It’s funny how the beginning of the year makes you want to take on the world. Or is that just me? I set ridiculously big goals, and, on top of that, way too many of them at once. Many things I don’t accomplish, but one thing I did manage to finish again was my walking challenge.
At the start of this year, I decided I wanted to do a long walking challenge with The Conqueror app for the first quarter of the year. So I picked The Grand Canyon Virtual Challenge. Based on my previous walking challenges, I set a goal of finishing it sometime in March. But, I quickly fell behind and had to extend my time by a week… and then later another few weeks.
But I finally finished yesterday after 95 days.
That means I walked an average of 4.7 km per day. But, there were many days that I forgot to wear my Fitbit when I went out, and there were a few days that my Fitbit died on me. So technically I finished earlier. I’m just not sure how much earlier.
The Street View On The Grand Canyon Virtual Challenge Bored Me So Much
I did the Ring of Kerry walking challenge at the end of last year, and I really enjoyed the street view with that. Every morning I would wake up and see where I had walked yesterday and, sometimes, I would check out where I was going to walk for the day. I can still vividly see the road, homes, stores, fields, water, and everything else along the route. Even though it was a virtual challenge, it kind of feels like I was there because the street view was so much fun.
The Grand Canyon Virtual Challenge is 450.6 km or about 280 miles. It does have street view too, but that got boring really fast for me.
It basically looks like this the whole way.
Just a bunch of people floating down The Colorado River for days and days. It would have been great if I was on the raft, but virtually it wasn’t that fun.
Apparently, you can do this river rafting experience in a minimum of 7 days in a motorized raft or you can do it in 15 days in an oar-powered raft. On that page, it says there are waterfalls, ancient ruins, and canyon trails… I didn’t see anything like that. Every time I opened up the street view, I saw what was in the pic above.
Usually, I saw heads floating in the water because the camera cut their bodies off. But, the above pic was a typical view of where I was in the Grand Canyon Virtual Challenge with the Conqueror app.
I got bored of the Grand Canyon tour pretty fast, so I stopped checking in every day.
I guess I could have checked to see other things around me, like the highways, but it just didn’t interest me that much. I wanted to see where I was on my journey, and where I was on the map was pretty boring to me.
I Missed The Conqueror Postcards
I undervalued the postcards you get from some of the walking challenges… until I didn’t get any.
The Grand Canyon virtual challenge has NO postcards.
The postcards give you a little bit of history as you move along your journey, and I will never take them for granted again. They help you stay engaged with the walk and feel more connected to where you are virtually walking on a physical level.
For instance, I’ve started the Niagra Falls Virtual Challenge and I already got a postcard that explains where the virtual walk starts from. It helped me understand what I’m seeing on Streetview and the history behind it.
Doing A Long Walking Challenge Seems Great, But You Have To Stay Engaged
I’ve started the Niagara Falls Virtual Challenge today, and it’s only 112.7 km. I plan to have it done in at least three weeks, which will beat my previous time and distance in the Grand Canyon Challenge.
Next time I do a long Conqueror Challenge like the Grand Canyon, I’m going to find a way to make it more engaging. Especially if the street view is so boring or non-existent.
I checked out of The Grand Canyon route pretty fast after I started the virtual challenge. Each day, I mostly focused on how long I had to go and didn’t look at the map too much. So, it felt more like a goal I had, but not so much a fun interactive challenge, which is what I appreciate about the Conqueror Challenges.
Next time I’ll make it more engaging.
Maybe I’ll make it into a road trip and follow the highway.
Or maybe I’ll just check out popular tourist attractions through other people’s pictures so I kind of feel like I’m there and doing something.
But I’ll never just make one of the Conqueror challenges into a goal again and check out of the virtual part. After experiencing both scenarios, I feel like the virtual part is a huge part of what makes it so fun and rewarding!
Want to do a virtual walking challenge? You can check out the challenges here and see if there’s one that would engage you.
