There are many reasons why people complete virtual races and there are many reasons that they are organized. A person could complete a virtual race because:
- They just started exercising and the race is a motivation for them
- It is their first race and they don't feel like they are ready/fast enough for a race in person
- They support the charity that is being funded by the virtual race
- They like the medal
- They cannot get to the location of the race and the race has a virtual option
Personally, I do not like virtual races. While I am a member of a group that sells virtual race medals, and I like the medals, to me, it is just buying a medal for a training run. The exceptions would be if someone bought one for me as a gift, and presented it to me after a particularly difficult run or for super long distances that cannot be done in a single run (1000 miles in a year or 2017 miles a year). I think that those are great uses for a virtual race medal.
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| The Virtual Race Medal |
So, what made me buy a virtual race medal? It was free (other than shipping so it cost $6). I really like free stuff. I also thought that I might be able to award it to one of my sons. Mark had just started cross country and Enzo had expressed an interest in all races with bling, so I thought it would be a great way to get them out and running on Global Running Day. All they had to run was a 5k and whichever child did that would get the medal. I also considered giving it to my husband since he had not been training much recently. I wanted him to get back to exercising again.
So, I ordered the medal, it arrived shortly before Global Running Day, and I was ready to award it to a worthy member of my family. We all went to the Global Running Day group run that night where Mark and Enzo didn't run at all, Nick ran about 2 miles, and I ran 5 miles. I was the only member of my family who met the requirements for the medal.... What do I do now?
I honestly did not feel like I should get a medal for a 5 mile training run, but no one else had earned it. I claimed the medal as mine, but I hesitated to place it with my race medals. To me, it wasn't a race. For about a 1 month the medal sat on my nightstand, waiting to be given, waiting for a place to be.
It wasn't until the next month, a month where I attended a race to support my oldest but couldn't afford to run it myself, when I decided to give myself the medal. The race I attended was actually a race I had done in the past. It was the Piqua Optimist 5k. I had completed it in 2011 as my 2nd 5k. For my son, it was a cross country team race. The members of the team got to run in the race for free and it was near the end of their summer conditioning so they could see how much they improved. I cheered for Mark, took pictures of him running, and tracked the results. It turns out, that if I had run I would have easily placed in my age group, probably 1st place. While I enjoyed supporting my son, I was annoyed that I had been there, I could have run, and I would have placed in this race but I didn't get the chance to do so. I know that there are many races that I do not run, where I could have placed and those don't bug me. When I am right there and miss the opportunity I do get annoyed. That was when I claimed the medal. I admit that it made me feel better about missing the race. I still don't feel like it belongs with my other medals, but it does make me feel better that I have claimed it.
Right now this medal hangs with my others. I claim it and it is mine. Will I ever get another virtual medal? I don't know. If it is a gift, I would really enjoy it. If we did something special as a family to earn it, I would be happy to keep it as a memento of what we did together. Do I hold them at the same level as my in person race medals? I don't and I don't think that they will have the same meaning to me in the future either. I still don't like virtual race medals but I will never badmouth a person who does value them because we all need our own motivation to get up and be active.
