Monday, January 5, 2009

Virtual Run Across America

The Virtual Run Across America is a blog and running concept that I recently found as the result of one of the followers of my blog (Nikemom), who is the organizer. It's a pretty cool idea.

Basically, you "sign up" to run across America, but you do it "virtually." A route will be posted every so often on the site, with mileage and even a link to maps if you want to see the "route" you are running. You do your own running, at your own pace, wherever you are and post comments to inform the group of how many miles you have run. For every one mile you actually run, you will have run 10 "virtual" miles. So a real 6 mile run will get you 60 "virtual" miles along the designated route.

"Goals may be personal obstacles, increasing pace, adding another marathon to your endeavors, etc. This is your run. You make it what you need to so you become who and what you are meant to be." Whatever your interest in participating is fine, according to Nikemom. All are welcome. Here is another snippet from the site:
Our goal is to have fun, explore and enjoy the journey.

* Anybody from Anywhere can participate.
* All kinds of running apparatus and gear is encouraged and welcome.
* You can run as many or as few miles as you would like and still be considered a participant.
* Routes will be posted for all to see via MapQuest.
* Routes will be plotted and shared by participants.
* Each one mile = ten miles. i.e. 100 miles would be 10 actual miles run by you.
* Pictures, comments and race reports are encouraged and welcome.
* Any VRAA participant who plots a piece of the journey can be an author to the VRAA Blog.
* We will journey one state at a time.
* The shortest or the longest or the crookedest route is welcome - who knows what we may encounter.
* Recruiting runners is encouraged.
* Purchasing new running gear to complete the journey is at your discretion.
* The option of a participant T-Shirt still exists.
* SAG is your responsibility.
* All participants participate at their own risk.
* Any injuries resulting from the VRAA is the runner's responsibility.
* Take good care of yourself. Eat healthy and drink plenty of H20.
* All participants will have a link on the sidebar with their picture and their blog addy.

Need a little extra motivation to get out the door. Or do you have a running route you want to share or boast about? Join the group and submit it for the run. Before you know it you'll have a bunch of other people "running" it with you! How cool is that?!? I'm thinking of a few out my way that may be good for the end of the journey - which is just down the road from me in Carmel, California.

4 comments:

TonyP said...

Pretty cool site and concept.

Peter Lubbers said...

Yes, I saw that too, but did not realize you get 10 virtual miles per mile. That makes it a little faster. Maybe I'll sign up, too.

Andy B. said...

Yeah, the miles pile up pretty quick at a 10:1 ratio. I'm going to map out a couple runs in my area here in the Monterey Bay area.

Anthony: Maybe you could put something together in the NY/NJ area if you decide to sign on.

Peter: Would love to "run" some of your Tahoe trails with ya! Maybe a jaunt on the TRT?

Peter Lubbers said...

Sounds good, Andy. Snowshoes required this time of the year, but hopefully it will be runnable again in late Spring.