When you create a race you can set the distance of the race. Or to be more specific you can set the race distance and also the minimum and maximum valid distances.


It is important to keep in mind that with a virtual event every workout will have a (slightly) different distance. This is different than with a normal race which has an exact race distance (between start and finish on a predefined route). 


Let's make it more clear with an example. Say you have a race setup like below:

  • 5k (any track between 3 and 8 km)
  • 10k (8km - 15 km)

When a participants syncs a new activity and he/she has joined your event it will be matched to this race table. So when a 5.5 km run is synced it will be mapped to the 5k and a 16 km run will be mapped to the long distance race.


GPS Tracks

For activities where we have a full GPS track we will analyze the GPS track to take the data point closest to the actual race distance. This provides the best possible result for the participant as it will give the correct result even when a participant would slow down after completing the race distance without pausing/stopping their GPS watch. 

Please note that this feature only works for activities where the GPS track is available. This is currently the case for Garmin, Polar, Suunto, COROS and uploaded gpx files. Strava doesn't provide the information neccessary for this to work.


Scaling results

To make comparable results the activity results are scaled to the virtual race distance. For example, in the previous example where someone did a 5.5 km run, this is 10% more than the virtual race distance of 5 km. So also the points and duration of the workout will be decreased by 10% to make it comparable with other results.


Best practices

We advice to allow for some flexibility with race distances. This will allow participants to join your event without having to worry to complete exactly 5 kilometers.


For example you could create a virtual running event with these distance brackets:

  • mini run (1 mi - 2 mi)
  • 5k (2 mi - 4 mi)
  • 10k (4 mi - 8 mi)
  • half marathon (8 mi - 16 mi)
  • marathon (16 mi or more)