Celebrate “college rivalry week” with a virtual race!

Ready to fire up alumni across the USA during rivalry week?

Racery makes it super-simple to launch and administer a virtual race pitting your college or university’s alumni against graduates of your arch rival. Individually and in teams, alumni compete on leader boards for fitness and fundraising.

Two different types of races work well for college rivalry week, so read on!

The Anywhere Virtual 5k for college rivalry races

Racers participate anywhere, then their time is ranked on the race’s leader board. Donations are also tracked and ranked!

What makes the race extra special: our online map displays each person’s avatar and traces their route. Creative participants can try to trace their school’s mascot as a route.

Once the race starts, each racer’s route appears on a shared map.

Using a participant’s mobile phone, The Anywhere Virtual 5k’s Android and iOS app logs the racer’s distance covered and time elapsed, and then displays the racer’s time on a leader board. Each racer gets a personalized digital bib (above) and finish placard.

The Anywhere Virtual 5k displays each participant's location
The Anywhere Virtual 5k displays each participant’s location

After nearly a decade of use and iteration, Racery’s platform is super flexible. So each institution can have its own alumni team compete based on miles or 5k times and fundraising. And individual regions can compete to raise money too. For larger races, there are lots of opportunities for sponsor branding.

The race can last a day or you can give racers a full week to complete. There’s no setup fee for the sponsor. Test the Anywhere Virtual 5k here for free.

The Inclusive Virtual Race

Unlike traditional races that are geared exclusively to runners, Racery’s virtual “activity conversion” races are inclusive, allowing people with all types of abilities to participate. Virtual races are perfect for organizations with a strong Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) mandate. Anyone can enter an activity—ranging from swimming to cycling to tennis to volunteering—to advance on the race’s route. (The race sponsor picks from our list of 80+ inclusive DEI-focused activity conversions … or add their own.)

Virtual races generally last one or two weeks, which creates many opportunities for a race’s sponsor to add branding and content-rich experiences for participants. The race sponsor can:

  • share information and photos with racers, whether via mileage triggered emails, e-postcards or map pin drops
  • add branding to the personalized digital bib and finish award that every virtual racer receives
  • accept donations that go directly into the host institution’s bank account
  • communicate regularly with racers or team captains via email
  • initiate or participate in racer chats
  • create and share a post-race sizzle-reel using photos that racers have submitted to the race log

A 500-person rivalry week DEI-focused virtual race takes less than an hour for a college or university staffer to administer. Once a race is set up, racers can sign up and start advancing in a matter of seconds. To see for yourself, register for this test version of an Oxford vs Cambridge virtual race and log some miles, real or fake.