Virtual Challenges

[Trailrat]

So lately I've been struggling to get myself motivated enough to go out and get "match fit" again.

I've been getting a lot of adverts for something called Virtual Challenges.
You buy a challenge (in this instances, Hadrians Wall), complete the miles and log them, and when you finish the challenge they send you a medal.

Anyone tried them? What do you think of them?

[vorsprung]

sounds like a con

[Fennec]

It’s not a con (or at least, a few might be, but most aren’t!). There are loads of them around at the moment, it’s a way that companies that organise ‘events’ can generate some income and interest while they can’t run events due to Covid restrictions.

Whether or not they’re necessary is another matter. Some people don’t need medals, likes, kudos, points etc to get out and about, and won’t be bothered. Some find it motivational or a bit of fun. Each to their own.

Several of my friends are doing them. One is doing a ‘300k in June’ challenge. It meant that she dragged herself out to spend yesterday walking a long way in the countryside with me, getting tired, footsore, muddy and rained on, when she could have been enjoying herself. 😉

[Jasmine]

Not a con. Different people need different motivation. I know a number of people who have done them in various guises - total distance over a set period (weekend, week, month), 5km, 10km, half or full marathon on a one day of a set weekend, down to "do something that challenges you". Getting a medal in the post for that is not that much different to getting a finisher medal for any other event.

There are a lot of event companies round here, so in addition to this type, there are also the 'virtual races' - run a set distance on the given day and send your uploaded data in to see who wins. Of course, if you are all running different courses this can turn into a game of who can find the fastest course near their house.

[fuaran]

And some of them are free of charge, if you're not bothered about getting a medal sent to you. Was just looking at the virtual Race to the Stones - running up to 100k over a week. Free, or option to buy a medal or shirt, or donate to charity.

My running club has been doing challenges every couple of weeks. Including the fastest mile, which is fun to find the steepest road around. And interesting to see if I am getting any quicker.

Or plenty of challenges on Strava or Garmin Connect if you want.

[Lightning Phil]

My local CTC had a club cumulative mileage over bike week. The challenge was to see how far we could get as a club.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Various kayak racing organisations are running virtual time trials.

It isn't really fair, as some people have perfect conditions, but allows for a bit of rivalry and encouragement to push myself.

Logging my times can be a bit dispiriting, as national and international champions are also taking part. Sub 20 min in training for 5km :0

[fimm]

Yes, I've done a few running ones that Scottish Athletics have organised. No cost to me as a SA member. Probably the one I enjoyed most was the relay where we had teams of 4 where 2 people ran 5km and 2 ran 10km.
Mr fimm has just finished a "Virtual West Highland Way" event - I think he paid £5 which was going to a mental heath charity. He had to do 95 miles over 9.5 days. That had a lot of support/encouragement etc going on on the Facebook page.
Neither of us particularly need the motivation to get out and exercise, but it is fun to do something different. (Actually, although I enjoy running as fast as I can, it is easier to do that with some kind of motivation behind it, so the SA challenges are good for that.)

[zigzag]

i've done a virtual half-marathon two weeks ago (nudged by a friend). for the registration fee you get a goody bag, a medal, a certificate upon completion, having your run listed on their leaderboard (one week's window to complete your challenge). if you hashtag the photos from your run, you may get additional prizes from the sponsors. participation was more popular than they expected, all around the world. they'll be running a virtual thing in parallel with the normal event in the future.

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

My work organise a Last Friday of the Month virtual 5k run - this Friday will be the third incarnation - with various moral prizes for fastest, best time against (previous) personal best, and most improved.  Clearly the ultra competitive can find routes with a substantial downhill.  I'm just happy to win the V55 category by being, you've guessed it, the only member.   

Handily a lap of my local common is (as accurately as my phone GPS will allow) 1km, which makes navigation and timing the final sprint easy.  And Map My Run gives me splits for each kilometre.