With the goal of hosting its biggest event yet in collaboration with World OCR, Spartan succeeded in having more than 40,000 athletes post results in 24 hours cross the virtual finish lines in more than 100 countries during what it called  “Project Unbreakable: The World’s Largest Virtual Race, powered by Rakuten.”

Athletes tackled virtual editions of Spartan’s four signature obstacle course races, including the 5K, 20-obstacle Spartan Sprint; 10K, 25-obstacle Spartan Super; half-marathon, 30-obstacle Spartan Beast; and 50K, 60-obstacle Spartan Ultra. Spartan Kids races were also offered ranging from half-mile to two-mile distances for kids ages four to fourteen. Participants ran in their homes, backyards and neighborhoods in six continents.

In all these athletes hit the virtual course for 70,000 collective hours, covering a quarter of a million miles by running or an alternate aerobic workout, as well as exercises such as bear crawls, jump rope and stair climbs. The obstacles were bodyweight and aerobic exercises, such as push-ups, and mountain climbers.

There were more than 35,000 posts about the event throughout the weekend, with the tag #spartanprojectunbreakable used 17,000 times. All participants earned a global leaderboard spot and virtual medal.

Spartan partnered with World OCR — the Fédération Internationale de Sports d’Obstacles (FISO) — with member federations in 100 countries.

Project Unbreakable is Spartan’s latest effort to keep its community connected and healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to the event, Spartan saw close to 20,000 entries in weekly virtual races, which began in April. The brand quickly pivoted from race events to digital content, creating Spartan Unbreakable, a 24/7 content engine providing a schedule of live and on-demand at-home workouts and wellness content.