California Coast 500 Mile Challenge.

The California Coast was a virtual challenge with choices to run 100, 250, 400 or 500 (or relay team) miles along the coast from Santa Monica to San Francisco. The race started in June and was to be completed by September.

I registered for the 500 mile distance. This gave me access to a third party app called PWR Lab to sync results from my Garmin. I was also given access to a FB group. Weekly emails were sent with challenges. A cotton short sleeve t-shirt and finishers medal were part of registration. 5% of every dollar spent went to partner organizations.

I would be logging walking and running miles using PWR Lab, however I had to set my watch to the run setting for the miles to sync. (Later I just edited the entry in my Garmin to walk.) There was also the option to manually enter your miles, but this option would not allow for your stats to be verified. Once I was familiar with the app it was cool to see where you stood with the competition, including an up to date map. *I preferred the syncing so I didn't have to remember to log my miles.

The weekly challenges were the best part as they made it more than just logging miles. These challenges consisted of logging miles before sunrise, 3 times a week, or bettering your weekly totals. They also came with a chance at a prize - including shoes! These challenges also provided a tool kit with badges to add to social media images.

Also as part of the weekly challenge emails were general updates and information about the towns you ran through when you hit that distance. When you went through a Bay it would tell you about that area.

The race deadline was extended an extra week due to the CA wildfires. With the walking, I completed the challenge early in August. My miles were not showing as additional miles in PWR Lab, but were still be counted in the weekly challenges. I had over 700 miles in this time frame - many due to another challenge at the same time, but also due to pushing myself with the weekly challenges.

The posts in the FB group were motivational and important information was not lost in the shuffle as it came in an email.

The wooden medal will arrive when the challenge is over, it looks to be cool.