Ran it or watched it: keeping track of the races, festivals and events you've been to

There's a difference between running a marathon and standing at mile 20 with a sign. Both are great days. They are not the same day.

Most ways of keeping track of where you've been miss that. They know you were in Chicago in October. They don't know you ran 26.2 miles through it, or that you were the one holding the orange slices.

Experiences are the things you do at a place

In Pond Passport, an experience is a stamp for something that happens somewhere: a marathon, a festival, a tournament, a parade. The Chicago Marathon, Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Oktoberfest in Munich, Hanami in Japan.

Checking in to one collects the place it happens too. Check in to the Chicago Marathon and you collect Chicago, Illinois and the rest of the way up.

Ran it or watched it

A marathon stamp asks how you took part. Open it and you'll see two choices, "Ran it" and "Watched it." Pick one, or both if you have done each, and the stamp keeps the answer.

Other experiences have a single button that says what you did. A festival or a tournament says "I attended this." The stamp still keeps the people you were with and a note, so you can write down your finishing time, or the band that made the whole weekend.

I watch the Chicago Marathon every year. It's incredible to be around elite athletes, and world records have been set there in recent years.

Plan the trip around the date

You can visit a landmark any weekend you like. An event happens on its own calendar, so it's worth planning a year out.

Fall. The Chicago Marathon and the New York City Marathon are both in the fall. The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is in October. Oktoberfest starts in late September in Munich and runs into early October.

Spring. Hanami, cherry blossom season in Japan, peaks in late March and early April in Tokyo and Kyoto. Mardi Gras lands in February or early March, depending on the year.

Summer. Wimbledon is in late June and early July.

The place guides are good for building the rest of the trip around the event. New York City has the marathon, the US Open, the Macy's parade and New Year's Eve in Times Square. Chicago has the marathon and Lollapalooza. Japan has Hanami and the Sapporo Snow Festival. The United Kingdom has Wimbledon, Royal Ascot, Glastonbury and the London Marathon.

Events that move

A few events change cities from year to year, like some of golf's major championships. For those, the stamp has a "Where you did this" section. Tag the city, state or country where you went, and the event shows up on that place's stamp too. The tag doesn't collect the place by itself.

Keep the ones on your list

If there's an event you've always wanted to do, save it to your Bucket List. When you finally go and check in, the stamp moves into your collection on its own.

How to start

Open YourPond, find the experiences in Pond Passport, and check in to the ones you've done. Start with the one you'd tell a stranger about first!

Pond Passport is free, on the web and in the YourPond app for iPhone.

Browse the experience stamps · Stamps by place · How Pond Passport works