Ep #369 A Running Scavenger Hunt

Welcome to the not your average runner podcast. If you’ve never felt athletic, but you still dream about becoming a runner, you are in the right place. I’m Jill Angie, and I help fat women over 40 start running, feel confident and change their lives. I have worked with thousands of women to help them achieve their running goals.

And now I want to help you. Hey there runner. Welcome to another episode of the Not Your Average Runner podcast, the show that’s here to get you running safely and confidently, no matter your size. I am Jill Angie, your coach and running BFF, and today’s warm up topic is all about having some fun on the run in the form of a scavenger hunt.

So why would you add a scavenger hunt to your run? Well, we all know some days running just feels harder than others, right? maybe the weather’s not perfect or you’re just not feeling it and Adding a scavenger hunt gives you something to focus on Besides how many miles or how many minutes you have left to run?

It keeps your mind engaged and it makes the run a lot more just playful and joyful and interesting, frankly. Now, I’m going to give you an overview today of how to do it, um, ideas for all kinds of runs, and then I’m going to give you five things to look for on today’s run. So you can see if you like this.

Okay, and then you can design your own scavenger hunt for your next run. Get all your friends in on it. It’s going to be fun. So first thing I want to make clear before we start is this not the kind of scavenger hunt where you are actually picking things up, taking them, carrying them anywhere. This is a virtual scavenger hunt.

All you have to do to claim each item on the list is see it with your eyes. Okay, so there’s gonna be, you don’t need to bring a backpack to like throw all the shit in afterwards. You’re good. You just get to look for things and mentally check them off the list. Now, the best way to do a scavenger hunt is to have the list of items ready before you go.

Um, you can, I like to keep it small to like maybe five things and you know, then you can sort of remember it. You could also put it into a little note on your phone and check it, you know, maybe every mile or so to see if you’ve gotten everything. Um, you can tailor your list to your particular running area, maybe your neighborhood, um, the park you’re in.

Even, you know, if you’re at the gym, you could make a scavenger hunt for your gym. In fact, I feel like a scavenger hunt, it’s kind of tailor made. You for the gym because you don’t have to worry about traffic or anything else. You literally can just be on the treadmill looking around the entire room, scanning it, um, and keeping yourself amused.

The whole idea of the scavenger hunt is to notice things around you that you might normally pass by without a second glance. We get so in our own heads often that we miss It’s half of what life has to offer us. So the point of the scavenger hunt is for you to actually start looking and paying attention to what’s going on around you.

Um, and if you’re running with friends or in a group, it is an awesome way to engage with each other and keep things interesting, especially if you have told all of the stories and all of the gossip. If you’ve run out of that. All right, bring up the scavenger hunt and let’s go. So I think a great way to organize your scavenger hunt is to pick one thing to look for from a bunch of different categories.

And again, I’m going to use the number five cause I think it’s an easy set of things to remember. Um, and for example, you might say every scavenger hunt, I am going to look for One specific thing from, that’s like nature or plant based, one sort of animal, one thing that’s architectural, one thing that’s person based, and then maybe there’s a wild card, right?

Um, you can make those categories whatever you want. You don’t even need to use categories if you don’t want to, but like if you’re looking for ideas on how to get started. That’s a great place to start. So using those five categories that I just gave you, I’m going to give you examples of how you might create a scavenger hunt in a, uh, on a trail or in a park or city slash suburbs, where there’s a lot of houses around, or if you are at the gym, okay?

So if you’re out on a park, in a park or on a trail for nature, you might pick a tree with a funny shape. Uh, for architecture, you might look for a wooden sign, for animal, you might look for a squirrel, for person, you might look to see a parent and child together, and for your wild card, you might say, I want to find a heart shaped stone, or, uh, I don’t know, just some sort of particularly shaped stone.

If you are running in a city or in the suburbs, for nature you might say a window box with plants, for architecture you might say a blue front door, for animal you might say a dog wearing a bandana, for person you might say somebody wearing a green hat. In Philly, I would find that in about 30 seconds because everybody wears Eagle Sats around here, which are green.

Um, and then your wild card could be a street sign that starts with the first letter of your name. Okay, so you’re kind of getting the idea. Now, if you’re on a treadmill at the gym, Here’s where it gets kind of fun. You get to count things if you see them on TV or if there are posters on the wall. Because you’re, because you’re not actually going anywhere, you get a little bit of extra bonus, uh, chances.

So, if you’re in the gym, Right, your nature could be a potted plant, your architecture could be something new in the room you’ve never noticed before. Um, your animal could be maybe a dog on a leash that somebody walks by the front window or something like that. Um, it could be for your person, it could be somebody wearing a race shirt and your wild card could be somebody taking a selfie.

Now, you could do holiday themes, you could choose a favorite TV show or a movie or a book and things of that nature. Think of things that relate to that. Like get creative with it, have fun. It doesn’t have to be only five items. It could be 10 items. I mean, if you are going, uh, for a really long run, Hey, you might need even more than that.

But the point of this whole thing is again, to just keep you engage your brain a little bit differently and keep you kind of aware of your surroundings and having fun and sort of gamifying it a little bit, right? Now for today’s run, I’m just going to give you five very basic themes. There’s no theme.

There’s no cohesiveness to it. It’s just five things that you’re almost guaranteed to see wherever you run. Uh, we’re going to call it the quick start scavenger hunt. So your goal is to spot all five before the end of your run today. Number one is a person wearing something red. Number two is a yellow door.

Number three is a bird, and this could be, again, actually seeing a bird flying around or it could be a picture of a bird or an outline of a bird, if you see the old Twitter logo somewhere, boom, counts as a bird. Number four is a trash can or a recycling bin, and number five is a paper sign taped to a door or a window.

And again, if you’re on the treadmill, you know, it counts if you see these on your iPad, on the TV, wherever it is. The point again is to just kind of use your brain a little bit differently while you’re running. And by the way, turning this into a social activity is super fun. You can challenge your friends, you can challenge your running group, share your lists.

Uh, if you’re in my Run Your Best Life membership, you could post about your scavenger hunts there. We’ll see who has the most creative lists. And here’s the thing. I know you know this, but I’m going to say it again. Running isn’t all about pace, distance, or effort. It’s also about exploration and joy and seeing the world around you in a new way.

And a scavenger hunt is the perfect reminder of that. So whether you are running solo or by yourself, running solo or with friends, give it a try. It’s going to make your run more fun. You might even discover something new about your neighborhood or your, your park. And okay, my friends, that is it for today’s episode.

I hope you’re feeling inspired to add some scavenger hunt fun to your next run. And Hey, if you do want tag me on social media, I would love to see what you find out there. And if this episode helped you get in the right mindset for today’s run, please don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review. And as always, Stay safe and get your ass out there and run.

I’ll talk to you next week. Real quick before you go, if you enjoyed listening to this episode, you have to check out my seven day jumpstart plan. It is a free downloadable guide that will teach you exactly how to start running safely and confidently in the body you have right now. Head on over to not your average runner.

com slash jumpstart to grab it. That’s notyouraveragerunner. com slash jumpstart. I’d love to be a part of your journey.