It’s mid-October, and you know what that means – it’s time for the annual Gnome Run! This year was the 8th run, and the turnout this time was absolutely phenomenal. Last year they had almost 3000 gnomes race, and raised $5,500. THIS year, oh my goodness. According to organiser Dravvie, there were over 7,000 (yes SEVEN THOUSAND) gnomes in the race today, and they have raised $14,000 at the time of writing this (and that number keeps going up. It was $13,000 when I first started writing this post lol!!). The goal was $4,000. It’s incredible.
This year, as many of you will know, the Gnome Run was added as a micro-holiday to the game. the Blizzard team set up a race track for all of the gnomes to follow, so you knew where you were going. A lot of people were concerned that Blizzard were “taking over” the Gnome Run when it was added as a microholiday to WoW. However, Dravvie wrote an amazing article for Wowhead that talks about how amazing Blizz were in asking for her ok before adding it to the game. The article also talks about the history of the event, and how it has grown over the years.
There were gnomes EVERYWHERE. We had banners to run through so we knew where to go, blockades stopping us from going off track, REFRESHMENT TABLES and loads of NPC gnomes cheering us along the whole way. It was so brilliant the way it was set up. I hope that Dravvie and the team love what Blizzard did to bring the race into the game.
For me, I ran into some lovely twitter friends…
Once again this year, I did the run with the gorgeous Ms Miggi, but would you believe it? I didn’t manage to get a good pic of the two of us together! So bummed. Though we do both look pretty determined in this pic…
The run itself is always loads of fun. It was incredibly helpful having the gates to pass through, because I’m always so good at getting lost. We only got disconnected once, and that was zoning into Stormwind after getting off the tram. The servers held up brilliantly well. They’re just amazing.
Once we made it to Booty Bay we did try to make a heart, as is tradition. Our shard didn’t do too badly, until a naughty person dropped one of those toys that turns everyone into Moonkins… so that was a little disappointing. But truthfully, it wasn’t as bad as last year, so I think that’s good 🙂
As is also tradition, once the race was done, we jumped on a boat to head over to Orgimmar to /lick the warchief. I’ve never made it all the way into the Throne room. I think the furthest I had gotten was to inside the gates of Org before I’d get horrifically killed. This year, though, I was successful! Well, kinda… you see, stupid Cinder didn’t /lick Saurfang… she /kiss him instead. Awkward! She was immediately killed for her insubordination. But it was worth it.
So by the time I finished writing this, the total donation amount is currently sitting at over $14,600. It’s astonishing and wonderful.
Well done to Dravvie and her band of helpers for putting on yet another amazing Gnome Run. And well done to the Warcraft community for making it another amazing year.
See you next year!
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