Virtual Running Club "Rainbow Retro Challenge" - G1 Symbol Pins!

[Minty_Magic]

I’ve got all of mine, I’ll try and get pics tomorrow! I meant to post a long time ago but I got busy. Honestly….I’m a little disappointed in them. They are a lot smaller than I was expecting and they don’t look super high quality. I’m part of another virtual running website and their medals are much higher quality than what I got with this pony race and for frankly a lot cheaper too. I was going to do the shorter race to get the other set of pony pins, but I’m thinking I won’t now.

[Ragamuffin]

Disappointed with mine, too. The medal is really nice and the best part of it, but the pins are SO small! Like the length of up to the first knuckle of a finger.

The shirt is nice. It has a shimmer to it.


I didn't participate legitimately. I think I deserve it! At the time I was at a physically demanding job and got a good workout there. Though I do go walk a few miles every now and then when the weather is nice.

[Eskara1862]

I haven't quite hit my first 100 miles yet of the 600 mile challenge... Oops. I finally got my schedule to where I can do a reliable 10 miles a week and then we had a massive heat wave that made it very unsafe to walk my senior dog. And there's no point going without him! The heat broke today (finally) and I'm taking him for a walk as soon as I get the car unloaded from my last market.

[Minty_Magic]

Okay ya’ll here’s my full breakdown of the rewards. I’ve compared them to some other prizes I’ve gotten from Yes.Fit which is another virtual running club that I’ve been participating in for years now. I want to be clear this isn’t an advertisement for them or anything, I’m just comparing the quality of their prizes to Virtual Running Club, because frankly for the high price I paid for this race, I’m all around disappointed. I won’t be doing another race with VRC I don’t think.

My first complaint is you have to manually log your miles with VRC. It doesn’t link with a Fitbit. Or at least if it does, I didn’t see where you could do this. Having to manually enter my miles each day was annoying enough that I didn’t really keep up with it, and made the race not as fun.

Here is the whole set of rewards for reference. I didn’t picture the race bib, because I don’t really care about that, or the shirt. But like Ragamuffin said the shirt was pretty good quality, so no complaints there! I also apparently lost one of the pins, so we’re one short here

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Next… the pins. Omg these were the biggest disappointment of The Whole package so I’m starting off with them. When I signed up for this I expected the pins to be roughly the size of like, a Disney trading pin. Nope. These are minuscule and hardly readable from a distance. The packaging for them is darling, but that’s not what I was “racing” for. I wish they would have invested less in the card stock the pins came on and more into the pins themselves.

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Here is the Moonstone one I got next to two pins from Yes.Fit races. You can see they are much larger and much more detailed. For reference they were about $12 each, so fairly inexpensive too

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I’m kind of disappointed with the medal too. This was a good size, and the quality is overall comparable to the other running club, but it still frankly is lacking in detail and pizazz. It’s not something I can picture, but this medal is also significantly lighter weight than my other medals. For transparency, if you select the medal as your prize for Yes.Fit they run around $30-$40 depending on how complex they are.

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Idk what the technical term for it is…but the color fill in the metal? It’s not like, filled in enough on the pony medal. I tried to show how on my other medal the color goes right up to the metal lines whereas with the pony medal they’re kind of sunken in.

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Lastly, the medal doesn’t close right. Maybe it’s just a defect with mine but the gap when it’s closed drives me insane.

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So in conclusion, although you did get quite a bit in the package, the quality of the prizes is kind of lackluster compared to what I’m used to. That being said though don’t let me ruin the event if you’re still participating! It’s not all about the rewards after all. Accomplishing each mile mark is such a good feeling and it is a lot of fun to get a little prize in the mail every time you meet a goal!

[Dragonflitter]

Yikes. That is definitely disappointing... :\ I'm sorry they weren't more impressive. Those other two pins you showed, the skull and the butterfly, are VERY nice! And you only paid $12 for those? I buy pins from online artists all the time and a pin of that quality would usually go for like $20, so that's a great deal.

When I started seeing these ads pop up on Facebook for these races I kinda thought it seemed like a sham. Just... I dunno, I never see good things on FB ads. So I'm sorta surprised people got pins and medals at all! But it's a shame they aren't better quality.

[Minty_Magic]

Yikes. That is definitely disappointing... :\ I'm sorry they weren't more impressive. Those other two pins you showed, the skull and the butterfly, are VERY nice! And you only paid $12 for those? I buy pins from online artists all the time and a pin of that quality would usually go for like $20, so that's a great deal.

When I started seeing these ads pop up on Facebook for these races I kinda thought it seemed like a sham. Just... I dunno, I never see good things on FB ads. So I'm sorta surprised people got pins and medals at all! But it's a shame they aren't better quality.

Thank you! Im a sucker for a good pin haha if I had more space that would probably be another collection of mine.

I actually found the other running club through a Facebook ad. I had the exact same concerns as you! I thought it looked fun but I was like ehhh I don’t see how they send you a real medal, there must be something I’m missing. Then I looked at their website and it looked legit but then I was questioning if the medals were very big or good quality? Then I was like, eh, It’s $25 I’ll take a gamble, and I’m so glad I did! I still don’t trust most Facebook ads, but sometimes they are legit. I just do a really careful review of the website and other reviews before I order anything.

[StarryEmerald24]

I didn’t picture the race bib, because I don’t really care about that

Same, I think I threw mine away. I was kind of expecting more of a plastic or metal plate or card stock rather than the flimsy piece of paper we got.

Idk what the technical term for it is…but the color fill in the metal? It’s not like, filled in enough on the pony medal.

I think the color fill is the enamel and the style of it is "soft enamel." Hard enamel ends up fully filled and smooth over the surface.

Lastly, the medal doesn’t close right. Maybe it’s just a defect with mine but the gap when it’s closed drives me insane.

Mine kind of just randomly pops open so glad to know other people have issues, too.

The shirt is definitely the best prize of the bunch. I wear it all the time.

I'm trying to legitimately work through and I'm closing in on the 200 mile mark! lol

[Carrehz]

Wow, those pins definitely look underwhelming considering the price! Sorry they're disappointing. They looked so nice on the original promo pics, too! The janky colour fill is so weird, I've never seen that before o_O

[Eskara1862]

Oof. I haven't even reached my first 100 miles yet due to circumstances beyond my control (losing three weeks to covid, dog getting injured for another week, yet another week of high heat warnings making it unsafe to engage in vigorous activity) and I'm trying to not be too harsh on myself for it. I am fairly disapointed in the quality of the pins. I was hoping they'd be at least the level of artist ones you buy at cons! My plan was to put the race bib, medal, and pins in a shadow box for a cute display in my studio. I may still do that.

Thanks for such a great rundown of the quality and detail! I didn't realize the medal opened and that's super awesome! Too bad it doesn't close all the way and looks kind of warped. Because of the enamel inlay, I'd be afraid to attempt straightening it

The other race pins and medals are really awesome. I do enjoy the concept of the challenges and would like to do another next year. I'll look into that other company! Even if they are more expensive, they certainly look to be worth it.