Toes on Roads Competition

gueng

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Jan 28, 2013
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Hi Everybody,

I am starting this thread for all general discussions and announcements regarding the monthly Toes on Roads Competition.
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Today is the last running day for the February Toes on Roads Competition. Still three hours to go (roughly), then the next (March) ToRC will start.

Please get your February miles logged until next Tuesday (March 3) if you want them to be counted!
I will probably lock the spreadsheet after coming home from work - around 5 pm UTC.
 
Top job Gueng. Thanks for taking the reins with Toes on Roads for a while. Let me know when you need any help with anything ;)
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It is my pleasure to announce the winners and top-scoring nations of this year's first Toes on Roads Competition.

First, the total distance, 4172 km, of which 2235 km (54%) were run barefoot, is a great performance - especially given the fact that February is ususlly not regarded a typical barefoot running month in most of the countries participating!

The individual champions are:
  • DNEchris from New York, representing the USA, in the category „total distance“ (356.1 km)
  • Christian Lemburg from Aachen, representing Germany, in the category „barefoot distance“ (219.5 km)
Both champions will soon be awarded a newly designed medal to be proudly displayed in their BRS signatures.
It is also noteworthy that Barefoot Robin from Karlsbad, representing Germany, has achieved second places in both categories.

France participated with the largest team and was unbeatable in both categories (1490.2 km total / 777.9 km barefoot). USA got the silver rank in the total, Germany in the barefoot category.

Congratulations to all champions and winning nations!
Many thanks to all participants for adding their mileages and for making this an exciting and motivating competition for all of us!

I am curious to see how things develop in March when more and more countries are supposed to awake from hibernation :)

All the best,
Yours Martin (gueng)
 
Today is the last running day for the March Toes on Roads Competition.
Please get your March miles logged until Thursday (April 2) if you want them to be counted!
I will probably lock the spreadsheet in the late afternoon (UTC).

Toes on Roads is continued, of course. Please log your April mileage here:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JojtuE2fWieLq2tL7FXglbvTPX1JXvHlfXG1Gkc2PB0/edit?usp=sharing

It would be great if we could enhance the spirit of „Competition“, which means that one person/team is able to react to the progress of another person/team. Therefore, those participants who have regular internet access are kindly asked to update the sheet at least once per week.
 
Announcement of Winners – March 2015

It is my pleasure to announce the winners and top-scoring nations of the March 2015 Toes on Roads Competition.

This time we logged a total distance of 3799 km. This is a bit les than in February, but the barefoot part increased to 2507 km (66%).
The individual champions for March are the same two gentlemen who already won the February competition:
  • DNEchris from New York, representing the USA, in the category „total distance“ (409.6 km)
  • Christian Lemburg from Aachen, representing Germany, in the category „barefoot distance“ (358.5 km)
Both champions are awarded their medals to be proudly displayed in their BRS signatures.

France again participated with the largest team, winning the total distance (1327.2 km), as well as the barefoot category (930.5 km).
However, the deficits of the second-placed nations in both categories (USA and Germany) decreased with respect to February.

Congratulations to all champions and winning nations!
Many thanks to all participants! Keep on running for the
April competition.

All the best, and Happy Easter,

Martin (gueng)
 
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Dear all,

still one day to go this month, so please get your April runs logged until 2 May!

We have had three months now in which the team running the most cumulative miles received the first place in the country ranking.
In May, it will be a bit different.
We now resume the mode of calculation which was similarly applied in last September's ToRC:
Individual distances are first transformed into "points" and these points are added up for the country ranking.
Everyone running at least 10 km receives 1 point.
Everyone running at least 25 km receives 2 points.
Everyone running at least 50 km receives 3 points.
This means that a team with many runners, each doing a moderate mileage, will have a better chance of winning than a team with just a few runners accumulating huge individual distances.
So, emphasis is somewhat transferred from the individual towards the team performance.

Anyway, individual champions will of course still be determined by their absolute mileages and announced in the conclusion of the month.
Also, the two categories "total distance" and "barefoot distance" will remain.

The handling of the spreadsheet
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12gG8CrFksEZuP6q8ARqCjDPWkgDm_qC0Yn5QskArUsc/edit?pli=1#gid=1417523430
stays the same as in April.

Good luck,
Martin
 
thanks for this new spreadsheet.

But unfortunately, it's not great for me:meh::
I tried to incitater small teams to participate by running Belgium in the game ... So if I understand ... that damn !:walkingdead:

Am I alone in thinking that ?... to see in practice ;)
 
Victory Ceremony for the April ToRC

We logged a total distance of 4963 km run by 42 members - a great increase in distance and participants number! 3072 km (62%) were run skin-to-ground.

DNEchris from New York did a magnificent job, winning the total (451 km) as well as the barefoot (289 km) categories.

France again participated with the (by far) largest team (21 members), winning the total distance (2311 km), as well as the barefoot category (1430 km).

Congratulations to the champion and to the winning team!
Many thanks to all participants! Keep on running for the May competition.

All the best,
Martin (gueng)
 
I loved the Toes on the Road in 2013 and early 2014. This new system is horrid.

For starters, it compares apples to oranges. CT state isnt as big as UK. but they are compared. The weather in one is different than weather in another. Running every day and tons of miles gets you.... 3 points. Its a system designed to benefit larger groups and diminishes individual accomplishment. Any group with more than 3 members easily gets more points than a group with 1 member.
 
for a truly equitable system between section whether big or small, would be (perhaps) to a percentage of kilometers traveled by section.
So "total km in the section" / "the total number of riders in the section"...

actually, I think it's not the good way to do. 42 participants for april and 32 now !!

and anyway the maximum limit of 3 points for 50km is too low!

having a good week since passed the 50km any interest to continue? ... of course I would never be the first (450 km the first in april and 138 km for me :D ) and it brings nothing to the team !:meh:

finally, to satisfy everyone it can also be a complete spreadsheet: individual winner, winning team with total km, average speed sections and why not the actuel system with the points?

of course easy to say, it's not me who has to work to secretion of the spreadsheet.;) and I would not discourage Gueng, which took over the completion of this worksheet for our pleasure.:D but I believe it must be feasible.
 
I loved the Toes on the Road in 2013 and early 2014. This new system is horrid.

For starters, it compares apples to oranges. CT state isnt as big as UK. but they are compared. The weather in one is different than weather in another. Running every day and tons of miles gets you.... 3 points. Its a system designed to benefit larger groups and diminishes individual accomplishment. Any group with more than 3 members easily gets more points than a group with 1 member.


Isn't this exactly how it was done in the past? I remember last year maxing out the 3 points...

Which reminds me I haven't updated it in forever.
 
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Hi All,

We have tried a few different formats now and some do seem to work better than others.

Perhaps it is time to have a poll on what most people prefer?

Jeff - please clarify which competitions you preferred in 2013/2014. (I think we have had this disagreement before.)

Petit-pied has made some excellent suggestions above. Perhaps the monthly competition could be an all-singing-all-dancing-all-encompassing spreadsheet.

We must remember however that the motivation behind the competition is to get as many toes on roads as possible, not miles on toes. The format of this month's competition was repeated at my request, with the above motive in mind, but it does now seem that the best way to get the most toes on roads is to make the competition most attractive to our ablest runners.

Please post your preference below and Gueng and I will see what we can come up with

Cheers,

Paul
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Personally, I prefer a system where each KM/Mile = points. There are times (when it was this way) that I would push myself for an extra day on the road. An extra km. An extra minute. Whatever. There was the direct motivation that as I pushed for more road milage, it would count towards the competition.

Obviously after quitting the TOTR competition I didnt stop rurnning on the road, I just stopped sharing. And caring. And viewing.

As to the grouping. Whoa. i have given this a lot of thought and cant think of a good way to compare groups. It seems the motivation in some competitions (like the current one) is to get more people out there running. In other words, if your group doesnt have a lot of people, that is your fault and you will lose. If you are able to get a 2nd person in your group, great, but you are both going to lose now. How is that motivating? I have tried to get people in my group to go run barefoot but so far, no great success. So, good luck on the groupings. but if individuals can feel like the have contributed, it will help (I vote).
 
Thanks Jeff.

OK, that's one vote for making it a monthly competition for individuals

Who else has a preference?
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I want to begin by thanking everyone involved with organizing these challenges. They have definitely kept me more motivated over the past several months, particularly this past winter when I went on cold runs in my bare feet that in past years I would have done in shoes.

I do understand the purpose of the tally system that is being used this month, but I also share some of the same frustrations that have been expressed. I wish I had a suggestion on how to get more people motivated while keeping it equitable for smaller chapters. There certainly must be a way, but I don't see it. For myself, I find the individual competitions where all of our distance counts to be more personally motivating. How difficult would it be to do both an award for most total mileage and award for the chapter with the most points in the same month as previously suggested? I honestly don't know how complicated that spreadsheet would be to design.

Anyway, if you need us to vote one way or the other, mine would be for individual total distance.

Thanks for this opportunity to participate!

Mark
 
ok, soon : June...:oops:
so what do we decide? a small referendum, or you create a mixed of all previous proposals?

In any case, good job to you.
It is not easy to please everybody ... good luck!;)
 
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I'll be in regardless, but I would prefer a system where the individual's km's are more rewarded.

I concur with Jeff partially, size wise the chapters cannot be compared.

With regards to geography/weather this is more subjective.

We have a separate Winter challenge, for those regions where the weather permits (I can't participate to that, not cold enough here), but I can do the Toes on road.

Regardless, a big thank you for those organising, pushing us to get out and run !
 
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June's Toes on Roads will cover all the options, including Individual Barefoot & Minimalist Totals, Chapter Barefoot & Minimalist Totals, and Nation Totals. We will also be awarding kudos for Biggest Team and Best Average.

Gueng is your man doing all the hard work on this. Thanks Martin :)
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Dear all,

last Mayday today :) - so please get your runs logged until 2 June!

As we could see in the comments, the points system is not particularly popular. So we come back to the old system where each kilometer run contributes equally to each nation's performance.

I also added a chapters statistics sheet where all US chapters are analyzed separately.
My idea behind the last column "% barefoot" in the first sheet is to encourage people to increase their really-barefoot mileage – now that summer is in the air on the northern hemisphere.

Please find the June table on
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...7PO31o5ePPj0BStaBZk/edit?pli=1#gid=1417523430

See you in the victory ceremony for May which I will probably conduct on Wednesday.


Good luck,
Martin