Saturday, June 11, 2011

Getting Started

Below is the email I sent to everyone to kick off the race:

WOO-HOO! I've heard from everyone and created teams for our Race Across America. In the (long) email below are the teams, the details of the race, the rules, the the "mile equivalents" and the blog information. I want to make sure everyone is comfortable with these details, so if you have any questions or suggestions for additions or deletions, please reply all to the list so we can adjust accordingly. The race will begin Monday, June 13th. That's in two days!!

Teams:

We will have 6 randomly selected teams of 4 people per team. To make things as fair as possible, I divided the participants up into people who have the summers "off" (aka teachers) and people who have fulltime jobs and/or kids. I then created the teams by randomly selecting the fulltime/kids people first and then the summers off people. So there should be a good balance of both on each team. The teams are as follows:

Team 1: Sarah B*, Mike, Georgie, Stacy

Team 2: Stacie*, Steve, Lesley, Jennifer Wh

Team 3: Sara*,Patrick, Dalyn, Jennifer Wa

Team 4: Jenny*, Julie G, Betsy, Holly

Team 5: Monica*, Chris, Julie B, Jessy

Team 6: Beth*, Karen, Kira, Jenni

I have put an (*) next to tentative team captains. These people will be responsible for initiating email contact (addresses in the "to" line above) for their groups the first time. After that, feel free to chose your own team captains. The team captain will be responsible for getting everyone's numbers each week and posting them to the blog. Also, each team will need a team name. Team captains can post that information on the blog.

Cost: $5. Please send me your $5 in the mail to Holly Ryan 105 Condor Ridge CT Audubon, PA 19403. The winning team will get all the money to split 4 ways, so that's $30 each, 7x your investment!

The Race:

The race course is a stop in each of your hometowns! I have plotted your hometowns on a map and created a course that stops in each town. The distance around the country is 7775 miles. See the blog for a picture of the race map!

Rules:

1. The challenge will begin Monday, June 13th. Starting on Monday, participants can begin earning miles for their team.

2. The length of the race will be 7,775 "virtual miles." Every one mile you complete or earn in real life will be equal to 10 virtual miles. The first team to collectively earn 777.5 miles (= 7,775 "virtual miles") will be declared the winner. The “race route” will be posted on the blog by Sunday, June 12th.

3. Participants earn miles by keeping track of how far they run, jog or fast-walk each week, or by performing an equivalent exercise (see below). Note: for this challenge, only fitness walking (i.e., walking specifically for exercise) can be counted (as opposed to walking around a store, your house, etc.)

4. Each team will choose a team captain. Tentative captains are outlined above.

5. Team Captains are responsible for posting the team's total miles for the week on the blog. (Team members are responsible for reporting their individual miles to their team captain.)

6. Teams that do not post their miles by Monday 11:59 PM (ET) will be penalized 5 miles.

7. Holly will update the blog each week and indicate where each team is along the virtual route.

8. Until week 8 of the challenge, the maximum number of miles any one team member can earn per week will be 30 miles. After 8 weeks, there will be no restrictions.

9. At the end of the challenge, the first team to report that they have collectively earned enough miles to finish the race will be named the winner.

10. In the event that no team has "crossed the finish line" by 10:00 AM (ET) Monday, August 22, the team that is closest to the finish line will be declared the winner.

11. If you do not walk or run your miles, you can earn equivalent miles in the following ways: Moderate activity (and strength training) = 2 miles per hour; and Intense activity = 4 miles per hour. See suggested definitions and activities below.

1 hour moderate-intensity activity= 2 mile. Doing these activities means you're working hard enough to raise your breathing or heart rate and break a sweat. One way to tell is that you'll be able to talk, but not sing the words to your favorite song. Examples of this might include: Water aerobics, riding a bike on mostly level ground, water skiing, dancing, playing doubles tennis, recreational canoeing or kayaking, yard word (such as pushing a lawn mower), certain types of yoga.

1 hour of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity= 4 miles Doing these activities means you're breathing hard an fast and your heart rate has gone up quite a bit. If you're working at this level, you won't be able to say more than a few words without pausing for a breath. These activities might include swimming, riding a bike fast or on hills, playing singles tennis, competitive sports (soccer, basketball), aerobic dancing/kickboxing, rowing, jumping rope, etc.

The Blog:
We have a blog called 2DGreesofSeparation.blogspot.com named as such because I know everyone personally in the group except Mike, even though I've heard a lot about him! Yeah, it's a little convoluted but all the other names were taken! Right now the blog is naked, but I'll start putting up things after I complete this email.

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