Year of the Virtual Race Update

We are almost done with 2024. There are 16 remaining days left of 2024. 2 full weeks and 2 days left. In September 2023 I dubbed 2024 as the year of the virtual races. Boy has it been quite the year of virtual races. I have completed several full marathons, 2 of the longest races, and quite a few virtual 5Ks on the rowing machine. I have also complete 3 in person races, one of which was a 5K. There was supposed to be another 5K but I chickened out. I walked the one and only in person 5K that I did. Had Wyatt and I gone to the turkey trot last month I would have walked that as well. We do have one more in person 5K but it’s not until March 2025. One of the reasons why I chickened out of the turkey trot 5K was because of the weather. When I got up it was raining and the weather people were predicting storms and some of them were supposed to be severe. The weather turned out to be nice and it didn’t storm and the rain never got heavy. I missed out on an opportunity to attempt to beat my previous time. The area was a lot flatter and on pavement. I did about a week and a half of walking which therefore had me completing 2 separate virtual races. A part of me does regret not going to the turkey trot 5K and if I could rewind time I would totally go back to thanksgiving and complete the race. The shirts are cute and so are the Christmas ornaments. With all of the virtual races I completed this year I needed a second 5 ring binder, another packet of sheet protectors and 2 more medal hangers. I am going to need another one soon as I have enough space 16 more medals.

At some point at the end of last year to beginning of this year I decided that not every race that has the 1 mile, 5K, 10K, 13.1 miles, and 26.2 miles should be a full marathon, or 26.2 miles, because there were a couple of the medals that I had gotten in the mystery box that I would not have picked out personally due to the aesthetics and I didn’t want to hang them up on the wall for the full marathon.  I am not physically fit enough to do a half or a full marathon from start to finish in one day. I am fully aware of that and I am trying to become fitter and to get to more of a healthy weight. So I take the full marathons one walk, one mile and one step at a time spread out over several days and weeks to months. I used the 2 I personally didn’t like as a 1 mile walk and just be done with them. After that I decided to start doing one 5K on the rowing machine a week for every week that the kids have school. During school breaks I don’t get on the rowing machine. Wyatt doesn’t always sleep in in the mornings and it’s hard to get up before he does and get anything done. This week I will get one last one in before the kids go on winter break. I’ll probably do it on Tuesday or Wednesday because Elijah has an appointment on Monday and both kids have an appointment on Thursday and Friday is a half day and I plan on going grocery shopping for Christmas dinner and winter break. I will go live either Tuesday or Wednesday in my Facebook group with the kids school calendar and plan out the weekly 5Ks on the rowing machine once the kids go back to school in January. I am almost positive I have enough virtual races to do a weekly 5K on the rowing machine before the kids get out of school at the end of May. In total I have completed 60 virtual races since July 6th, 2023. 8 of them were sticker races that I still have not figured out how to display them.  I have 1 more sticker race to complete and I am waiting for Lyndsay to come down so we can walk a mile together. I ended up with 2 of them because I had ordered one and then I had ordered all of them as a bundle. It was cheaper that way. 

Speaking of Lyndsay. She started ordering virtual races and has completed a bunch of them. For her birthday I sent her a late birthday present and part of it was more virtual races. This year Virtual Run Events added sticker sheets that match the races. There were some mix ups and I ended up with the races instead of the stickers. I also ordered another mystery box and it had races that I already had. So all of those races I sent to Lyndsay. I also sent the 2 that I had ordered specifically for her. I am excited to do the one sticker race with her. I am not sorry that I got her addicted to the virtual races like I am addicted to them. It's something to get you moving. Movement is good.

The 5Ks on the rowing machine started in February. Some of the earlier ones were because they were a specific distance from 2.2 miles to 4 miles. While I can walk over 2 miles I wanted a goal on the rowing machine. After the first few that I completed I decided to make it a weekly thing on the rowing machine. 4 miles is the longest distance on the rowing machine. The 5K on the rowing machine that I was going to complete last week didn’t have the 5K option to circle so I went with another one. On that one was 1 mile, 10K, 100K and 100 miles. I don’t know if I will do the 10K on the rowing machine at the end of the school year and see how long it takes me to do that or just walk a mile. I’m not really concerned about doing the longer distances on that one. I have a few that go up to 100 miles. The kids are about halfway thru the school year so I have plenty of opportunities to complete more 5Ks on the rowing machine. Once I am done with all of the 5K virtual races then I’ll get on the rowing machine for about 30 minutes and see how far I can go and add it to the zodiak series races that I have. I am almost done rowing the Libra one. I have one for each of the boys that I am going to do next. 

The two longest virtual races I have completed are the 2023 Year of the Rabbit and the 2024 year of the Dragon. Once I have the money I am going to get the 2025 Year of the Snake. I am also going to sign up for the 2025 Full Moon Challenge. I am going to get other races as I get the money and use them for 5Ks and marathons.

The 2024 Mission to the Moon year long challenge is coming to an end in 16 days. My goal was to complete 1500 miles for the year but between my daily totals and all of the times I have been on the rowing machine I am going to be a little short. I have done a little over 1191.21 miles as of November 30th. I’ve been updating at the beginning of the next month. I would need to do 308.79 miles this month to get my 1500 which I don’t see happening. There’s somebody who has over 4,000 miles for the year. It makes me wonder what they are doing to get all of those miles. Maybe someday I will get that many miles in one year.