You're virtually famous!

So yesterday, I thought it would be clever and fun to host a virtual run and if I could get it together, a local run. It even had it's own hashtag on twitter, '#virtualrun' (not my own original tag but it works right?). I wanted to get a group together for National Running day, which inexplicably I was only made aware of 3 days before. For shame!

At the last minute, I was able to get the tag used about 10 times during the day, 8 of which I think were me. I've learned to hedge my expectations with social media, particularly with the last minute planning I tend to try and put together. I'd consider this relatively successful for what it was. Now, I'd like to make it a regular thing.

First things first though, lets check and see who I, nay, WE ran with:

Twitter:
@thebeerrunner (because I know he runs every day, I'm including him ;) Check out his blog too!
@dwalsh76 (ditto the beer runner, Dan also runs every day)
@jaredtfriesen (every day runner as well) He's got a blog too!
@mikew30 (everyday runner also!)
@Carnator (former colleague and friend)
@sfgirl (fellow bay area resident, twitter friend)
@caliburn (new twitter friend!)
@therunningdetectiv (new twitter friend!)
@ksmoola1 (new twitter friend!)

Facebook:
Rebecca (my sis, an everyday runner, check out her hand made gift shop, great stuff!)
Nova (met on the interwebs 13 years ago, friends ever since!)
Troy (friend from WAY back in high school)
Christi (friend from Portland)
Lisa (friend from Portland)
Jerry (friend from Portland)
Daniel (friend and former colleague from Portland)
Phil (friend of Lisa on Facebook)

In my hood:
Faisal (A Runners Mind employee, great runner, and friend)

Even though some of these folks ran with me passively, I like that we had nearly 20 runners in the virtual run! I only know of two folks who joined in the craft beer #virtualbeertoast but that's ok, I'm sure there will be plenty more next time!

Why did I want a virtual run? I don't know. It seems like the more people I'm involved with running, the more motivated I am to run, be creative, be social, and encourage other folks to get out and burn some calories.

To that end, I hope to plan virtual run events once a month, with an optional craft beer toast when you're done. In addition, I'd like to get folks together locally to run. How would this work? Well, I'll post more details in a separate blog soon, but my thoughts are this:

Once a month, making the weekend 3 days to maximize participation, we use the hashtag #virtualfunrun or something similar, as well as #postruntoast if you're celebrating your run with a craft beer. Pretty simple right? On Monday or Tuesday, I'll use a tool like Storify to collate the events of the weekend and share it via social media. Invite new people each month, promote it via your social media and we can get more and more folks out running, walking, hiking, anything to get out and exercise.

Running has been such a great experience for me mentally, physically, socially, really in every way that I want to share it with people. If you told me last year at this time that I'd have finished 5 1/2 marathons and ran one in 1:37 while running every day I would have most definitely thought you were nuts.

This is an example of the place running can take you and friends you can make so get on board and bring your friends!