San Francisco Runner Spells 'Vote 2020' On Virtual Marathon Map

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Emily Hou ran her first marathon in San Francisco in 2018, and is now hooked. She planned to run the Chicago marathon this year, but it was replaced with a virtual marathon because of social distancing rules.

Undaunted, Hou not only participated, but she used a map of her virtual marathon to send a message to Chicago residents: Vote 2020.

Hou told ABC7 that she spent about 3 hours mapping every step and turn, to make sure her run equaled 26.2 miles.

"I wanted to do something cool with the route that I ran," Hou said. "The most exciting thing was hitting save on my Garmin watch and seeing that image pop up on Strava. That was really cool to see that I had done the turns correctly and it actually turned out okay."

Hou shared her photo with neighbors on Nextdoor, followed by a mention in the Chicago Sun Times.

Now San Francisco Marathon Director Melissa Faukner is encouraging participants to use the same route as Hou for SF Marathon's sister series Virtual 365. Runners have until election day to complete the Run to VOTE to Save the USPS. The marathon will use 10 percent of every registration fee to purchase USPS stamps in a bid to bolster the US Postal Service.