Join Strava’s virtual challenge to help raise money for Australia relief efforts

Strava has created a virtual half marathon and 5K through a Strava Challenge in order to help raise money for Australia’s deadly fires relief efforts.

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The wildfires have been raging for months now, spurred by the persistent heat, drought and strong winds. Thousands of homes have been destroyed or damaged, along with millions of acres of land. The Australian authorities are doing what they can to contain the massive blazes, with assistance from a number of other countries.

Founded a decade ago, Strava is one of the best known social fitness apps around. More than just a popular GPS-based exercise tracker, the app lets you set challenges for yourself and others. Now the company has added a new, virtual challenge to help those in need.

The aim is to spread the word within Strava’s global community about the situation in Australia, and to help raise funds for relief efforts. Anyone can participate and contribute to the cause through the Relief Run: Bushfire Disaster challenge, and pledge their run at Relief Run.

The registration fee is $50AUD – and all of the funds go to the Australian Red Cross Disaster Relief and Recovery Fund. The challenge starts next Friday January 17, and ends three days later on January 19th in the athlete’s local time zone.

Those participating will need to complete a 5K run or walk during this period and upload to Strava. All GPS runs, walks or wheelchair activities will count towards this challenge – including treadmill and manual entries. Once your run is uploaded you will be able to see how you fared on the leaderboards.

So far nearly 6,000 people have joined and the total amount raised is just short of $350,000. As this is a virtual running event, you don’t need to be located in Australia to participate. You can also donate without running on the links above.

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