Dad and I recently took part in South East Asia’s STAR WARS Virtual Run.

Originally scheduled to begin on May the 4th, in celebration of Star Wars Day, the STAR WARS Virtual Run start date was postponed to 15 June because of Covid-19 restrictions in some of the participating countries. The event ends on 30 September.

There are two categories, a 5.4km run and a 40km run. Both events can be completed in either one or multiple runs during the clocking period, depending on your fitness level.

To clock your run, you can download the organiser’s LIV3LY app and track your run(s) on your phone via their app.

Alternatively, you can also link the LIV3LY app to either Apple Health or Google Fit, and also tracking your run manually using apps such as Strava and RunKeeper and then submitting the data through a webform.

Dad and I both registered for the 5.4km category. He registered under the Dark Side and I registered under the Light Side, so that we could receive both medal designs.

The registration process was quite simple, though I had one gripe with this. It was hard to key in our birth dates, especially Dad’s because you have to click on an arrow button that goes back one month by one month. There was no easier way to do so.

Dad and I both used the LIV3LY app to track our session.

For me, I clocked my run at East Coast Park a couple of weeks after registration had opened, doing the 5.4km in one session. I run regularly so I had treated this as one of my daily run sessions, doing 6.27km in 30 minutes.

The LIV3LY tracking app was quite easy to use. After logging into your account in the app, you only need to push the ‘start’ button to begin the run and the ‘stop’ button to end your run. 

Upon stopping your run, it is then automatically received by the organisers and nothing more is needed on your part.

My e-cert and medal arrived quite soon after I had completed the run; the e-cert appearing in my email inbox within days, and my BB8 medal arriving in the post before the end of June.

But Dad is not a regular runner, so it took him some time to psychologically motivate himself to wake up early in the morning for a run.

At the end of June, though, he eventually worked up the motivation to accompany me to East Coast Park to complete his 5.4km run.

We both started from our house, running to East Coast Park. And at his request, I ran on ahead, letting Dad complete his run at a comfortable pace. I guess that he didn’t want me to follow him or tag along at his pace, because it would make him feel more ‘pressurised.’

Employing a run-walk strategy, he did his 5.4km within 45 minutes, ending at the Starbucks cafe at Parkland Green, where Dad then enjoyed a well-deserved coffee after his efforts. He was pretty chuffed with his achievement and in smashing his original target of one hour.

Dad’s Dark Side Stormtrooper medal took longer than mine to get to our house, but it eventually arrived a couple of days ago.

I thought that both medals had looked amazing. They are solid and heavy and that the quality seems good.

While a virtual run might not quite have had the same atmosphere and vibe as an actual Star Wars themed run complete with like-minded runners and cosplayers dressed as key characters from the franchise alongside us, the Covid-19 restrictions have, sadly, resulted in the cancellation of all physical running events across the world.

In these difficult times, we may all miss the atmosphere and vibe in actual running races. But the future of racing is now different: virtual running events are here to stay for some time, until a vaccine is found for the Covid-19 coronavirus.

STAR WARS Virtual Run is still open for registration; you can find out more information at https://starwarsvirtualrunsea-registration.liv3ly.com.

P.S. Darth Vader / Yoda / BB8 plushies are my personal toys.