January Team Challenge

Everyone in the ZLDR groups can participate! It doesn’t matter your experience, if you can run a whole marathon or just walk a few kms per week, we want to include everyone, and everyone’s contribution will be important for your team. 

If you would prefer not to be on a team, you can run as an individual and track your distance on the individual leaderboard, which can be filtered by gender and age group.

You must create an account on this website to participate in the challenge because that is how we can track your submitted distance/points both for the individual leaderboard and the team points.  We ask you for some information about yourself for the following reasons:

1. Email Address – Your email address will be used as your login name for the website.  We may also use your email address to contact you if we have any questions during the challenge (especially if we are unable to reach you through Facebook, Strava, Zwift, etc).  In addition, you can perform a password reset by having a link sent to this email address.
2. Zwift/Facebook/Strava usernames – All runs that are submitted on this site must exist on either Zwift or Strava so they can be verified.  Also, all official team communications happen on Facebook Messenger chat, and so this is required for participating on a challenge team.
3. Running Habits – We ask a few questions during the sign-up process about your running habits so that we can try to make the teams as balanced as possible.  We want the challenge to be fun for everyone and so we do our best to put a mix of various running levels on the each team.
4. Age and Gender – Age range and gender is requested so that you can see your rankings on the individual leaderboard either overall, by age group and gender.  This information is not required, if you do not feel comfortable submitting it.  The only difference will be that you won’t show up in any of the age group/gender rankings if you do not provide this info.

This year there are two ways to participate:

On a Team

This is the original ZLDR challenge experience.  Participants are assigned to a team and the members of that team encourage each other to get in their daily running as well as work together to claim as many points as possible in the various challenges.  The teams rankings will be released on a weekly basis.  The challenges are designed to require team members to work together to maximize points, so it is very important that members communicate with each other on a regular basis.

Individually

For those who want to participate, but don’t feel they can commit to being a member of a team, there is now an option to run as an individual.  You will not be placed on a team, but you can still track your daily distance ran (with no caps) on the individual leaderboard.

The challenge will start on the first day of the month and end on the last day of the month.

For team-based runners, participants will be assigned to teams, and each team will have a leader (captain). Participants will log their total distance they ran each day whether done virtually (Zwift) or in real life (Strava Activity) on our website.  In addition to the daily distance, teams will have challenges to complete as a team to earn additional points.  Team rankings will be released on a weekly basis.  There is also an individual leaderboard that ranks all runners based on their total distance run during the challenge (the points cap only applies to team points), and this leaderboard can be viewed with all runners, per gender and per age group.

For individual runners (non-team), you will track your daily distance the same as team-based runners, but your distance will only show on the individual leaderboard.

Team points will be capped at at a maximum of 10km (10 points) per day. We understand that the safety of our members is important, so we decided to cap the points to prevent some people from running more than they should. For the personal results, the distance will not be capped, so we can stalk how far our top runners can go, and give them a push.

For those that run more than 10 km a day, you still submit your full distance for the day.  You will contribute 10 points to your team points, and the full distance you ran will be added to your ranking on the individual leaderboard.  For example, if you submit 15km (or 9.3 miles) for the day, your team will get 10 points from you for the day, but on the individual leaderboard your total distance will increase by 15 km.

This challenge is for fun and the primary purpose is to allow people to get to know other members better.  There are no prizes for the winners (either team or individual), so please do not run more than you feel that you should, allow your legs some rest along the way, and listen to your body, always!  

When signing up for the challenge, you will be asked to answer a few questions about your running level that will allow us to rank you based on your experience. After the signup closes, we will split people into different ranks, and then evenly distribute the participants in the teams, trying to make it as fair as possible. So please, be honest when answering the questions, as this will help us make the challenge as balanced and fun as possible.

Every week there will be a new mission for your team to complete as a group.  The missions are often require the team members to coordinate and work together to maximize the points earned.  To see the missions for this challenge, please look at the Missions page before signing up.  The missions will not be changed mid-challenge, but feedback can be taken into consideration for the next challenge.

After the challenge starts, you will be able to log in with the information you used to sign up, and there will be a page for you to submit your runs/walks.

You will have to choose the day of the run/walk, and type in the total distance achieved that day. Your points will be capped at 10 km/10 points.  This is to prevent those with a strong competitive spirit from being tempted into pushing too hard and injuring themselves.  Even though we will cap the points, you are allowed to submit the total distance you achieved, that will show in your personal record. So if you run 50km,  you will contribute with 10km worth of points for your team, but in your total record it will show 50km.

Please do NOT submit for the day until you have completed all of your walks/runs for the day, as you can only submit once per day.

Any mileage you submit for the day is subject to verification by either a member of the challenge committee or a team captain.  Please make sure that you only submit mileage that is listed on either Zwift or Strava (and as mentioned above, you will submit multiple runs/walks as a single combined entry into the website).

As has been mentioned, the primary goal of the ZLDR challenge is to foster stronger relationships between ZLDR members.  For this reason, many of the missions that teams complete to gain points have been designed around people working together to complete the goals with as many points as possible.  People who have joined a team are expected to be in regular communication with the team so that each team has the best chance of getting as many points as possible.  People who join and team and then do not participate cause teams to earn less points in the missions and are drag on team morale.

We realize that not everyone has the time or availability to be fully engaged in the challenge and that is why we also have the option to sign up as an individual.  Individual runners are still participants in the challenge who can submit their daily distance and have their results included in the individual leaderboard, but there are no expectations around needing to communicate with a team.

So choose the option that is the best fit for you!

The following are the expectations for a team participant.  Many of these expectations are statements that you must agree to on the team sign-up form.

1. You must have a Facebook/Facebook Messenger account.  This is the official means of communication for the challenge.  Your team captain will set up a FB Messenger chat room for your team to communicate and coordinate on the missions.  If you need to reach out to your captain or someone on the challenge committee about an issue submitting your distance, then Facebook is the best way.  Team captains will be invited to a special Facebook group with the challenge committee members so that announcements can be made (and questions asked/answered) for distribution to each team.  In short, there are a lot of communications that happen via Facebook/Messenger and so not having an account will make it very difficult to stay engaged with your team.
2. You are expected to check in with your team on a regular basis.  The general recommendation is on a daily basis, especially when it comes to coordinating for some of the team missions.  This is just a guideline, as it just depends on what frequency of communication will keep you engaged with the team.  It is up to your captain’s discretion as to whether you are engaged enough.  In addition, we understand that people my have work trips, vacations, sickness, injury, etc.  Just let your team know if you’ll be unavailable for any length of time, and then there won’t be any problems or confusion.
3. If you have been assigned to a team and the captain is unable to reach you, then you may be removed from the team and moved to being an individual runner.  This is at the discretion of your captain, so once the challenge starts, be sure to keep an eye on your Facebook messenger account.
4. If you get injured or sick and feel like you won’t be able to run/walk for a longer stretch of time, please communicate with your captain.  We can work with you to either move you to be individual runner, or perhaps leave you on the team as an inactive member and add a replacement.  We don’t want anyone to feel excluded because of uncontrollable circumstances, so we’ll work together to figure out the best solution.

The team captain is a very important role for the challenge, and with each challenge we need people to volunteer to be team captains.  The more team captains that we have, the more people who can participate in the challenge without the teams becoming too big.

Team captains do have a few extra responsibilities, but that doesn’t mean they have to do all of the work.  A few responsibilities will need to be performed by the captain, but others can be delegated to other willing members of the team.  Some examples are:

Captain-Only Duties

• Captains will be added to a private Facebook group where you will get information from the challenge committee throughout the month that is relayed back to the team members.
• Captains can also bring issues back to the committee if there is something that needs to be addressed (scoring problems, website problems, replacements for non-responding members)
• Captains will report weekly mission scores to the committee (for missions that don’t require a public post with results)
• Captains will need to set up their team’s Facebook messenger chat group, invite all members, and verify they are still committed to being a part of the team.  Captains can work with the committee to reach out to anyone not responding through other means (email, etc).  Last resort is that the committee can swap out the non-responding member for someone on the waiting list.

Other Duties That Can Be Delegated

• Team missions will often require scheduling and coordination.  Someone needs to be the “leader” when it comes to compiling availability and setting a schedule
• Keeping communication/banter/chatting going between the team members to help everyone get to know each other better
• Recording/Compiling/Summarizing the results of the team missions for submission
• Writing status reports in the ZLDR facebook group with results of certain missions (if they require publicly posting results)
• General cheerleading to keep team morale higher
• (Friendly) trash talk against the other teams

…and likely a lot of other smaller things depending on what the mission is for that week.  But again, the captain is ultimately responsible that those things get done, but can request help from the team to get things completed.

Team Scoring

• Every KM a team member runs/walks for the day will earn 1 point, up to a daily maximum of 10 points, per person.
• Each week will have an assigned mission that will give teams the chance to earn additional points for the team.
• Some weeks may also have a bonus mission (often non-running related) that can also earn extra points for the team.
• There will be 2 extra days after the end of a week for all submissions to be entered before weekly scores are calculated.
  • Late submissions will not be accepted after this 2 day period
• After the cutoff, the scores for that week will be posted on this website, as well as the cumulative total for all the weeks completed up to that point.

While this challenge was designed as a friendly competition, the primary goal is for ZLDR members to get to know each other better.  There are no prizes for the winning team, so let’s keep things friendly and fun.  The teams will be made up of people of various fitness levels, and some may be either new to running or returning from an injury.  Let’s make sure we encourage each other to achieve our own personal running goals during this challenge and not push people to over-exert themselves for the sake of team points.

For this challenge, each team member that completes the distance of 10k per day for 6 days out of the week will earn bonus points for their team.

Rules:

1. Team members must complete 10 km per day for 6 days during the mission week.
2. 10 km is the cumulative distance for the day.  You can do it all at once, across multiple runs, run it all, walk it all, run/walk mix.  How you accomplish the distance is up to you.
3. Please let your captains know that you’ve completed the weekly mission as soon as possible so they can keep an accurate and  timely account of team members who will be awarded the mission points
4. Captains, please private message to the committee member who is leading this challenge mission with a final list of names who completed this challenge for your team (This person will be communicated via your captain closer to time)
5. No pics are necessary unless there is a question about an activity and specifically requested by a committee member

Points:

Each team member who completes this mission will earn 100 points for their team.

Examples:

1. A team member runs 12 km every day of the week (7 days).  That team member will earn 70 points for daily runs (7 x 10 points), plus an additional 100 points for completing this challenge.  On the individual leaderboard, the runner will have earned 84 km of distance (7 x 12) and will be ranked based on that amount.
2. A different team member run 20km on Monday and Tuesday, 10km on Wed-Friday, and 2km on Saturday and Sunday.  This team member will earn 54 points for the team (50 points (5 x 10) for M-F, 4 points (2 x 2) for Sat & Sun).   They did not complete the challenge, and so does not earn any mission points for the team.   The individual leaderboard will show 74km of distance.

There will be no bonus missions during this first week.  Use this time to get to know your teammates, get comfortable submitting your daily distance on the website, etc.

It is recommended that as a team you choose a uniform (shirt and short minimum) and put this uniform on everyone’s avatar during this week.  You’ll need it for future missions and will save you from having to do it under a time crunch later!

By now you and your teams should be getting along famously, you’ll probably know everything about each other and got yourselves some new BFF’s so now time to test your ability to work together and cooperate closely to achieve the best result – when you get this one right, it’s so much fun!!

Rules:

• Your teams meet up must be at least 5km in distance.
• At least 3 team members must join the meet up
• The meet up must be challenge team-only and closed to all others
• Teams must be in matching shirts and shorts
• Teams must stay together at all times within 0.25kms of each other
•  If any member runs ahead or drops behind the team then they will be disqualified from gaining mission points for this challenge.
• The meet-up must take place between (and including) Monday and Sunday of this week (dates shown in the title above).

Pictures required:

• Minimum of 3 group pics must be taken during the meet up (to help ensure your team gets great pics, have several team members taking pics from different views)
• All pics MUST include ALL team members (avatar head count! Sidebar should be included for double check but all avatars must be visible. Top aerial view pics are the best for this purpose)
• The first pic must be within 0-0.5 kms
• The second pic must be taken at the halfway point between 2-3 kms
• The third pic must be taken after 4.5 kms
• Any missing pic will cost the team a penalty of -10% of the team score
• to ensure you get the right pic have multiple members snapping shots!!!

Run Report:

• A run report must be written and posted on the Facebook Challenge page ON Sunday, the last day of the weekly mission!
• It must contain the title “Team Meet-Up Run Report” along with your team name
• It must TAG the challenge committee member leading this mission (This will be communicated via your captain closer to time)
• It must state how many participants completed this challenge and their names must be listed
• It does not have to be lead or posted by the captains. Any designated team member can lead and post
• It must include the 3 required pics but may include more pics if you’d like

Points:

• The team will receive 100 points per team member who joins and meets the requirements of staying with the team
• A bonus of 25% points will be given to any team that has 100% of members included in this mission
• As stated previously, any missing required pics will cost a penalty of -10% of the team’s total points earned for this mission.

Have a fantastic week and Good Luck!!

The aim of this challenge is for each member of the teams to run 1 Mile/1.6km as fast as possible, with the winners having the fastest team average time.

Rules:

• Each Member of your team must run 1 mile/1.6km
• The activity must be a one-off, standalone activity.
  • This can be completed alone or as part of a Zwift event or Meet-up but the distance must only be a total of 1 Mile/1.6km (NOT AS PART OF A LONGER RUN) on the recorded activity
• The 1 Mile activity can be completed outdoors or on Zwift
• The activity must be recorded using a service where the activity can have a screenshot – Zwift, Garmin, Strava for example or photo of a watch
• Once each member has completed their 1 mile activity, a screen shot of the activity must be sent your team captain
• The team captain will collate all the teams 1 mile effort times along with the screenshots of the activities and select the 10 Fastest times
• The 1 mile activity must take place between (and including) the dates listed in the title above.
• The captains will need to add the top 10 fastest times to create a team cumulative time
• An average 1 mile time will be calculated using the teams cumulative time divided by 10
• Teams will then be ranked from 1st to last via the average one mile time and points awarded accordingly
• A default penalty of a 13 minute mile (per missing member) will be applied to any team’s time if they cannot get 10 members of the team to take part.
  • For example if only 8 members complete a time, 2 x 13 minute penalty miles will be applied to have 10 times in the average.

Pictures required:

• Screenshot must contain the distance ran (1 Mile/1.6km) and the finish time
• Cadence and Heart Rate would be preferred however not required
• Pictures are for Captains reference only to work out the cumulative time and to ensure authenticity

Run Report:

• A run report for this mission is not required (HURRAH!!) although feel free to write one if you want and post on the ZLDR Facebook page but you may not want to include the details as to not show your hand to other teams
• You must send a message with the teams Cumulative Time and if any penalty miles have been added, if so how many to the committee member in charge. You will need to let him/her know the names and times of the 10 fastest times used
• This can be completed by any member of the team, not just the captain
• This needs to be sent to the committee member ON the direct Monday following the end of the challenge.

Points:

Points will be awarded as per below (depending on number of teams in the challenge):

1st – 1100
2nd – 1000
3rd – 950
4th – 875
5th – 850
6th – 825
7th – 800
8th – 775
9th – 750
10th – 725
11th – 700
12th – 675
13th – 650
14th – 625
15th – 600

The selfie mission is a quick and easy way to earn some points for your team!

Rules:

1. You must take a picture of you and your avatar in similar outfits (a combined pic is best but separate pics are acceptable)
2. Pictures must be taken and posted on the Facebook Challenge page in the specified Selfie Challenge Album
3. Any pic not added to this album will not be awarded points
4. All pics must have your name and your team name
5. You must tag the committee member who is leading this mission
6. Participants who complete this mission correctly will be awarded 25 points.
7. Participants who do an additional selfie in costume pertaining to your team name will be awarded a bonus of 25 points 

This mission is one of our toughest and most detailed missions. Please read the instructions carefully and be sure you understand and follow the instructions and rules!! If there are questions please ask as this requires the team to work in sync.

Rules:

1. This mission can only be done on May Field track 
2. There is a minimum of 2 participants to complete this mission.
3. Each participant must do a duration of 30, 60, 90 or 120 mins 
4. The time per participant can be split into 30 min segments (if a participant runs a total of 120 mins, they can split that into max 4 different 30 min segments.) 
5. All relay participants should log onto Zwift at least 5 mins before their time segment starts. (If your segment is from 10am-11am, you should log on by 9:55am at the absolute latest, earlier would be better to ensure your equipment is working properly)
6. It is recommended that for your final 5 mins of your segment you walk so that you don’t run past the next participant. This along with the next segment’s participant logging on 5 mins prior to their start allows you to find each other more easily and get both participants into the pics
7. Relay participants must move continuously during their segment at a pace no slower than 3.6 kph unless you are in your handoff period in which case you may slow down or even stop. 

Pictures:

1. Participants must be in the same shirt and shorts for easy view in pics 
2. Each participant(segment) should have 2 pictures!! 1 at the start of their segment and 1 at the end of their segment, but their ending segment pic is a requirement to show the duration of their segment!!
3. If a participant has 2 separate segments, they should have 4 pics 
4. Each pic must contain both participants at the hand off point! (the relay starter will only have themselves in their beginning pic and the finisher will only have themselves in their finishing pic)
5. Each pic must show the sidebar with the name of the individual taking the pic visible and legible  and better to have both participants’s names legibly visible.
6. if you have to pick between the person who is starting or the person who is ending, always use the pic of the person who is ending with the top info bar visible and legible so we can see their time and distance!
7. It is recommended that each person take more than the 2 pics to allow the team to select the best quality pic

Run report:

1. Teams must write and post a run report for this relay with “Relay Run Report” and their team name included in the title 
2. Teams must include all required pics with their run report (all pics must be uploaded in sequential order!!!) it is best to label your pics to help you and the committee easily find and order the pics 
3. The person posting the report must TAG the committee member leading this challenge 
4. The report should list out by segments the participants name, what duration their segment was, and the distance he/she ran/walked during their segment. So example if Jens ran 120 mins, Kevin ran 120 mins and Gina ran 120 mins total but broken segments then the list would look like this:
5. Jens 60/10k
6. Kevin 30/5k
7. Jens 60/10k
8. Gina 90/12k
9. Kevin 90/17k
10. Gina 30/4k
11. All distances listed must be in the same measurement meaning if you start listing by kilometers then all listed must be in kms! If you start in miles then all distances listed must be in miles.

Points:

1. 50 points will be given to participants for each 30 min segment completed.
   30 mins = 50 pts
   60 mins = 100 pts
   90 mins = 150 pts
   120 mins = 200 pts
2. Participants may run a max of 120 mins total
3. Each missing pic will cost a penalty of -20 points.
   
4. Mixing your distance measurement using both kms and miles will cost a penalty of -20 points

Bonus points:

1. A bonus of 25% will be given to any team that has 100% of members who participated and complete their segment 
2. A bonus of 10% will be given to the team that traveled the furthest combined distance 
3. A bonus of 8% will be given to the team that traveled the 2nd further combined distance 
4. A bonus of 5% will be given to the team that traveled the 3rd furthest combined distance 
5. This relay event can be counted as a ZLDR event

Recommendation:

We highly suggest that you have at least 1 team member (whether it be captain or another member) to oversee and coordinate everyone for this entire event. It will help the entire mission go more smoothly and reduce most risk of failure points. The person would know the schedule and coordinate the team’s participants to ensure that people are logging on in time and meeting up with their team mates. This person could also ensure that the correct pics are taken and possibly even sub in for a member should a schedule change or a tech issue arise. This person in order to be of max help would be on Mayfield coordinating for the entire mission. This is not a requirement but from the experience of committee and previous challenge members a very high recommendation!

*NOTE: Relays started on Sunday can go into Monday morning so long as it is continues and abides by all the rules

**Since team size is different every challenge, there is no total relay time limit. If your team has 10 people, your relay would be max 20 hours, if your team has 20 people your relay would be max 40 hours

Treadmill Dance Off Mission

Here’s your chance to show some real team spirit and bonus you get points to add to your team totals! The challenge is exactly how it sounds.

Rules:

1. Select a song (each person can pick a different song or the team can pick a song everyone must use)
2. Select a pace you feel comfortable grooving to without causing harm to yourself or others nearby
3. Get your boogie on while recording at least 15 second (it can be longer) video clip segment showing us your best moves
4. Video must show head to toe shot so we can see the participants are dancing on a moving treadmill
5. For added zip, wear a costume representing your team name
6. On Sunday or Monday (the last day of the mission) your team captain or a designated person will created a single post on the ZLDR Facebook group page with all videos included or better yet create an album from their computer to add all the team videos 
7. Please tag the committee member in charge and add the name of the individual in the captions or comments below each video. 

Points:

1. Each participant gets 60 points for their team when all rules are followed
2. Wearing a team name based costume will get you an added 15 points
3. Max points per participant is 75 points
4. Failure to follow the rules results in no points given maybe even some taken away 😂

Only 2 more days to go!  There will be no missions or bonuses this week.  Just try to get in your 10km for these last two days to finish strong!