Virtual Race: Mad Dash

Katie June 22, 2016 0 Comments

Race Title: The Mad Dash
Distance: 26.2 miles
Company: Make Yes Happen
Charity: Ryan Seacrest Foundation

This ended up being the first race I actually completed and the first medal I received.  The Mad Dash was a limited race through Make Yes Happen so it is no longer available.  Their partner races usually support a charity and have limited enrollment – which is part of the reason I am a bit behind on their races and have had to have them delay some start times for me because I buy them to make sure I get in, but don’t want to be doing too many races all at once and triple or quadruple dipping. (I draw the line at double!)  It is possible to do all the races w/ manual miles though and if you do say a 3 mile walk and have 3 races, say you did a 1 mile walk and 1 mile will be added to all 3 races and be equal to the 3 you walked.  I can’t do more than 1 mile in one go though so that’s something that I can strive for later.

This race went through the streets of New York but had no mile markers along the way.  Although the medal is the mad hatters hat, this is not a part of the Alice’s Adventures series.  It took me from April 14 – May 9 to complete this – I first started using only additional walks tracking through Run Keeper but about halfway through grew impatient and tracked it by my Jawbone Up instead.

Virtual Race: The Road To Hana

Katie June 21, 2016 0 Comments

Race Title: The Road To Hana
Distance: 59.5miles
Company: Make Yes Happen

This was the first virtual race I signed up for. It took me from April 4th through May 31 to finish.  I did what some refer to as “double dipping” and did this longer race while I was doing shorter ones as well. I am trying to stop doing this, but Make Yes Happen has so many great ones going on, some much longer than others that it’s kind of hard to stop myself.  Plus, since I counted every step I took via my Jawbone Up – some of my extra walks for other 5ks were included in this as well.  But the great thing about virtual races is you can do it however you like and while some may not want to double dip – as far as I am concerned anything to get my motivated to walk more and get my legs stronger is a good thing.

Along the way there are mile markers that show you some of the things you may see if you were actually on the Road to Hana.  Just a note – these don’t always match up exactly to the mileage you may be at – but are separated every I believe it was 6 miles.  For instance – one mentioned being the halfway point when I wasn’t yet halfway, but they are trying to have the mile markers at set distances to give you something to strive for rather than be completely accurate – which is fine with me – it was just the extra motivation I needed on some days to go a little bit further!

Virtual Race: Alice’s Adventure Part I

Katie June 14, 2016 0 Comments

Race Title: Alice’s Adventure (This is part 1 in a 6 part series)
Distance: 22.4 miles
Company: Make Yes! Happen

This was not my first race, but the first one I decided to write about. It took me 19 days to complete my 22.4 miles and I was tracking it using my Jawbone Up, so it was calculated from every step I took every day. With Make Yes Happen you can choose which device to use to track your miles or enter them manually.  So I could have just done extra walking that I tracked with Run Keeper or just put in manual miles based on time on the treadmill. (Some MYH races also allow you to add biked miles, but I don’t think that this was one of them.)

The cool thing about Make Yes Happen is that they give you images along your way so this race was through Oxford and around the Thames River thanks to Google Map views.  There were also mile markers every 3.5 or so miles which gave you some information about some of the characters from the Alice in Wonderland story – I believe the 6 of them will end up being the 6 characters in the Alice’s Adventure Series.  White Rabbit and the Cheshire Cat have been released already, with more to come in the upcoming months.  I am not signed up for them yet, but hope to be soon!

Virtual Races

Katie June 7, 2016 0 Comments

https://www.instagram.com/p/BGEiFleKrmj3eCkmAnRi9mt5jTO5FnD8ZdLR2Q0/?taken-by=concertkatie

My latest hobby is virtual races.  I’ve been trying to find the motivation to get myself to walk some more and a couple months ago I found the site “Make Yes Happen” where you can pay to enter a race and it tracks your progress either my connecting to one of your fitness apps (ie my Jawbone Up or my Runkeeper app, among others) or you manually loading in the details of your walk and it gives you images from Google Maps along your walks.  Some of them also have little pit stops along the way with extra details.  Once you finish your miles you get sent a medal in the mail for that race.

After finding MYH I was then introduced to a huge world of other virtual races.  I have to say MYH is my favorite because I like that you can’t get the medal until you are done – but I also don’t like having to wait a couple days after you finish it for it to arrive in the mail!!

Another one of my favorites that I found is Hogwarts Running Club.  These are all Harry Potter themed races.  There are 6 a year and also a challenge and the chance to be a “Perfect Prefect”  If you’re just finding out about the site now – they are on their 4th race for the year (which is a BIG one and twice as much as all the others at $50 to enter) but if you missed out on the others for this year there is a “Time Turner” event in the fall where you can catch up on what you’ve missed.  Finances permitting, I’m going for a perfect prefect status this year – though the mileage seems to be getting bigger and bigger so hopefully I can keep up! The one that was just announced will be my 2nd.

If you do a google search for Virtual Races TONS AND TONS more will show up and you’ll have to try and keep some will power to not sign up for them all.  RunDisney has recently jumped on the virtual race bandwagon with 3 “Virtual Shorts” 5Ks – all representing different parts of Mickey’s outfit.  If you sign up for all 3, you can get a 4th Mickey medal and some other swag as well.  I’m registered for this one and I’m not 100% sticking to their time line (because I have so many June races to schedule in) so I’ve technically already completed 2 of the 3 races.

There seem to be races for all fandoms – Doctor Who, LOTR, Harry Potter, Star Wars, etc.  After going crazy the first month or so signing up for everything, I am trying to scale back.  I’d like to try and do all the Disney races and all the Harry Potter races, whatever MYH strike my fancy (African Safari, yes please!) and some others as well, but have to keep in mind it’s not free and I don’t have unlimited funds.  I will try to feature some of my favorite races after I complete them on the blog in the future.

One thing to keep in mind if you want to dive into the races as well is that other than Make Yes Happen, most of these races just send you the medal as you pay. (Or on a set date after the sign up closes) so it is up to you to keep track of your miles and hold yourself accountable.  I’ve created a spreadsheet where I keep track of what races I’m registered for, what it cost me, what charities it donates to (if any) and what the dates are that are “suggested” for completion.  Then I mark off when I start it and when I finish it.  For some of you who may be more physically able than me – you can probably do a 5k in one day and not a week like it takes me so it won’t be so bad.  But considering I can barely do 1 mile in one go, they take me some time 🙂  (also some do allow you to cycle the miles if you’d prefer, which I have found to be a bit easier and I did do for 1 of my races so far!)