My (Virtual) Journey Along Hadrian’s Wall
With Covid shuttering gyms and exercise clubs, I was looking for something to keep me interested and motivated through the Fall and early Winter months. So I decided to head over to England and take a trek along Hadrian’s Wall.
From Wikipedia, Hadrian’s Wall is:
…a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the emperor Hadrian.[3] It ran from the banks of the River Tyne near the North Sea to the Solway Firth on the Irish Sea, and allowed the Roman Empire to project power some distance to the north, into the lands of the northern Ancient Britons, including the Picts.
It was a marvelous 90 mile trek through beautiful English countryside steeped in rolling hills, remains of the ancient stone walls, and…uh…livestock.
Ok, now before you start flaming me about travelling during Covid, I didn’t really go to England and I didn’t really spend the last two months walking down Hadrian’s Wall. Instead I partook in a virtual exercise challenge that transports people to places around the world.
My Virtual Mission and The Conqueror
The Hadrian’s Wall virtual challenge is part of a curated suite of challenges under The Conqueror Virtual Challenges brand. Before we talk about that, we have to talk about My Virtual Mission which is really the engine that powers this.
My Virtual Mission is a platform that people can create their own fitness challenges on, whether personal or larger like a corporate wellness program. The site allows people to track their progress and have results consolidated and posted to a website and a mobile app.
The Conqueror Virtual Challenges are curated challenges with an entry fee that is part of the new movement to bring “virtual” races/fitness competitions to the Covid quarantining masses. It brings people together in a shared experience while not sharing personal space. The Conqueror challenges run on My Virtual Mission.
Signing Up and What Do You Get For Your Money
Signing up for a Conqueror Virtual Challenge is pretty straightforward — you pick whether you want Entry + Medal ($30US) or Entry + Medal + T-Shirt ($60US). Challenges are distance based and not time based, so you can start your challenge at any time. You are also the one that determines what your time goal is. For example, I set a target of 63 days for my 90 mile Hadrian’s Wall challenge because I personally wanted to get it done before the end of the year. Once you complete the challenge you get a custom challenge medal sent to you, and if you opted for it the t-shirt/tank top.
It’s important to note that this isn’t a running challenge, its an exercise challenge. Run, walk, swim, bike…there’s multiple exercise types that can be used to apply miles towards your fitness goal. For my challenge I only counted running and rucking miles and ignored general walking because I wanted this to be a push to improve my heart health and keep me in running shape. You do whatever works best for you and your fitness interests.
You also have a choice to do this solo or as part of a team. Going solo allows you to plug in to the greater challenge community that’s also participating, and you have total control over how much information you want to share within the platform. Looking at the leaderboard I personally felt some people were a little too open with sharing with strangers, but that’s a general internet comfort thing for every individual. Putting together a team and having your own team page is a great way to build in a fitness challenge with people you know and trust though, and I’m going to look at that for one of my next challenges.
During the challenge there’s a few features meant to help give you that “virtual” experience. On the website and the mobile app you can view your interactive progress map, which is the virtual route on Google Maps. It’s a neat way to connect the miles you put in to the miles at the actual place.
At certain progress points you’ll also get virtual postcards which honestly were a little hokey and yet I looked forward to seeing them.
While the mobile app says it can integrate with various fitness apps and devices, it was easiest for me to just enter in miles and exercise type directly into the web or mobile app.
They also plant a real tree every 20% of your challenge completion, which is nice but I mean I’m not running to plant a forest. Still its a nice nod to being socially conscious.
Planning My Next Challenges
I’m already looking at what challenge I want to do next. Personally I find the structure of the challenge (managing my effort between defined start/end dates and a set distance) to be a great motivator, as is putting money down on something; $30US got me motivated to run/ruck 90 miles in just over 2 months, that’s money well spent. The gamification aspects are really great and make the everyday effort of exercising something a bit more than it is.
For the shorter distances I’m ok doing that solo but making them stretch goals. Giza Pyramids is 46 miles…can I do that in 23 days (2 miles a day running), or in under 16 days (3 miles a day running)?
For the longer distances I’d like to get a team together and have it be more of a group effort — not a race but more an encouragement group to get healthier. It would be fun to do some sport-specific ones as well. For instance in Summer doing a bike-only challenge for some of the longer courses like Iceland’s Ring Road (828 miles) or Length of the UK (1083 miles). There’s also some really long challenges like the Appalachian Trail (1968 miles) or Route 66 (2280 miles, which is like running 6 miles/10kms a day for a whole year).
In Conclusion…
So to summarize:
- Great gamification platform for encouraging regular fitness and not just running
- Social interaction available for those needing support/motivation, gamification hooks for those who are goal oriented
- Cost is reasonable for what you get in the platform and perks
- Great flexibility to do solo or group challenges
Definitely thinking Giza Pyramids for the next one…
