Ideas for hosting a virtual 5k viewing party?

August 10, 2020 1:43 AM

I live on a the route of a popular annual road race. It has become a tradition to host a party for watchers and runners. I'm anticipating that it will be canceled because of COVID-19, or severely limited. After seeing many ads for virtual 5ks, I'm wondering how I can plan a virtual party.

Obviously the virtual party part could be done easily enough over Zoom or Hangouts, but I want runners to be able to join somehow (I'm imagining them doing equivalent runs around their neighborhoods or something). Could Facebook be helpful - I think everyone I usually invite is on there.

posted by Shadow Boxer to Technology (2 answers total)

Firstly, I'd wait and find out what the event organisers do - if they have to cancel the 5K, they may well decide to do a virtual version, so that takes care of that. Even if they don't do that, you should check in with them that they don't mind you organising something that replaces their event. Even if they're not holding it - maybe they'll end up holding it in a few months and don't want you stealing their thunder by replacing it with something else, however light-hearted. Race organisers are losing money hand over fist at the moment, so might feel protective over their events.

If you do decide to set up a virtual 5K, There are forums like OpenTrack which you can use to set up virtual events, but that might be overengineering things.

A simpler version is to set up a facebook event, ask everyone who wants to participate in the run to run, then post a photo of themselves during or after their run on the events page (and/or if you want, a screenshot of their Garmin/Runkeeper/Strava/whatever so people can see their route and times). You could then have a prizegiving during your Zoom party, though you probably can't offer anything too serious, or take the competition element too seriously, because some people will run downhill all the way, some will run easy loops, etc.

Alternatively you can do something much less distance/time oriented and more fun - I work for a running organisation and during lockdown a lot of our groups were doing things like scavenger hunts - you challenge people to find something beginning with specific letters while out for their solo run, photograph them, post them on social media and give prizes for the most imaginative.

One consideration is whether you want people to do their runs in their own time or all at a specific time so that as they come back at the end, they log onto the Zoom party while still all sweaty and happy. Then you need to think about where the runners are likely to live - is it a local race with everyone in the same area? In that case they need to be able to run at whatever time they want, otherwise if you tell everyone to go run their 5K close to their home at 7pm, you're going to be unleashing crowds of runners onto the streets at once - even if they all start at their own homes, you're increasing the number of people out and about significantly.

Asking for entry donations to charity is a good way to motivate people to take part rather than signing up and then thinking they can't be bothered on the day - if they've already parted for some money connected to the event they're likely to feel more committed.
posted by penguin pie at 3:27 AM on August 10, 2020 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Just to clarify, this would be very small party, probably about 30 friends and family in total. I'm definitely not looking to replace the event - it's huge.

I'm definitely looking at what the race organizers do - nothing has been announced yet since it's a few months a way - and I'll plan around that. 3

I like the ideas for a scavenger hunt and charity donations!
posted by Shadow Boxer at 4:05 AM on August 10, 2020