your activity.

We track elapsed time, not moving time.

Don't upload activities from where you live or work - If you upload an activity longer than the course, we'll do our best to deal with it, but we'll show your full activity.  We enjoy privacy as much as the next person, so don't share more than you're comfortable with.  If you sync with Garmin, we will look at your activities in the following way - 1) we will store any activities that take place during the time frame of a quest you're registered for.  These will not be public at all.  We will then analyze any activities within the quest period to determine if they match the course.  If they do, we will then do further analysis to determine your time on the course, and add your activity as a result for the quest.  You can delete any of your quests.  The only public details will be your results for the quest.

Winning/Finishing: Here's What You Need to Know

Results: Results will become available as they are received.  Results can only be uploaded between the start and end times for the quest.  We want to try new things so we're going to start with a performance score.  This utilizes a unique algorithm that combines aspects of age grading to allow men and women of all ages to compete against each other.  You'll still be able to sort by time, but we think the performance score is pretty cool.

Eligibility:
 - You must submit a result. Acceptable submissions include uploads from Garmin or valid GPX files.  You can also upload a manual result if you must.
 - Treasure quests will have general clues and location clues.  Location clues will be related to the real world, and require that you be where the answer is found.

Additional Points to Keep in Mind:

Our system might not be foolproof. We trust our participants not to exploit any loopholes. However, if you emerge as a winner, we may ask to review other runs for verification purposes.

It's essential to approach this with a sporting spirit. While we aim for accuracy, errors may occur given the unpredictability of GPS and other factors. For those familiar with Strava segments, we all know that mishaps can happen (like forgetting to switch the tracker mode). Let's maintain an understanding and calm demeanor throughout.

Remember, this is all in good fun. Enjoy the quest!