UTMB® for the Planet Virtual Races - UTMB goes virtual, digital, and it's free to join

almost 4 years ago

I've received this message with the mail today:

Dear runners, dear community,

You can now register for the UTMB® for the Planet Virtual Races, giving you the chance to test yourself across four distances based on the legendary races of UTMB® Mont Blanc: the OCC, the CCC®, UTMB® and PTL®.

Open from July 20th-August 30th, this digital initiative, which will unite the community, invites you to participate in a virtual UTMB® by recording your activities from wherever you are on the planet on a new digital platform. In addition to the Virtual Races, you can also enter several exclusive Challenges which have been supported by partners of UTMB® and Val d'Aran by UTMB®, with plenty of prizes up for grabs.

There was really an avalanche of virtual events two months ago when the organizers realized that their real events were not to happen. We joined them glady and got some virtual medals for participation. After that we got feed up with the virtuality of it. At least I was fed up.

Is the time now ripe for the second wave of virtual events?

Yes, I joined the UTMB virtual design. I already have an UTMB account so I simply logged-in and entered the events.

There are five events available for sign-up. First three of them are:

Joining the first one ...

You can complete the challenge in stages!

I got this nice bib.

And here is the dashboard.

No Strava! Eh...

Is this a showstopper for me? Now, I'll need to somehow connect Strava data to one of these portals?

OK, let's try it with Garmin.

First, I'll export today's data from Strava and import it into Garmin.

Done. Now, let's connect UTMB dashboard with Garmin. Will it recognize manually added exercise? Nope, nothing happened.

Checking the FAQ section. This can save the day:

How do I upload my GPX track?

The GPX track has to be uploaded directly on the platform https://utmbfortheplanet.world, from the space ‘My Dashboard’.

And another detail - only one challenge at the time!

Can I register for several Virtual Races at the same time?

You will be able to register for several Virtual Races or Challenges on https://utmbfortheplanet.world. However you can compete in only one Virtual Race or Challenge at the same time. You will be able to pause the other races on the platform until you are ready to complete them.

So I am scratching the challenge above and entering this one instead.