I’ve joined a number of virtual events over the past couple of years, the most recent of which i wasn’t able to finish because of my leg injury. But now that I have the all-clear to run, that was a sign that I could join virtual runs again.
The first event I thought of was the 7-Eleven Run. It’s always been been held annually, and last year they turned virtual. It was the final few days of registration when I started looking into it.
One of the main motivators to sign up for the 7-Eleven Virtual Run was that because of my fully-vaccinated status, registration was practically free* (with a 100-peso purchase from 7-Eleven of the category sponsored product).
The next motivator was the charity and giving back to the community aspect, since 7-Eleven has guaranteed to give frontliners a total of two million pesos’ worth of CLIQQ credits (good as cash in 7-Eleven branches). Frontliners have pretty much kept the country and the economy running; they’ve been risking their lives being exposed when we can stay at home and safe.
Another reason I signed up is: after rehabbing my knee and not really running much, I finally weighed myself again and found that I had gained 10 pounds. 🙁 On top of that, my digital scale tells me the weight gain was not muscle; it was fat.
So I’m doing this virtual run for myself, trying to get healthier. I do not want to be this heavy; it’s bad for my heart because the heart has to pump harder, it’s bad for my joints because the additional weight is going to put additional stress on them… and it’s bad for my clothing budget because if I gain any more weight I’ll need to buy new clothes.
My goal is to run a cumulative distance of 16 kilometers during the event period from November 7 to 30. I love cumulative virtual runs because you can just pick away at the target distance; you don’t have to do it in one fell swoop!
While 16 kilometers (10 miles) doesn’t sound like much, for someone coming back from injury and trying to be cautious it’s a good goal to help me run consistently; it’s also the distance I felt confident I could finish even if I ended up experiencing any setbacks from my injury. At this point, I’m only capable of run/walking 5 kilometers in an hour, which is a far cry from what I used to do.
Hopefully with the improvement in our COVID situation here in the country we’ll be able to hold some in-person events towards the end of next year. In any case the virtual runs have been such a great help because at least we have some sort of goal to reach toward and also feel like we’re actually helping do something for the community.
