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Week 3 Challenge Recap: Sooooo Many Donuts
It’s a been a big week in the National Bike Challenge. We crossed the 1,000,000 mile mark last weekend, and several days this week set new records for miles entered into the system.
As of this glorious Bike to Work Day morning, we stand at 1.5 million miles logged, and over 36 million calories burned. One and half million miles is 3 round trips from the earth to the moon. But what does 36 million calories get you?
- 52,990 milkshakes
- 21,420 gallons of New Belgium Brewing’s Fat Tire ale, which can be conveniently hauled home in 1,392 kegs. I hope you brought your trailer.
- 182,818 donuts, which, stacked up, would become the highest point in the United States towering over Mount McKinley by 2,500 feet.
By our official calculations, Challenge riders have saved more than $358,000 in the three weeks of riding (this calculation includes only transport trips.) Once all the donuts are paid for, we’ll still have $267,000 left over. In somewhat more official calculations, U.S. bicyclists save $4.6 billion per year by riding instead of driving. That according to new data released today by the League of American Bicyclists, Sierra Club, and National Council of La Raza (NCLR).
I don’t mention New Belgium lightly — they’re one of two new prize sponsors, adding a bike, a case of beer, and a pair of socks to our prize list. We’ve also added prizes from the Better World Club, who will give 10 lucky winners Bicycle Roadside Assistance memberships. Look for an updated prize list on the Challenge site next week.
Looking at the leaderboards, not much has changed at the top since last week. While he hasn’t made the turn at Tranquility Base yet, Leonard Wright is still leading the personal challenge by a fair piece, and he’s the only rider so far to have attained platinum. There are more than 2,500 riders in easy striking distance of gold (500 points) by month’s end, making them eligible for the richest pot of monthly prizes.
Vermont is still leading the state challenge, but Wisconsin dominates the top 10 in the community (Madison at #1, and 5 more besides) and workplace (Trek at #1, Kimberly-Clark at #2, plus 3 more) categories. Trek Varsity leads the team competition. Scrolling down the state list a bit, Maryland, my Maryland, is struggling to stay in the top 20, and trailing Virgina by 2 spots.
The more interesting competition is in the comments, where it seems that each rider’s story is more inspiring than the last — people back on bikes for the first time in years, riding trips they would have taken by car, losing weight, and loving life. Fortunately, that’s a category where everyone wins.
Get up and ride, and get your friends involved — we still have a lot of recruiting to do if we’re to reach our goal of 50,000 riders.
Scott Williams
League Director of Membership
Williams joined the League in April 2010. For the four years prior, he worked providing technology consulting and solutions to nonprofit organizations with Community IT Innovators.
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May 19th, 2012 at 12:08 am
This challenge is really fun.
May 19th, 2012 at 2:38 am
The National Bike Challenge gives me more inspitation to rack up more miles. My commute helps a lot. It’s 21 miles one way, 42 miles total. I ride from the far east side of Indianapolis to the far west side. I always look forward to logging my miles at the end of the day. For two years now, I’ve been logging my trips and miles in a written log that I keep in the garage. Due to my fitness level at age 59, I’ve also inspired a few others to take up riding or do more of it.
May 21st, 2012 at 1:05 pm
Are there any points allocated if you take one of your workouts and post it as a public route? This is valuable information and really helps me when I look for a route in Columbus and I can see where people are riding already. Seems like if you give people points for it, maybe it will encourage more ride and route posts, which benefits all local bicyclists, especially new folks that don’t know all the connectors.
May 22nd, 2012 at 10:25 pm
It’s kinda a shame that Endomondo National Bike Challenge Teams can’t be set up to “add” all types of bicycling miles you ride. I noticed my wife’s “transport” miles don’t show up cause Team Screaming Turtles is set up for “Cycle Sport”.
Any way to make it add more than “one” type of bicycling?? Thanks.