The Conqueror – Virtual Challenges

Want to get healthier and help the Earth at the same time? Sounds like a win-win, right? I stumbled upon The Conqueror virtual challenges last year, and I’m still over the moon about them! (Thank you, Instagram, for stalking me and showing me great ads; you know me well.) You might be wondering how a virtual “marathon” challenge can help the Earth. Well, here’s how it works…

Simply visit The Conqueror website and browse through all of their virtual challenges to see which one you might like best. You can decide by using factors such as which medal you think is spiffiest and would look awesome on your bookshelf, which location sounds cool, or how many miles you want to commit to, and so forth. I should mention that any distance exercise counts towards your miles and you can connect fitness devices to their app. Perhaps one of the most important perks is that you choose the time frame – which can be changed later too if you couldn’t bear to part with the couch and Netflix more often than you anticipated. Many of the challenges even have a street view option to see your location in their interactive map, which is a really neat feature allowing you to virtually check out your surroundings as you progress (thanks Google!). As an added element of fun, they also send you virtual postcards along your journey. And my favorite part is that for every challenge completed, they will either plant five trees or stop 50 bottles from entering the ocean (you get to pick which you want to contribute to). As a nerdy tree-hugger, who could use some extra motivation to get my tushie on the treadmill, they had me lacing up my tennis shoes and downloading their app in no time.

I seriously love these challenges, and they have been a fantastic motivator for me to hike or walk most days of the week. The first challenge I picked was the Inca Trail because it was only 26 miles and I’ve always wanted to see Machu Picchu (in person – virtually doesn’t count). At any rate, I figured it would be a fun activity to encourage me to walk more. After completing the challenge, I liked it so well that I signed up for another one. I’m currently close to finishing the Côte d’Azur virtual challenge along the French Riviera (which is 100 miles). Once completed, I imagine I’ll continue participating in these challenges simply because they’re fun and helpful in keeping my healthy habits in check. Who knows, maybe I’ll even attempt to run a virtual marathon all in one day… (Haha! Yeah, right!) But I will keep moving forward to a healthier me.

So, if this sounds like something you might be interested in, use the link in this post to shop the challenges and you’ll get 10% off* your purchase. Also, if you think you might like to do a group challenge, please let me know! I think it would be super cool if we got a bunch of us together for a LOOF long distance challenge. We could vote on which virtual journey we wanted to take and then all contribute to the miles together. And remember, it’s any distance-based exercise that counts too. So, we could walk, run, bike, and row together towards a goal, plant trees, motivate each other, and earn a spiffy medal too. Any takers…???

*The discount shows up in your cart, and I’m afraid it only works if you’re not already a user. Also, this discount is through their referral link so I potentially win a free challenge for every two people who sign up. That means, you can get 10% off and then turn around and refer your own family and friends. Pretty cool.