I ran a Groundhog Day 5K on Monday, and I did rather well.
My time was decent, one of my fastest in quite a while. I felt good before and after.
I even got a medal.
Now, I’m not sure what place I finished. I know I didn’t win, because a few people have finished in front of me. I know I wasn’t dead last, because several have finished behind me. But I don’t know the exact place, because some people are still running. Not because they’re slow, mind you, but because they haven’t started.
You see, this was a virtual race. It didn’t have an official starting time, or a starting line, or a finish line. I just started running and kept going until I clocked off 3.1 miles.
What, you might ask, is a virtual race?
Well, U.S. Road Running, a website that puts on such races year round and claims a trademark on the term “Virtual Race,” has this to say:
“It is a race that can be run/walked any time, any place or any location. … You can use the treadmill, run outside, your own course, another race, or get your running group together. You can run the event any day, any time, or any place you want.”
The last time I checked the site, some 750 people around the country had signed up for the Groundhog Day 5K, 10K, or half marathon. Fewer than 150 had posted results on Monday, the day before the holiday.
That’s what you do: Sign up, send in your money, run the race, take a picture, and post your time. The medal and runner’s bib come in the mail. You’re on the honor system, so you can keep and wear the medal even if you don’t actually run the distance. But knowing runners, I doubt many would do that. What would be the point?
The purpose of the races is to enjoy yourself.
“I just ran a Lord of the Rings virtual race from The Shire to Rivendell,” said Kristie Lomas Absalon, who really lives in Cincinnati and runs with the Queen City Running Club, not a group of hobbits and elves.
“Pretty fun. Each time you log your miles in you see a picture of your path — basically the presumed path (from the movies) filmed in New Zealand. After completing my miles I received a medal, which was cool, and a small velvet bag with — you guessed it — the one ring that rules them all. It’s scripted with old elvish and all.”
Others do it for the stuff you get, and the motivation it can provide. That’s why Emily Leising of Independence ran Beat the Blerch, which organizes 5K, 10K, and half marathon races, both real and virtual.
I did it “mostly because I wanted the race swag and the shirt,” she said. “I used the distance to make a training run for my first 50K.”
The Blerch is a creation of runner and cartoonist Matthew Inman, who does The Oatmeal online comic.
It advertises its virtual runs by telling you to “run anywhere you want. Run on the moon if you want. We won’t stop you.”
It seems many organizations are putting on virtual races.
One that uses the online name Virtual Running Club provided one of the best ever — the Pi Day 5K, held last year on March 14. I did that run, and deliberately started it in the late morning, so my running stats would show I took off at 3/14/15 at 9:26, or 3.1415926.
Others have argued that the best swag came from a movie theme.
“I did one for ‘A Christmas Story’ for the swag: race shirt and leg-lamp medal.” said Mark Regensburger of Elsmere, who coaches marathon runners at the House of Run N Tri in Cincinnati.
Jenna Rahrig has taken the concept to a real race — the Miles for Matthew 5K. The race takes place in April in Hamilton, Ohio, and raises money for juvenile diabetes research, in memory of Rahrig’s nephew, Matthew Jester.
“We added that option this year,” said Rahrig, a member of the Runners’ Club of Greater Cincinnati. “We are a non-profit run/walk. … I wanted an option for out-of-towners to be able to participate and help with our event fundraising.”
Paul Long writes weekly for the NKyTribune about running and runners. For his daily running stories, follow him at dailymile.com or on Twitter @Pogue57