You may have seen a couple of ads and banners on the RunningPodcasts.org web site for the ‘World Wide Festival of Races‘ and thought to yourself: “what’s that all about !?”.

Well, you can nip along to the WWROR web site to find out full details, but I thought it might be nice to provide a bit more background on the whole event if you’ve come across it for the first time.

The WWFOR is an online ‘virtual’ event that was originally started in 2005. It came out of Steve Runner’s ‘Phedippidations‘ running podcast. From memory, I think one of his listeners suggested the idea, and Steve picked it up and publicized it through the podcast.

Originally, the concept was for listeners to the podcast to all run a half marathon on the same weekend in October, and then record their results on a web site to see how they had done. The idea wasn’t to see who would win, but more to see how many people would take part , and as a way for people to join-up ‘virtually’ around the world on the same day to celebrate their enjoyment of running. People were invited to run on their own, with a group of friends or maybe enter a local road race scheduled for the allotted weekend in October.

Well, since those humble beginnings, the event has matured in to a global event that encompasses a 5K, 10K and half marathon race. The event is also now supported and publicized by the growing community of running podcasts (most of which are listed here on RunningPodcasts.org).

No, it isn’t really a race. And, yes, it maybe seems a little geeky when you first come across it. But, there is no doubt that those of us who take part get a real buzz from all participating on that same weekend, knowing that all of our virtual buddies around the world are doing the same thing, at around the same time, having a ball, just like us.

So, why don’t you sign up today and be part of the fun? There’ll be lots of stories to tell and stories to hear about how we all did on that weekend in October.

To join up, get along to WorldWideFestivalOfRaces.com – it’s free!

You can also hear more about the event by subscribing to the running podcasts:  Phedippidations & Extra Mile Podcast