The Amerithon is an amazing challenge by Run the Edge. The goal is to complete 3,521 miles (5667 km) by doing any sort of activity. Whether you are running, walking, biking, swimming, you can accumulate miles however you want. If 3,521 is too much of an intimidating number, you can complete the race with another person or a team.
“Accumulate miles by running, walking, biking, swimming, or any exercise you choose to earn all 3,521 miles. Try it solo or divide the miles with a team and earn the epic 6 piece medal! No deadline to finish.“
Run the Edge
The way it works is that once you sign up, you are shipped the medal with all its pieces as well as the extras. These include a map, a passport and stickers to mark your progress. The medal itself is huge and consists of an outline of the USA with four magnetic pieces to attach to the map after a certain amount of progress. Once you complete it, you attach the finisher shoe and boom, you have the world’s coolest medal ever!
After joining a bunch of virtual runs and challenges, Facebook started showing me ads for more and more of them! The Amerithon was one that popped up and left my jaw on the floor. Can you blame me?
The Cost
What stopped me from buying it was the $75 price tag. I’ve paid more for in-person races so it wasn’t necessarily just the price. I had already signed up for a lot of virtual races, including one to do 2020 km in 2020. So if I signed up, I couldn’t start this until 2021 and that is a long way away. I inhaled deeply and closed the tab. But I kept thinking about this medal for weeks!
A quick Google search helped me find this medal again. I was about to pay $50 for just the medal plus some extras when I decided to check out the store. Bingo, the store offered just the medal for $30! I don’t need flyover videos and I would have been fine without the passport and map. However, these were included!
Part of me wishes I had paid $75 which would have gotten me the shirt, but I have so many race shirts as it is. If I’m still drooling over one in a few months, I can always get one separately. The store offers lots of fun Amerithon items! Run the Edge also has several other races and events. Check them out if you want some running motivation!
Bonus Geography Lesson
So I was originally willing to just get the medal to save some money. This is mainly because I have spend hundreds of dollars on virtual medals already and it was getting out of hand. But I am so grateful that it came with the passport, map and sticker set. I’m not usually into the little gimmicks, but in this case, these extras make all the difference!
The map shows the suite and all the landmarks. As an immigrant to the USA, I love learning more about this country that I now live in! The passport has the same landmarks with spaces for stickers! These stickers of landmarks help mark your progress along the way. Which is a great motivation cause 3,521 divided by 4 is still 880 miles! It helps to split that up further to not get discouraged from lack of apparent progress.
Check out some other virtual runs here:
- Virtual Challenges, Real Medals: The Conqueror & Medal Mad
- Social Distancing Run: Virtual Marathon Training Academy Race
- US Road Running: Virtual Races
A great way to display your medals is with these great medal holders. Check out this one that holds over 50 medals and this one that holds less medals but has a spot for bibs too!
Gosh, such a long way to walk! Think you can do it in a year?