Introducing the Pokemon Go Half Marathon

Introducing the Pokemon Go Half Marathon

I’ll admit it, it’s a bit weird for a 31 year old new father of twins to be obsessed with a Pokemon game. Yet, somehow this game without any game mechanics, goals, or objective has captivated me. Blame it on my obsessive compulsive quest to capture them all in the original series back when I was just slightly too old to admit to playing it. Still, I think it is great fun and have been using it as a motivator to go out for more walks and longer runs. Now I challenge you to do the same.

After a long run, you need some protein like a Pidgey

Now you may be thinking this game is only for crazed millenials roaming parks and landmarks like zombies. You wouldn’t be totally wrong according to recent reports. But if you can at least be responsible enough to only play while on foot, and look both ways before crossing a street, the game can be a great motivator.

In the game, you are rewarded for walking distances with Pokemon eggs that hatch after a set distance; 2, 5, or 10 km. To get more items in the game so that you can catch more Pokemon, you must physically visit points of interest, or Pokestops that correspond with real world landmarks like parks, historic markers, or civic buildings. The more you move around the real world, the more likely you are to stumble upon a rarer Pokemon as well.

Yesterday I went out for a 12 mile training run. I may have checked out the Ingress POI map to see where the Pokestops are along the way. I may have also planned a route to maximize the number of stops I could hit along the course. I also ended up turning around too late and instead ran 13.1, or a half marathon. During this run, I hatched 8 Pokemon eggs, visited 24 Pokestops, collected 60 Pokeballs, and found three moderately rare Pokemon.

I also discovered this dragon which was sadly not a rare Pokemon

This is the basis for my new invention, the Pokemon Half Marathon. It also works as a 5k, 10k, or any distance, but half is the distance I went, and thus the numbers to beat.

Reply below with your best Pokemon Half, 5k, or 10k. How many eggs, stops, and catches can you get in this distance?

Here’s a map of my run

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