The Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee 1000K - Let's do it

Day 1

Sometimes a challenge comes along at the perfect time and you just have to do it. No hesitation. No looking back. Just jump in with two feet and BAM! You're in. Throw in two months of quarantine from a global pandemic and mix it with the back end of a midlife crisis and you’ve got yourself a guy that would say yes to just about anything.

Thankfully, The Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee 1000K found me before someone trying to make me a good deal on a Winnebago could. 

Apparently, there are many more people like me hungry to virtually get out there. Nearly 10,000 crazies are signed up for this thing, including my wife (it was actually her idea to sign up first) and most of my running buddies.

The Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee 1000K is a name that almost makes further description not necessary. It’s a 621-mile run from the southwest corner of Tennessee all the way over to the far eastern tip of the long, skinny state, and those of us that fell for it are running it – virtually.

The miles are real, but where they’re run is not.

In actuality, I’ll just be running big circles, small circles, and probably some out and backs, around and through the heart of my home suburb of Brentwood with all the comforts of food from my own refrigerator, cool air from the AC and the softness of my own bed.

Plus, I'll be able to keep my job. Also key. 

The only real rule to this thing is that you can’t count steps to the bathroom and across the house and whatnot. The miles have to be actual miles running or intentionally walking.

At the end of each day, racers record their miles and chart their virtual progress across the state. The race started today – May 1 and ends on August 31.

Mathematically, they say 5 miles per day will get you across the finish line by August 31. Don't get me wrong. Five miles per day from May 1 to August 31 is a challenge in itself, but I’m hoping to do it faster than that. The plan is to treat this like a real race and try to cover as much ground as I can in as few days as I can.

Today, in order to prove to myself that I am serious about this – because I am – I ran 10.1 miles. A long way for a regular weekday run, but not very far when you’re trying to cross the Volunteer State.

I’m not even to Memphis yet. In fact, I’m not even in Tennessee – what?

It turns out, to run all the way across Tennessee, from furthest point, to furthest point, you have to go through Arkansas. Who would have thunk? Not this guy.

See? I already learned something.