As the COVID-19 pandemic disrupts events worldwide, virtual fitness challenges are seeing an unprecedented spike in popularity. Whether participation is motivated by establishing fitness routines, training for athletics, rehabilitating injuries, or altruistic fundraising efforts, virtual fitness challenges allow people to 'race' each other by completing specific race distances on their own time, in their chosen location, sometimes using their choice of exercise (e.g. walking, running, biking). Times and/or distances are generally submitted to the sponsoring organization's website for tracking and/or ranking participants. Some popular platforms offer longer distance challenges that mimic real places (e.g. the Grand Canyon, Hadrian’s Wall, etc.) and take considerable time to complete. These challenges allow participants to 'see' where they are along the race route using Google maps and street-view technology. Anecdotal evidence suggests that many participants enjoy the virtual travel and geographic components of the events’ online platforms. While online fitness challenges remain increasingly popular they have received little scholarly attention. This study explored the role of place, travel, and motivation in virtual fitness challenges offered by one of the most popular platforms, My Virtual Mission. Content analysis was conducted using social media posts to the organization’s group page. Data revealed people were motivated by the virtual travel and mapped movement aspects of the platform. Further, engagement in such challenges acted as both a proxy for travel and a means of negotiating constraints associated with injury, pain management, and quarantine/social distancing restrictions. Additional findings, conclusions, implications of, and directions for future research will be discussed.
