Running of the Gnomes

a "Small" online charity event in World of Warcraft

F.A.Q & Background info

What is this event? I thought it was an in game micro-holiday?The Running of the Gnomes is an event where the whole of the Warcraft community gathers on one singular server, Scarlet Crusade (or on Bloodsail Buccaneers for Wrath Classic), and rolls level 1 Gnomes to travel from the Gnome starting zone to Booty Bay to help raise awareness and funds for Charities that make an actual impact on Breast Cancer.We are fundraising for the Tuohy Vaccine, which can prevent Breast Cancer and even focuses on the most deadly form of the disease triple negative Breast Cancer.What started out as a guild organized yearly migration was so popular with players and the community that Blizzard honored the event with a Micro-Holiday called The Great Gnomeregan Run that occurs yearly on the same date worldwide. The micro holiday provides players with a race course and NPCs to cheer them on!This year there are two Trading Post objectives that involve the completing the micro holiday event in the spirit of the original event! One is to complete the quest where players run through gates from the starting zone to Booty Bay just like we have always done, and the other is to do it on an under level 10 wearing a pink shirt in the spirit of the run.While the Micro-Holiday occurs everywhere the community and gathering of players is still held on only on Scarlet Crusade-USThe community event benefits charities we love, and gathers together people worldwide.At the start of the event in 2017, there were over 7,000 players online and $16,600+ raised, (Plus thousands upon thousands more before that!)Does my character need to be level 1?No! But the idea is that the event is created for lvl 1 characters so people can just log in and enjoy without too much set up on their end especially with how many people attend!It was set up to be a can you make it to the end silly adventure to raise money 12 years ago for some friends. If you wish to level to avoid the creatures along the road, or to help others avoid it, that's okay too!After Party?Yes! On both Retail and Classic we always head to Orgrimmar afterwards to give out kisses, hugs and licks to...whoever is the current head of the capitol! …We’ve licked a whole lot of Horde leaders over the last 12 years to be honest.Why Gnomes?In Wrath of the Lich King Gnomes were one of the only Races with Pink Hair making it easy for everyone to coordinate.(Back then my guild also said no way to making 40 pink Mageweave shirts back then, lol, and then 150 people came the first year, and thank goodness we didn't go with shirts, that's a lotta shirts we would be making years later!!)They also fit the idea of something “Small” together adding up to something big when together.Why Breast Cancer, isn’t there a ton of attention for this already? And isn't this trivializing it?We all know October is breast cancer awareness month. Everyone’s been affected by cancer of some form, unfortunately.Using something cute, weird, and unusual makes starting a hard conversation easier sometimes. And the runs have come to provide a space for many of the community where they can yell into the void about loss and wins with cancer.Plus, we really realize that breast cancer isn’t just a "older woman's" issue like how it's been presented in the past.It truly can affect anyone, at any age. Knowing the signs of all types of cancers is important.
We try to work with charities and projects that don't always get as much attention as uhh...certain others, unfortunately.We feel even if the pink hair and cute outfits or all these Gnomes remind just one single person to check themselves to get a mammogram or encourage that family member who hears about to go in to the doctor and get any cancer screening, we've done a good job.Especially in a community where oftentimes many of us feel we’re too young for needing this sort of care.Plus it’s really hard to miss thousands of Gnomes doing anything, let alone thousands of Gnomes with the same colored hair stampeding through half a continent. Even out of game it gets people talking for a day or two.I want to help with the run!Tell your friends! Reshare our information on various social media platforms, talk about the groups we're supporting! Ask your friends to come with you!If you have another idea you can contact me, Dravvie.

Retail Info

Running of the Gnomes is October 14th on Scarlet Crusade-USThe Run leaves the starting zone at 4pm Pacific, 7pm Eastern, 11pm GMTThese times are race start time when everyone leaves the starting zone, so show up early and get an invite to one of our many guilds and hang out with the community and meet your fellow Gnomies!How to participate:Simply log in on the specified day on Scarlet Crusade in the Gnome Starting Zone, before the run start time and join us for the run. We’ll have the invites, and you just need to bring yourself!If you do not wish to use a fresh level 1 Gnome, you can simply change your Gnome's hair to Pink. Please keep the names tasteful for an event that is all agesKeep in mind this is a run to spark a conversation, honor others, do something fun, raise money. It's not a race-race. Staying together is a good fun option!Because the Gnome Run is very popular, I suggest showing up not 10 minutes before the run if you can help it, or joining our discord for days that we are pre-inviting people to guilds to snag an invite early.There will be absolutely no Cross Realm invites for this. You must be on Scarlet Crusade or it’s connected realm Feathermoon. I’m unable to facilitate people who are off realm. Simply roll a new character on the specified server and join in the fun that way!If you do not play World of Warcraft, or play in the EU/Asia regions, you can download and use a US trial account. If your account is currently not active, you can also do the same!Trial Account notes:Trial accounts cannot join guilds, but you can run along with us, and we do have some ways to count you all. You can also join our discord still!If you have not hit max level on a Trial or Vet Account you may have to do the new player scenario added in late BfA so plan accordingly.What about Tabards?Tabards were made BoP in Legion and cannot be traded! You can buy them in Ironforge for less than 1g.Every character can withdraw this 1 gold from the guild bankYou can mail yourself an Heirloom tabard from your other characters. There are mailboxes in the starting zone.Pink Shirts?Every guild bank has 1,000s of pink shirts for you to withdraw and wear!We may also be passing them out in the starting zone!HashtagGnomeRun2023A note about Racing Guilds:We ask that even while it’s hectic, or there’s multiple guilds, we ask that you only join the guilds we’ve confirmed for a variety of reasons:We use the guilds to give out directions during the run, we don’t want people to have unexpectedly negative experiences in a random guild, or be scammed with a false donation link.We do use them to have some idea of how many people are at the event too!You cannot pick your guilds. It’s just whichever one we are currently inviting to! We’re sorry please help us by not leaving and joining guilds!Retail WoW Guilds:>Gnomes Race for a Cure
>Gnomes Race Too
>Gnome Three Racers
>Gnomes Race Four Us All
>Gnome Run Strikes Back
>Gnome and the Furious Six
>All Gnomes go to Seven
>The Last Gnome Run
>War for the Gnome Run
>Gnome with the Pink Run
>Gnomes to Eleven
>Gnomemare Before XmasWhispering those of us spamming chat with instructions to do so the exact word INVITE will auto trigger our addon (thanks to Ellypse for making it!) to get you a guild invite unless you have a trial account.We will also be throwing out invites using this addon in other ways!More guilds will be announced on our social media and discord as needed!Where are you running?We will be running from The Starting line that appears in the Gnome starting zone on the day of the race to Booty Bay.We will use the Tram in Ironforge to Stormwind. Please allow times to pause for others to catch up such as at the Tram, and at the Stormwind Gates.

A note about Racing Guilds

Running of the Gnomes Wrath Classic is October 15th on Bloodsail Buccaneers-USThe Run leaves the starting zone at 4pm Pacific, 7pm Eastern, 11pm GMTThese times are race start time when everyone leaves the starting zone, so show up early and get an invite to one of our two Gnome guilds, and hang out with the Classic community and meet your fellow Gnomies!How to participate:For Wrath Classic you will need a NA-WoW subscription.You must be on Bloodsail Buccaneers-US as there are no Cross Realm Invites/Merged Realms in game.You need to only log onto the Dwarven & Gnome starting zone with a fresh Gnome and we will meet you there to give you a guild invite!If you do not wish to use a fresh level 1 Gnome, you can simply change your Gnome's hair to Pink. Please keep the names tasteful for an event that is all agesKeep in mind this is a run to spark a conversation, honor others, do something fun, raise money. It's not a race-race. Staying together is a good fun option!Tabards:
Tabards are something that can be passed out as they're only BoE, though we don't have very many of them! You can also buy them in Ironforge for less than 1g while running past the Ironforge Visitor Center!
We may not have many on hand, so if you have some or Pink Mageweave shirts to spare, it would be very appreciated!Hashtag?ClassicGnomeRunClassic WoW Guilds:The Gnome Run Itself
The Way of Gnomes
Where are you Running?
We will be running from The Dwarven & Gnome Starting area to to Booty Bay.We will use the Tram in Ironforge to Stormwind. Please allow times to pause for others to catch up such as at the Tram, and at the Stormwind Gates.

Wrath Classic Info

We ask that even while it’s hectic, or there’s multiple guilds, we ask that you only join the guilds we’ve confirmed for a variety of reasons:We use the guilds to give out directions during the runWe don’t want people to have unexpectedly negative experiences in a random guild, or be scammed with a false donation link.We also sometimes use them to have some idea of how many people are at the event.You unfortunately cannot pick your guilds.It’s just whichever one we are currently inviting to based on space and which ones of us are currently online!! We’re sorry! We try to limit moderation powers to those we know!Whispering those of us spamming chat with instructions to do so the exact word INVITE will auto trigger our addon (thanks to Ellypse for making it!) to get you a guild invite unless you have a trial account.The fastest way to get an invite, or get your friend an invite to a guild is to have them whisper us. Whispering us a name to type in takes longer, especially for people with visual disabilities.More guilds will be announced on our social media and discord as needed!