A new website allows participants to participate in a virtual relay race around the world. The website Hlaupum kringum hnöttinn, or ‘Let’s Run Around the World,’ was started by a group of Icelanders looking to do “something constructive to lift our moods during the epidemic.” Participants are encouraged to log the kilometres they jog every day and take part in a virtual trip around the globe—” with a distance of two metres between runners,” of course.
The race kicked off on Monday this week, and at time of writing, 771 participants had run 6,033 km or 13% of the way around the world. The route started in Reykjavík before making its next stops in Þórshöfn, Glasgow, London, Paris, Florence, and Athens. Next up are Adis Ababa, Nairobi, Johannesburg, and the South Pole. Each participant has run an average of 7.8 km a day thus far.
Þórlindur Kjartansson, one of the site’s founders, says that a project like this is all the more necessary while the gathering ban is in effect and people need to be prioritizing both their physical and mental health.
The group doesn’t yet know how the race will continue after the round-the-world goal has been reached, but plans to keep the site up and running until Iceland is no longer in a state of emergency due to COVID-19.
