And the winner is...

After five weeks of walking and running, we have a three-way tie!

Week 5 Standings

Congratulations to Mississauga Public Library, Orangeville Public Library and Seneca College.

Keep on walking and we'll keep on tabulating your totals.

Week 4 Results

Hello all and my apologies for the delay in posting results. I managed to detach my retina and am behind.

Here are the standings for week four.

2/3 of the Way There!

Wow. The nice weather must be energizing folks across the country. Check out the results for Week 3!

Week 2 Standings

Mississauga Public Librray takes the lead!

Check out your team's standings here.

And they're off!

Congratulations to everyone for an outstanding first week. Seneca College leads the pack going into week two. Keep on walking!

To see the results for week one, click on the link - Week One Standings.

Steps to Kilometres

Please use this chart for converting steps to kilometres.

660 steps = 0.5 km
1,320 steps = 1 km
1,980 steps = 1.5 km
2,640 steps = 2 km
3,300 steps = 2.5 km
3,960 steps = 3 km
4,620 steps = 3.5 km
5,280 steps = 4 km
5,940 steps = 4.5 km
6,600 steps = 5 km
13,200 steps = 10 km
19,800 steps = 15 km
26,400 steps = 20 km
33,000 steps = 25 km
39,600 steps = 30 km
46,200 steps = 35 km
52,800 steps = 40 km
59,400 steps = 45 km
66,000 steps = 50 km

Canucks Run Amok - 2010!

Join us for the Michelle Penta Memorial Canucks Run Amok - 2010 Challenge! Gather your team, hook up your pedometers and GO! It's a virtual race across Canada, from St. John's to Vancouver: an opportunity to work off any extra flab through a little "healthy"competition with other library folks. All you need to do is get your team together, register, log the weekly distance of your walks or runs, submit your group's distance weekly and watch this space to see who can travel fastest by foot from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This race is designed for teams of any size, as smaller teams (even of one person) will be awarded a handicap. The winning team will have an engraved plate with their Library's name on a beautiful trophy and bragging rights across the land. Teams from anywhere in Canada (or the world) are invited to participate. The contest begins May 17, 2010 and ends when the first team reaches Vancouver. See THE RULES for further detail.

The Rules

1. Michelle Penta Memorial Canucks Run Amok - 2010 Challenge begins on Monday, May 17, 2010. 2. Teams can be of any size. Smaller teams will be awarded a handicap. (See sidebar.) 3. Teams must represent a library. The library can be of any kind: public, academic, school or special. Archives are fine, too! 4. Each participating team must be registered by the end of the day on Friday, May 7, 2010. No additional team members may be added after this time. 5. Each team must have a designated team captain. 6. Teammates participate by getting a pedometer (we have suggestions, for those people who don't already have one) and clocking the distance they cover through walking or running each week. (Note: You can also calculate your distance without a pedometer by using the tools at http://www.mapmyrun.com/.) More specifically, each teammate clocks the distance of the walks or runs that constitute a physical activity SEPARATE from their day-to-day movements. It is not enough to wear a pedometer all day and use that distance (10,000-steps-a-day is a lovely goal, but has no bearing here). Rather a walk or run must be of at least fifteen minutes' duration where the focus is on developing or maintaining fitness, not crossing a parking lot. If in doubt, remember: the point is to develop or maintain healthy habits -- the competition is for fun. Bragging rights and celebrity endorsements are secondary! Teammates must submit the distance they covered between midnight Monday and 11:59 p.m. Sunday to their captain each week (on the following Monday). No one person can submit a mileage of more than 50 km. per week. Captains must communicate their team's total distance for the preceding week (Monday - Sunday) by 4:00 p.m. (Eastern) each Wednesday. At this time, the distances will be posted to this blog. 7. Teams and participants agree to abide by honesty in the distances they submit. 8. Those people who do not submit their distances to their captains in time for the Wednesday update forfeit their distance for the preceding week. Captains are not to speculate what team member's distance was. It is important for teammates to help the process by submitting their distances without prompting to their captains as soon as possible. Likewise, captains who are late in submitting their team's results will forfeit for the preceding week, i.e., no distances will be added if they are not communicated by Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. Eastern. 9. The winning team is the one that reaches Vancouver first. 10. First prize, engraved plate on a lovely trophy, will be distributed at a later date. The winning team will be featured on this blog, marking its place in history. 11. Important dates: Friday, May 7 - Deadline to register teams. No late registrations will be accepted. Please provide a list of participants, the name and contact information for the captain and co-captain, the team name and -- if possible -- a photo. The photo need not include all teammates, but should be something that is representative of the team. Monday, May 17 - The race begins. Participants clock distances from May 17 up to and including Sunday, May 23, then submit these scores to their captain on Monday, May 24. Wednesday, May 26 - Captains submit total team distance (in kilometres) using the weekly online statistical form located in the right-hand bar of this site. The process then repeats itself each week until the first team reaches Vancouver. Watch for weekly updates here. 12. Moderation is the name of the game. If you're not sure that you're physically able to participate, consult with your doctor first.

Registration deadline: Friday, May 7, 2010

Getting your team together? Don't delay! We need your team list by the end of the day on Friday, May 7th. No one can be added after that time.

Send your complete team list, designating 2 people as captains, to canucksrunamok@gmail.com. We'll set up your online form by mid week next week and send instructions how to use it to keep tabs on team distances.

Please send us a picture of your team!

Handicapping system

The handicapping system was developed based on a team size of 50. (In 2008, the largest team had 81 members, the smallest 2.) The total distance from St. John's to Vancouver is 7.313 kilometres. A team with 50 members would need to cover a 146.2 km. average per person, a reasonable goal. Any shorter and, we feared, a small team made up of serious long distance walkers or runners could have the competition locked up in a few short weeks...right about the time average people are getting warmed up and developing some good fitness habits. What this means is that teams having more than 50 members effectively start the race somewhere out in the Atlantic, swimming to St. John's as it were. (That means the 31 people over and above the 50 in the example of 2008's largest team times 146.2 km. per person = 4,532.2 extra kilometres. That's a lot of swimming!)

Maximum Mileage: No one participant may clock more than 50 km. per week. This is to ensure that the competition is based on a true team effort.

Warning based on experience: Do not sign up if you have no intention of participating. Your teammates will resent having to make up the distance you are responsible for. Sure, they'll be too polite to say anything to your face, but how will you know what they're saying on their lunch hour hoof-around-the-block while you once more hang back with your People magazine and decaf double-double? Hmmm...