VIRA Island Race Series Hatley Castle 8k Virtual Challenge 2021

There are still a few days left for us to complete the VIRA Island Race Series Hatley Castle 8k Virtual Challenge.

Therefore, if you haven’t already done so, you should definitely do it as soon as possible because you only have until February 24th to upload your submission.

The challenge is as follows:

A. Run challenge: Run an 8K route, which has at least 75% of trail on it.

B. Photo challenge: Take a selfie in front of a sign, building, or road that has a Royal connection.

So far, from what I’ve seen, this challenge has been fairly straightforward.

The trail that you choose to include in your virtual run is entirely up to you. There are some trails near the Royal Roads University, on Lochside, around Swan Lake and around Beaver/Elk Lake to name a few (if you are in Victoria).

You do not have to do your photo and your run challenge on the same day.

As for the photo challenge, I’m loving all the photos that are currently posted on the VIRA-Island Race Series Facebook page. Everyone is super creative and inspiring, which is awesome!! 🙂

Here’s how mine went down:

Run Challenge Overview

In an effort to not drive anywhere for any of these challenges this year, I have to look at what I have near my place and work with that. Luckily, the Swan Lake trails are not far away from my place and I was able to get out there.

I ran the first 2km on the paved Galloping Goose/Lochside trail and then turned off to do the loop around Swan Lake. I had to walk a bunch because there were a quite a few puddles and I didn’t realize how popular this area was with walkers (and, of course, socially distancing myself from them).

By the time I finished the loop, I realized that I had to go a bit further to hit 8k. Since I did 2km on paved road, I had to do 6k on the trail (to make it 75% trail). With that in mind, I got creative and ended up doing a bunch of hill repeats on the trail until I hit 8k.

Then, of course, I was still 2km away from my place, which is why my total running distance was 10k. I believe that for these challenges, it’s OK for me to go longer, as long as I don’t go shorter.

I averaged just under 7 minutes per km because of all the mud and walkers on the trail. Swan Lake is a beautiful area so I’m glad I slowed down to see the beauty of nature.

VIRA Island Race Series Hatley Castle 8k Virtual Challenge

My Strava screenshot to prove that I actually did it and not making it up 😉 Of course I had to do that extra 2k.

Photo Challenge Overview

For my photo challenge, I knew that I had to do a slightly longer run because I wanted to take a picture near the Royal Roads University. That is exactly what I did.