I almost didn’t participate in the virtual Vienna Night Run this year (2020). It should be my first virtual run ever.
Normally, the years before Covid-19, the Vienna Night Run took place at the Vienna Ringstraße.
Due to Corona and all the restriction event managers have to follow, the running event was changed to a virtual event.
Why I almost didn’t participate
The virtual Vienna Night Run was open for participation between the 22nd and 30th of September.
As you can read in my article about the Mammutmarsch Wien 2020 100km, I hurt my foot.
As such, my foot still hurt when I was supposed to start my personal virtual Vienna Night Run.
In the end, I waited till the last possible day and did run the 5km.
Vienna Night Run at daytime
Since this running event was virtual, every participant could choose on their own, at which time to start during the given timeframe, between the 22nd and 30th of September, and where to run the 5 kilometers.
As mentioned above, I decided to wait till the last possible starting point.
Therefore, I did my 5km run on the 30th of September in the morning. My foot still hurt, but that shouldn’t stop me from taking part in my first virtual run.
Giving up is not part of my mindset. It was bad enough not to run several times during the virtual run week and then choose from the different results and only submit the best time.
For the 5km run, I did choose the running track I usually run on all my other training.
Because I’m very familiar with this route, there were no unforeseeable surprises, so it was a smooth run.
The running track where I regularly run is located in the 17. district of Vienna. It starts on the Alszeile and leads to the direction of Neuwaldegg. When I do 10km runs, it even goes through the Schwarzenbergallee.
It is really nice to run there. The first half on this track goes slightly uphill, and therefore when you are running the second half, or back to where you started, it goes all the way slightly downhill.
The final result of my first virtual run
My goal was to finish the 5km run within 23 minutes or less. This time, I didn’t achieve it, but I’m still happy that I participated in the run.
Since I was out of my normal training routine, I could only run the 5km distance in exactly 25 minutes. It’s still a passable result, but not what I was aiming for. Next time will be better again 🏃♂️.
After the run, I submitted my result on the official online platform from the running event organizer. This was quite easy. I had to upload a screenshot from my favorite running app as proof of my participation. As such, I took the screenshot from my Garmin app and uploaded it.
As you can see below, I achieved the 286 place at the virtual Vienna Night Run this year.
That’s still quite okay, in my opinion.
Next year again?
Let’s see what happens next year. I think if there will be a non-virtual Vienna Night Run next year, I will again participate. If it’s virtual, I don’t know if I will join the event.
If you are interested in which other running events I attended in 2020, you can find them and a short history of my other attendances on past events in this blog article.
You are curious why I share this experience with you, no problem. You can get a hint here.
If you want to know more about me or even get in contact with me, you can find more info on my contact page.