Disclaimer: I received an entry to the California Coast 500 Virtual Race to review as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!

During these Covid-19/Quarantine times most if not all road races have been canceled or postponed so the closest thing to racing is virtual races. I have done a couple virtual races this summer, including a marathon where I ran on the treadmill. I actually used my treadmill marathon miles for this multi month challenge.

We originally had from June 8th to September 7th but the race was extended and extra week due to the wildfires that are currently burning in Los Angeles. I thought I would finish the race faster than I did but I had a few low mileage weeks in the middle of this challenge that slowed me down a little bit. Plus I needed some recovery after that treadmill marathon

This virtual race was a bit different than others I have been participating in this summer because they had a lot of mini challenges along the way to win great prizes like Hoka shoes or gift cards for different online athletic equipment stores. Some examples of the challenges was to log early miles for the early bird badge and chance to win stuff and some weeks it was to log later in the evening miles for a night owl badge. There was even a challenge to make it your highest mileage week ever, I didn’t get that badge unfortunately. I did end up knowing someone who won a pair of shoes from this race so that was pretty cool.

I was very motivated while running this race series because it kept me hoping to win prizes and I could see the leader board within my team to see if I was falling behind too much or staying steady with the others who were in the 500 mile challenge. Other teammates were doing other mileage challenges and I could see their progress as well. I think about 4 of my teammates were in the 500 mile challenge. I choose the highest mileage challenge because lately I have been running at least 200 mile months and figured I would be able to complete the challenge in plenty of time. Sometimes I used my competitive side and would check other teammates mileage to try to get even or ahead of in the challenge but overall I think in the bibrave team I was 3rd place in the 500 mile challenge.

This was my favorite virtual race I have done this year because of all the mini challenges and ease of adding mileage. I do wish that it could’ve added my miles directly from Strava but that was not an option this year. Even if we are out of the Covid/Quarantine times next year I think I will still sign up for this race because I was a fun way to stay motivated through the summer and I kept with my over 150 mile streak through this challenge also. There was one day that I didn’t think I would keep my streak and actually had to run a mile inside the house from running back and forth from a room to get in that mile.

Plus I have always wanted to drive/travel up the coast of California from southern to northern California so this was a virtual way of doing it through my running. One day I plan on doing a road trip up the coast and seeing the places that I learned about through all the emails from the Run Local race company. It was a learning experience as well as a run challenge, very cool.

I am looking forward to receive my handmade wooden race medal from this race, about a month ago I received the race shirt. I like how it shows and tells the milestones with the mileage and the cities that we traveled through along the way.