RIVER•X CHALLENGE — VIRTUAL

Run, or bike, or run and bike over the distance of the Maumee River, past all 10 of the named tributaries that empty into it to complete the 137 mile River•X Challenge.

The goal of this virtual event is to get you outside and active daily, while maintaining social distancing guidelines. Some days you may complete more miles than others, but try to do something each day and submit it to the results to track.

You can log miles anywhere you want from June 1st to June 30th, and we'll track you over the course along the Maumee River. Finish your miles at your own pace and publish each leg after you complete it to display in the results and tally at the finish.

RUN OPTION • 137 MILES

Start virtually, where the St. Joseph River and St. Mary River merge into each other to form the Maumee River and finish your trek on the shores of Lake Erie. Any miles you accumulated during fitness activities (legs) can count toward this virtual challenge. To complete the Run Challenge over the thirty days, you’ll cover an average of 4.57 miles per day.

BIKE OPTION • 274 MILES

Follow the same route as the runners, but when you reach Lake Erie, turn around and head back to finish at the headwaters at the St. Joseph River to complete 274 miles in total. Miles you complete on an indoor trainer can count for your total. To complete the Bike Challenge over the thirty days, you’ll cover an average of 9.13 miles per day.

DUATHLON OPTION • 411 MILES

Complete the run and bike events over this timespan and you'll have completed the River•X Mega Challenge. To complete the Duathlon Challenge over the thirty days, you’ll cover an average of 13.7 miles per day.

CHALLENGE PERKS 

• Gender Specific Design Tech-Shirt
• Unique Finisher Medals (duathlon receives both medals)
• Social Distancing Neck Gaiter/Face Mask
• Travel Size Hand Sanitizer
• Personalized, Printable Race BIB
• Commemorative Finisher Certificate
• Facebook Event for Peer Encouragement
• *Email/Text Message Prompts and Event Information

HOW DO I GET MY PERKS?

Race perks will be available for pickup at the Sylvania Dave’s Running Shop, or mailed at an additional fee. All registrants will receive notification once these dates and times are scheduled.

Why twice as long for the bike challenge? It takes about 2.5 times less to get somewhere on a bike than while running. We only doubled the distance to make up for this. 137 miles just isn’t far enough on a bike to get the cool swag and consider it a challenge.

For those of you who are into mapping your route, you will not find a 137 mile road route from the source river to the mouth of the lake. The 137 miles here are river miles. Road mapping will give you around 111, and that’s just too many ones. Periodically during the month we will be sharing information about the Maumee River region, so be careful, you might accidentally learn something new while you are sweating.

Any miles you accumulated during run/walk/bike activities (legs) can count toward this virtual challenge. Miles accumulated through normal, daily activity should not be counted toward your total. So, those steps taken when walking to your couch to your freezer to get a Klondike Bar should not be submitted. Riding your bike down the street to a neighbor's socially-distant fire pit and cocktail party doesn’t count either.

You can submit multiple activities each day. Be sure to enter a daily total in the results, so they tally. For example, if you go out for a 5 mile run in the morning, then take the dog on a 2 mile walk later in the day, then cover 1 mile mowing the lawn, you would only enter 5 or 7 miles as your daily total. This challenge is aimed at fitness-specific activities. 

A detailed email with complete instructions for logging miles and tracking your progress will be sent prior to the start of the event.

*Registrants must opt-in to notifications during registration in order to receive result submission prompts and historical information that will be supplementing the challenge.