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Schedule of events.
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November 17, 2023 / 12:01 a.m. EST - Registration Opens
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January 1, 2024 / 12:01 a.m. EST - Challenge Starts
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January 7, 2024 / 11:59 p.m. EST - Registration Closes
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January 31, 2024 / 11:59 p.m. EST - Event Ends
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February 3, 2024 / AFTER-PARTY @ OVRC!
What is the Winter Virtual Challenge?
1 Month. Team or Solo.
Mileage and Vert Goals. Weekly Challenges.
Exploration. Engaging in the Community.
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Sign up with a team or solo, and go for your own distance and vert goals, with fun twists along the way each week with our unique and exciting challenges!
The SEOTR Winter Virtual Challenge is all about bringing together the community, albeit virtually, in a fun and social way. This month-long challenge will give you a platform to help explore and stay motivated during the otherwise cold and dreary winter days.
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This challenge is open to anyone, no matter where you live, by running, walking, hiking, or trekking (any foot powered mode!). You can make it as fun, difficult, or as social as you want, go at it on a team or by yourself. We hope to have a lot of fun and engage with activity on social media, with our Facebook Group and Strava Club, so feel free to participate socially as much or as little as you wish. If you want to join this challenge and stay low-key while completing the goals and challenges, that is completely up to you as well. Whatever you want from this challenge, you will get it!
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There are two parts of the SEOTR Winter Virtual Challenge:
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Overall Goals for Mileage and Elevation Gain (Vert!). Each runner and team will be able to choose their own mileage and elevation gain goals for the challenge. The challenge will compile a leaderboard for total miles and elevation gain for individuals and teams to see where they rank!
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Weekly Challenges. Each participant, whether you're on a team or solo, will also have challenges to complete each week! Stay excited and motivated with these tasks that will keep you on your feet, literally. Each challenge (3 each week for 4 weeks) will provide a hard workout, give you a reason to explore, as well as have fun twists!
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Setting Your Personal and Team Goals!
Create your own mileage and elevation gain goals and work your way up your own personalized progress meter! Teams and individuals are able to set their own mileage and elevation goals for the duration of the challenge, and see your percentage of completion in real time!
Charitable Partnership!
We're excited to support the Athens Middle School and High School Cross Country programs for this year during the SWVC Winter Challenge!
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$5.00 of EVERY entry will go directly to the team
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Participants have the ability to donate additional money to Athens XC
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One of our goals is to uplift and support local youth runners, so this year we are supporting the Athens MS and HS Cross Country teams by donating a portion of our proceeds to their teams. The youth in our community will be the runners of our future, whether it's on the trails or on the roads, so let's support them as they are in the beginning of their running career. The coaches and school has done a great job growing the program and getting more students to join the team!
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You'll see many of the Athens XC runners participate in this challenge, as they get in their winter training miles, and they may have their own challenge within this challenge! Let's support them!
Registration.
How to register as a team: ​
​*Each team member can sign up individually, but one person on a team needs to be the "Team Captain" and register first to establish a team name.
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Click "Sign Up"
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Check the "Yes" box when it asks "Would you like to join or create a Team?"
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After agreeing to the waiver, the next screen will ask you if you would like to "Join an Existing Team" or "Create a New Team".
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If you are the team captain and creating a team for the first time, you can name your team and set a password to share with your other team members.
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If you are joining an existing team you'll be able to find your team with the drop down menu or by searching the name of your team. Type in the team password if your captain created one.
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After a few more registration questions you'll arrive at check-out.
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How to register as a solo runner:
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Click "Sign Up"
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Check the "No" box when it asks "Would you like to join or create a Team?"
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Follow the rest of the registration process until you check out.
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Registering Late? Didn't hear about this event until after January 1? Don't worry, you can still participate in the Winter Virtual Challenge as registration remains open until January 10. You'll be able to backlog your mileage and vert, and we'll send you all the Weekly Challenge details when you register.
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Waiver and Insurance: This event is sanctioned through membership with the American Trail Running Association (ATRA). With this sanction, SEOTR has obtained Virtual Running Event insurance and every participant needs to initial the waiver before participating. You will be prompted to read and initial the waiver during the registration process.
*There will be no refunds, deferrals, or transfers of registration for this event.
What do you get?
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A community driven experience to keep you motivated for a full month!
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An invite into private SWVC Facebook Group and Strava Club.
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A medallion/ornament with the SWVC design on it to remember the experience.
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A chance to win prizes for overall team and solo award categories.
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A Digital Bib #.
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Digital Challenge "Badges" with unique designs for each weekly challenge.
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Digital Milestone "Badges" when you reach mileage and elevation milestones.
*All swag and material will be shipped after the event ends on January 31*
Want a SWVC Shirt?
We're making t-shirts optional for this event because we realize that not everyone wants another race event shirt to add to their collection. However, if you want to remember your winter virtual challenge experience by rocking a soft and casual SWVC t-shirt, then we have you covered. You'll have the option of adding-on a shirt when you register, or if you decide later, you can click this link and purchase one at any time during the event. Orders for shirts are accepted until January 6th.
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Long sleeve shirts are available in adult unisex sizing. Short sleeve shirts are available in youth sizes.
Design of shirt may be slightly different than shown in photos.
Awards
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In addition to each participant getting a medallion for participating in the overall mileage and vert challenge, each team and solo runners will have a chance to compete for some top overall awards as well. These will be unique hand-crafted awards that show your accomplishment! Here is a breakdown of the special category awards:
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Most Total Miles for 4-person Team
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Most Total Vert for 4-person Team
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Most Total Miles for Solo Runner M/F
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Most Total Vert for Solo Runner M/F
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Most Total Miles High School/Middle School Solo Runner
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Most Total Vert High School/Middle School Solo Runner
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Most Total Miles High School/Middle School Team
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Most Total Vert High School/Middle School Team
*NEW* The SWVC Post-Event Social Party!
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This year we're inviting you to a in-person post-event social party at Ohio Valley Running Company!
*Further Details Will Be Shared in Email*
Date: Saturday, February 3, 2024
Location: Ohio Valley Running Company, 21 Station St. Athens, Ohio 45701
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This is a virtual event, but that doesn't mean we still can't get together in person to celebrate our running accomplishments! We will host a SWVC social party at Ohio Valley Running Company once the challenge is complete.
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We'll have some light foods, drinks, and present awards and giveaways for SWVC! We'll also highlight some of the coolest completed challenges that we saw during the event! We'll live-stream the awards announcement for those not able to make it to follow along. This will also be a great time to highlight the Athens MS and HS cross country programs, that we are donating too. But mainly, we just want to get together and hangout with the community, so keep this in mind and plan to come to the post-challenge social!
How logging works.
Once you're registered and the challenge starts (January 1), you'll be able to report each day's activity by logging into your RunSignup account here: https://runsignup.com/Race/OH/Athens/SWVC
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You'll be able to access your "Participant Profile" to record your activities each day during the challenge. More detailed instructions for logging runs during the virtual challenge will be sent via email once the challenge starts.
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Share your challenge completion on our Strava Club and Facebook Group to post your fun challenge photos and selfies so everyone can see!
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As you and your team accumulate distance and vert you'll be able to track your progress in the individual or team results! Individuals that are on a team will also show up in the solo mileage and vert results. If you click your profile or team name you'll also be able to see how your progress bar for mileage and elevation gain, and see your trophy case with all the milestone badges you earn!
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Weekly challenges.
Each week there will be challenges in addition to your personal or team mileage and vert goals. Each week there will be a list of new challenges that each person will aim to complete, whether you are on a team or a solo runner. Challenges will be sent out via email on the Sunday before the next week.
The weekly challenges will aim to add some fun and excitement to each week as you work toward completing your total mileage and elevation gain goals. There will be challenges that help you explore new places, see new things, and push you to new limits! Completing the weekly challenges will help you reach your mileage and elevation goals easier!
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To show that you completed each challenge use the Strava Club and Facebook Group to share your experience! Post those fun selfies and photos to social media and be sure to tag SEOTR Events and use the hashtag #SWVC. If you're on Strava be sure to add those photos to your activity for everyone to see! We’ll be browsing through all the challenge photos and entries to choose our favorite to post to our Instagram story on a daily basis!
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Participants will receive uniquely designed "electronic badges" for each challenge so they can share it on social media or Strava.
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Complete each challenge on separate days and within the week! Once we send the upcoming week's challenges out, you have seven days to complete them!
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Be sure to bring your phone with you on runs to snap those selfies and pictures of your challenge! After that, post to the SWVC Facebook Group and Strava Club!
2024 Challenge Badges
Join the community.
After your register, be sure to join our Facebook and Strava group's to share your experiences and also be inspired by others! Post your photos, selfies, and stories about your progress.
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Facebook Group: SEOTR Winter Virtual Challenge​
Strava Club: SEOTR Winter Virtual Challenge
Be sure to tag us in those Instagram and Twitter posts as well, use #SWVC
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