the Way of the Turtle

VIRTUAL RACES & A MEDAL QUEST, Part 1
Wednesday, August 5, 2020

Virtual races aren't anything particularly new... I can remember signing up for a handful of races over the last year or two that offered a virtual option for those who couldn't attend the actual race for one reason or another. But the primary venue for virtual races was organizations like Yes.fit, VPS.fit, and the like, which figured out that there are plenty of people like me out there who will pay for a run that has a cool medal (and in some cases all manner of additional swag and bling... for an extra fee, of course...) Yes.fit hooked me with an ad for a particular event on Facebook (which then led to me completing 18 of their challenges so far...) and VPS.fit hooked me with their Star Wars themed events (as have several other virtual run companies)... there's even a group putting on Doctor Who themed virtual runs. Many of these donate some of the profits to charity, but I suspect the bulk of the money is going to the organization itself.

Social distancing and COVID shutdowns have led to many races being cancelled outright, but also to many making the shift to holding a virtual event. The success of this seems to vary greatly - I know of at least one event which ended up with nearly 19000 (yes, that's the correct number of zeros!) people signed up, but I've also seen events which were very successful as live races only attract a handful of virtual runners. I suppose it's also worth distinguishing between true virtual events, which can be run anywhere within a given time frame as long as the distance is correct, and solo or virtu-real events, where runners are expected to run a specific course within a given time frame.

When some of the races I was signed up for (or planning to sign up for) shifted to being run as virtual events, I figured I'd do my usual races and support the RDs and organizations that have made it possible for me to run all over the place during the last 15-20 years. I didn't really expect to do anything all that new and different, other than running pretty much exclusively by myself and fairly local. And then someone I knew posted info about a race being organized by the infamous Lazarus Lake (aka Gary Cantrell), the fellow who created the Barkley Marathons, the race so difficult that only 14 runners have finished it since it started in 1986. This new event was called the Great Virtual Run Across Tennessee, and participants would have 4 months to complete an approximately 1000 km route from the southwestern end to the northeastern end of TN. (True crazies also had the option to sign up to go Back Across Tennessee once they'd finished the first crossing of the state.) Approximately 5 miles of foot travel needed each day, except I joined the party a little bit late and spent a while with a projected finishing date in November... then October... then September... and finally August 31.

Along the way, I also signed up for a number of similar challenges - a couple to run/walk or ride across NY, PA, along the NJ Turnpike & Garden State Parkway, the lakeshore of OH, and around the borders of CT, NH, RI, and MA. Most of those had longer time limits, so I really didn't question if I'd be able to complete them, and in one case (the OneNY challenge) I actually increased my distance from 500 km to 1000 km as it became clear I'd finish TN without too much difficulty.

One challenge in particular, the Run the US NE Corridor (following the train route from DC to Boston), needed 7.5 miles a day to finish in time. I have to admit I wasn't sure I could do that, but I am currently on target to complete that one at the end of this month.

And thanks to those extra miles - tomorrow should be the day I finish the Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee, well ahead of the buzzard. It's tempting to start on the return trip, but there's no point - I'm not going to increase my weekly foot miles significantly (currently somewhere around 55 miles a week) so the furthest I can get in the remaining 25 days is around 200 miles, not even a third of the way. I'm also finding that I'm getting tired of distance challenges - there were several that I considered adding a month or so ago that I'm now finding I'm not that interested in. By the time I'm done I'll have completed long distance challenges in every state that I typically do races in (New England, NY, NJ, PA, and OH) plus a few that are more out of the way (TN, the Gulf Coast, and the upcoming 7 Continents Challenge, which frankly barely qualifies as a distance challenge for my current mileage - if I combine riding and foot travel I only need to cover 100k on each continent, which I can do in a little over a month.)

Back in June, however, I came up with the idea for another challenge that is only feasible (for me) because of the switch to almost 100% virtual races... more on that tomorrow.