Virtual Race Expo Gives Local Runner Chance to Navigate Dense Virtual Crowd to Purchase Official $18 Shot Glass
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When Dominick Cobb’s marathon was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, he knew it was the right thing to do—but he was disappointed.
“It was a letdown, for sure,” said Cobb, 63, a lifelong runner and veteran of 34 marathons. “I was really looking forward to it. Not just the race itself, but the whole experience, the whole race weekend, you know?”
That’s why, when he heard the event was offering a virtual race expo, he jumped at the chance to try it out. The virtual expo, designed by a tech company called Incept, uses virtual reality to replicate the experience of attending a major marathon race expo in a virtual convention center.
Almost immediately, Cobb was sold.
“Wow!” he said from his living room couch. “Look at the line to get in!”
Once inside, Cobb asked a virtual volunteer at a virtual information booth which way to go to pick up his bib number, found the appropriate line, and waited for 15 minutes behind other virtual runners before realizing he was in the half-marathon bib pickup line.
After grabbing his virtual bib number and virtual T-shirt, Cobb waded onto the main expo floor, packed with thousands of other meandering virtual runners.
“Excuse me,” he said again and again as he tried to move around other virtual expo attendees. “Sorry.”
“Oh, look,” he said, passing a virtual Clif booth. “They have samples.”
All told, Cobb spent nearly 90 minutes at the virtual expo, people-watching, browsing gear, and signing up for virtual raffles. On his way out, he stopped by the official race store, where he checked out official race hoodies, tech shirts, hats, and other mementoes.
Picking up an official race shot glass, Cobb checked the price.
“Eighteen dollars? For a shot glass?” he said. “Man, this is realistic.”
