2023 Running Game ***Registration is Closed. (Read 221 times)

Please read before signing up! 

The 2023 Running Game is a group of runners looking to achieve a mileage goal (of any amount) for the coming year. If you've had trouble reaching mileage targets in the past or need a little extra push to get you where you would like to be, this club can help! With fellow members supporting them, many runners revised their lower mileage goals and reached goals that they never would have dreamed of.

Additionally, the 2023 Game has an optional team competition ("Head2Head") with members randomly assigned to teams with approximately equal balance (members & goal miles). The idea here is to help runners develop friendships, support each other, and have a little friendly competition. Our experience is that smaller groups organized as teams are very helpful in encouraging members to stick to their goals.

What do you get with your membership?

Weekly updates posted on RA with stats such as; weekly average needed to reach your goal, average weekly mileage, miles remaining, etc.

An enthusiastic and supportive group of runners to help you reach your goals in both your private team forum and the 2023 Game forum.

What do we ask from you?

A full year commitment to the game. Maintaining consistent participation is crucial for team balance and camaraderie.

A realistic mileage goal. Hopefully something that is challenging, but attainable. We use the goals to help make balanced teams. After January 1, you'll be able to adjust your goal one time before June 30 if needed. We ask for a mileage goal for the entire year. Goal/52 is your part of the weekly team goal. Everyone has high and low weeks, but that goal needs to be one that you are able to run.

Keep your running log up-to-date. If you don't keep your day-to-day running log on Running Ahead, we ask that you log on and track your total miles for the previous week no later than the following Tuesday. The posting deadline for the previous week is 10PM EST. After that, you can update your log but the miles will not count for your team.

Communication- Each team will create a system for team communication via Running Ahead. That could be via RA usergroup or a thread in the main 2023 forum. Teams may also choose to set up groups outside of RA, but no team member is required to go outside of RA in order to communicate with their team. Team members are strongly encouraged to participate in team discussions. Many runners find the extra encouragement from their teammates to be motivating and fun! Please join the 2023 main forum if you join the game even if your team has a group of its own. Admins will post game news and announcements in that forum.

Give advance notice to your team captain if you will be on an extended vacation, leave of absence, or need to be placed on Injured Reserve (IR). If you are in one of these categories, you will not have to worry about updating your log. Members who have not been in contact with their team captains or game admins and haven't updated their log for 3 consecutive weeks (or 2 weeks at the start of the year) can be moved to individual status for the remainder of the year.

To go on IR, you must have a 0 in the previous week results. The runner will message their captains who will forward the request to the admins.

If you join the team game, please be a good team member, post your miles by the deadline and respond to any private messages from your team captains and/or admins.

If you do not post miles for 3 non-consecutive weeks without contacting the team captain, the captain can request a confidential team vote to remove you from the team.

No team member should be required to go outside of RA to communicate with their team.

Important Note: Decisions made or opinions expressed by the game admins are not necessarily those of RunningAHEAD, LLC, which is providing hosting for the game but NOT overseeing day to day operations. Also, running is dangerous and stuff. Please don't do anything that could compromise your health for the sake of a game!

How to Sign Up:

Sign-ups start November 25 at 12:01 AM and end December 12th at 11:59 PM for the Team games. Individual sign-ups end December 31st at 11:59 PM. The deadlines are final.

The Join Button will appear on the 2023 Game page after sign-ups start. Team generation and mileage counting are automated, so you need to be in the system for it to work.

** Sign-Up Link Here - Open Friday, November 25 ***

2023 Game Forum is Open. If you are in the game, you should join.

Two more days until registration opens.

Are you thinking on your goals for 2023?

I think my goal is to sign up properly next year. #FacePalm

Team game for you next year?

Looking forward to getting back in the game. Had to take 2022 off due to breaking my shoulder in a race at the end of 2021 and wasn't sure how long I'd be sidelined before I could resume any sort of regular running.

I actually clicked the link and signed up this year

I will be in for a team spot.

Trying to pin down a reasonable goal.

 

Yeah, that's always the trick. I need a lower weekly goal to get through the -40* weather in January and February, but by mid-year I usually need to bump mine up if it's going well. *knock on wood Hopefully the first half goes well enough and injury free enough to need that bump. 

I have something similar in that I'm not going to be putting in big miles until July or later. So I can set my goal lower for the first half of the year and then increase significantly right?

I set my goal as 2700 for this year and I'm at 2612 YTD. Pretty proud of that 

 I have something similar in that I'm not going to be putting in big miles until July or later. So I can set my goal lower for the first half of the year and then increase significantly right?

We don't encourage anyone to sandbag, but we allow one goal change per year. You can change your goal, up or down once before June 30 as per the rules. 34 runners made a goal change in 2022, yourself included. You should how this goes.

That said, the rules also state that "Also, we reserve the right to modify goals if it appears that a user has set or changed to an artificially low goal (sandbagging).  This would only be done in extreme cases.  "

Basically don't set a goal that means you are easily running 170% every week and then adjust it in June.